Free Republic

Here is some of the current shame of Belgium: Blood Diamonds Belgium Accused Continuing Sale of Unita Diamonds Panafrican News Agency April 24, 2001 The Belgian mining marketing town of Antwerp has continued to buy diamonds from the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), according to a secret report released by the General Intelligence Service. The Belgian press on Monday quoted the report, which indicated that the sale of "blood diamonds" had continued despite the institution of a certificate of origin for diamonds originating from the civil war torn Angola. The head of the working group...

The relations between Russia and the Shiite's religious leadership in Lebanon started to develop in the beginning of the seventies. The spiritual leader of the Lebanese Shia community, Imam Moussa Al-Sadr, visited Moscow in 1972 and asked Soviet authorities to issue humanitarian aid to his people. At the same time cooperation between the Marxist factions of the PLO that were active in Lebanon and Soviet military intelligence – GRU, intensified greatly. Several soviet officers (speaking fluent Arabic) even visited Palestinian terrorist training camps in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon between 1972-1975. Using their connections in PLO they managed to establish...

JOHANNESBURG, March 30 — Top military commanders from the Angolan government and the nation's Unita rebel movement signed a preliminary cease-fire agreement this afternoon, moving the country an important step closer to ending a civil war that defied many previous attempts at peace. The agreement, which is expected be formally endorsed in the coming week in the Angolan capital, Luanda, comes barely a month after Jonas Savimbi, the longtime leader of the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or Unita, was killed in an ambush by government commandos. After initially continuing its offensive, the government unexpectedly halted...