The Angolan army arbitrarily detained and tortured civilians with impunity in Cabinda, and continues to restrict their freedom of movement despite an apparent end to the decades-long separatist conflict in the oil-rich enclave, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released in December. In the past year, the Angolan army has subjected civilians to extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other mistreatment, as well as sexual violence. The Angolan army also denies civilians their freedom of movement. Human Rights Watch found little evidence of recent abuses committed by rebel factions against civilians, probably because of the rebels’ weakened capacity.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, intends to complete the repatriation of Angolan refugees living in camps in neighbouring countries by next year, and will then help those that have settled in the wider community to return home. This year UNHCR assisted nearly 51,000 Angolans to return home from Zambia (27,579), the DRC (19,082) and Namibia (4,189), with lesser numbers from Botswana, the Republic of Congo and South Africa.

The end of a devastating civil war and substantial oil wealth have done little to develop Angola or improve the lives of its 13 million people, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Tuesday. Speaking at the Angolan launch of the UNDP Human Development Report for 2004, where Angola ranks a poor 166th out of 177 countries, Pierre-Francois Pirlot told IRIN that three years of peace had still to bring significant benefits, particularly outside the capital and more prosperous coastal areas.

Setting up an independent electoral commission to oversee Angola's first post-war elections was critical to the credibility of the poll, analysts said on Tuesday. "Although peace has been achieved, Angola remains politically polarised. It is vital that a new, independent commission be established to ensure that voters buy into the process - without such a body, one can expect to see numerous challenges to the eventual results," Martinho Chachiua, of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, told IRIN.

The rate of HIV infection among pregnant women in Angola is 2.8 percent, half earlier estimates, according to a new national study. A health ministry report covering all of Angola's 18 provinces found that the highest HIV rates were in southern Cunene (9 percent) and Cuando Cubango (4 percent), which border Namibia.

In what has been described as an important step to cementing territorial rights, and thereby the country's agricultural and economic recovery, three rural communities in Angola's southern province of Huila will receive title to their land on Friday. Paolo Groppo, a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official in the capital, Luanda, told IRIN that "we are concerned that community rights have not been protected so far" and that "it is clearly important for local communities to have their territorial rights recognised by the authorities".

A testimony to the success of the UN refugee agency's repatriation and assistance programmes, around 274,000 Angolan refugees have returned home since war ended in April 2002, leaving around 167,000 still in the main asylum countries of Zambia, Namibia and the two Congos.

Angola heads towards its first post-civil war elections, women have called for greater participation in political life. Less than 15 percent of parliamentarians are women, and this decreased with the recent death of two female MPs. At least four other women MPs are on prolonged sick leave.

Last year, UNHCR estimates, some 133 000 Angolans returned from the DRC, Zambia, Namibia and Congo, mostly in the five months before rains make roads impassable. UNHCR is working hard to repatriate over 300 000 Angolans still abroad before the organisation's planned departure from Angola in 2006, the year when national elections are supposed to happen. Foreign donations are dwindling because of diversions to crises in the Middle East and Sudan. Aside from rampant theft, diarrhoea and boredom, food is the cause of most complaints in Luau's transit camp.

Britain’s Channel 4 recently broadcast a programme entitled “America’s New Frontier” as part of its Unreported World series. The documentary focused on the social and political situation in Angola. Along with other Western African countries, Angola is becoming increasingly important as a source of oil for the United States. Reporter Sam Killey described Angola as “one of the most strategic frontiers in the American empire.” He explained that in the light of the unstable political situation in the Middle East, Angola and other West African countries were becoming a focus of America’s oil strategy. According to a Human Rights Watch spokesperson, $4.27 billion “went missing” between 1997 and 2002, around nine percent of GDP each year.

The sleepy town of Cabinda has a forlorn air about it, but few outward signs of the decades-long conflict that has plagued the oil-rich Angolan province. Although Cabinda produces 60 percent of Angola's oil revenues, the province, saddled with one of the highest HIV rates in the country, has been slow to respond to the epidemic.

The Angola Television programme Ponto de Encontro, or Meeting Point, has played an important role in the reunification of many families after 27 years of war. For over two years, they have been recording messages from people in the square in the hope their relatives will see them and get in touch after being separated. Victoria had been to Independence Square four times to record her message to her sister, Rosalina, who she had not seen for 28 years. On 7 April, 2004, Rosalina saw her sister's message by chance. She contacted the Orion production offices in Luanda to check if it really was her. It was.

Angola's post-conflict peace process, hailed by the United Nations as an example in the making to the rest of the world, will fail to bring stability and development unless smouldering social and economic grievances are addressed, according to a new publication compiled by Conciliation Resources (CR). For the full report, From Military Peace to Social Justice? Angola's Peace Process: http://www.c-r.org/accord/ang/accord15/index.shtml

The Sectoral Expert will be supporting the Technical Project Coordinator. He/she will follow the reconstruction on going activities. He/she will support the logistic aspects of the Project. Requirements: University Degree in Architecture or other technical degrees; Fluency in written and oral Portuguese; Experience in rehabilitation projects; Strong motivation to work in the mentioned area. Job reference code: RW_99757A. Closing date: 31 October 2004

Close to four million internally displaced people have returned to Angola following the ceasefire agreement of April 2002 between the governing MPLA and the UNITA, which marked the end of 27 years of civil war. According to the UN, only between 40,000 and 60,000 people can still be considered internally displaced, whereas the government's estimates goes as high as 340,000. Most of the internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned spontaneously without any assistance from the government or humanitarian organisations.

Foreign minister Joao Miranda told state media that the international community should stop discriminating against Angola and instead be sensitive to Angola's need for a donor conference as it tried to reconstruct after a devastating 27-year civil war. But western diplomats said the oil-rich country should first prove its commitment to reform.

The Angolan ruling party’s infant wing (OPA) and the Ministry of Education (MED) are going to design a ten-point code of conduct to be distributed to all of the primary and secondary schools in Angola. According to OPA, this code of conduct is aimed to enhance Angolan children’s sentiment of love for the motherland and to rescue socio-cultural values to preserve national identity.

As sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producer after Nigeria, Angola is slowly coming clean on its oil revenue due to donor pressure. In order to receive more funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other international capital markets, Angola must provide more accountability of its oil revenue.

Separatists waging a low-intensity struggle against Angolan troops for control of oil-rich Cabinda have merged in a bid to engage the authorities in dialogue over the future status of the troubled province. The Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave (FLEC) and the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave-Cabinda Armed Forces (FLEC-FAC) would now be known as FLEC.

Eight months after its launch, people living with HIV/AIDS say Angola's programme to fight the epidemic is inadequate and moving too slowly. The US $160 million national strategic plan, a five-year collaboration between the government and the United Nations, is focused on prevention, building institutional capacity and helping HIV-positive people.