AFTER five weeks of uncertainty over the fate of its fragile peace process, Angola now faces three weeks of doubt.
Having failed to meet the agreed deadline for moving 20,000 soldiers into UN demobilisation camps, the leader of the Unita rebel movement, Dr Jonas Savimbi, yesterday promised that he could bring 16,500 soldiers in by February 8th.
The previously set deadline for "quartering" the bulk of the Unita forces expires today. But only 500 fighters so far have presented themselves for registration at UN camps.
Unita's latest promise was announced yesterday not by Dr Savimbi himself but by the US ambassador to the United Nations, Ms Madeleine Albright, who visited him in his bush headquarters at Bailundo in central Angola.
Emerging from an hour long meeting with the Unita leader, Ms Albright said that Dr Savimbi had undertaken to move 800 soldiers a day into the four UN quartering camps across the country.
"He has given his word on this and that will be my report to the Security Council," she said.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Dr Savimbi said that before the troops could be brought in it was necessary to explain the process to them, so that they would not feel they were being "sold out".
Unita's fighters had been living with the gun for many years, he said. Dr Savibi also said that a summit meeting with his rival leader on the government side. President Eduardo dos Santos, which was cancelled this week at Unita's request will take place very soon".
Ms Albright later travelled by helicopter to the nearby UN demobilisation camp at Vila Nova where she personally accepted the registration the word "surrender" is not used of the second in command of the Unita battalion.
US embassy staff applauded and cameras snapped as the officer, a small and ragged gentle man, entered the registration tent and handed a battered Kalashnikov and a rocket launcher into UN keeping.
"I want to congratulate you for making the most important choice of your life today, because you have chosen peace and the fighting will stop," Ms Albright told the commander, who appeared both nervous and bemused.
The local UN military commander had assured Ms Albright and visiting journalists that the men coming in were proper fighters equipped with serviceable weapons, and not hangers on being sent in to keep the UN happy.
An inspection of the 20 soldiers waiting outside the registration tent painted a more complex picture.
While the first 10 carried old but intact Kalashnikovs, the others mostly boys carried broken rifles, or heavily rusted second World War Soviet submachine guns. At least one weapon was visibly held together by string.
One man carried only a single rocket propelled grenade round while his friend carried the launcher one must have a weapon to receive free bed and board from the UN in Angola.
One military observer in the area said Unit a might play for time by first ordering some of its least effective fighters to register for demobilisation.
Journalists spoke to several Unita soldiers in the camp who said that they were there because they were following orders.
One of those queuing to register was Mr Duarte Sozo (30), who claimed the rank of captain. Dressed in thread bare civilian clothes and a woollen army jumper, he said he had planned to go into the government army under the integration process set out in the November 1994 Lusaka Peace Agreement.
"I want peace and in order to have peace we have to come together," he said. "I do not think I have enemies. I think I'm going to become part of something much larger, building a new Angola."