UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 31 -- The U.N. Security Council is demanding that Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi provide assistance in the search for 10 U.N. personnel and four crewmembers that may have survived Saturday's plane crash. Today's resolution, adopted unanimously, also deplored the country's lack of cooperation with a U.N. rescue mission which wants access to the site. Heavy fighting between Savimbi'sUNITA rebels and MPLA government forces has rendered the crash site inaccessible.
Earlier calls for a 48- hour cease-fire went unheeded. As recently as Monday, U.N. communications in Angola picked up Morse Code signals from the aircraft, indicating there could be survivors. Vijay Rajaratnam, a U.N. field service officer in Angola, said: 'Based on professional assessment, the chances of survival are better than fair. However hopes are fading as the hours pass by.' The U.N. personnel are part of an observer mission in Angola to monitor a 1994 peace accord between the rebels and the government. The accord collapsed in August when the government began an offensive against the UNITA forces. According to the U.N. spokesman's office, the latest fighting caused the United Nations to remove about half of its staff from Huambo, a city more than 25 miles from the crash site. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will send Benon Sevan, the U.N. Security Coordinator, to Angola to facilitate the rescue mission and assess the growing threat to U.N. personnel across Angola as fighting intensifies. ---
Copyright 1998 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
