Twice in the last two weeks, U.N.-chartered aircraft have crashed in central Angola. In both cases, the fate of the passengers and crew -- 24 people in total -- is unknown, as is the cause of the crashes. Neither the government nor the rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) is cooperating with the United Nations to help search the crash sites. Both parties to the 25-year conflict in Angola blame the other for the disasters; most suspicions fall on UNITA, which, as Mr. Gwynne Dyer points out in his article on this page, has done its very best to undermine the country's future.

There are plenty of culprits responsible for Angola's tragedy. The former Portuguese colony was once a Cold War battlefield, but the two superpowers had withdrawn from the conflict by 1991. Despite two U.N.-mediated attempts at ceasefires and elections, the combatants seem to prefer war to peace. During two and half decades of civil war, over 500,000 lives have been lost and another 220,000 people have been forced to flee the country.

Yet in the final reckoning, the chief obstacle to an enduring peace in Angola seems to be Mr. Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA. Mr. Savimbi signed a peace treaty in 1991 and agreed to U.N.-sponsored elections the following year, but he returned to the bush when his party was thrashed in the vote. Two years of fighting between the government and UNITA led to another stalemate, at which time the U.N. brokered yet another ceasefire. That held until last summer. In the interim, the Angolan Parliament convened with 70 UNITA members in the opposition and four claiming Cabinet posts in the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Pointedly, Mr. Savimbi did not attend the government's inauguration; moreover, he refused to demobilize and disarm the 30,000-man army he reportedly maintains in his highland stronghold.