LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola said on Friday it was open to talks with separatist group FLEC after its exiled leaders announced an end to their armed struggle for control of the country's oil-producing enclave of Cabinda.
The leader of the small and divided Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, Henrique N'zita Tiago, said his group's fight was no longer viable and offered to start talks with the Angolan government in Portugal's capital Lisbon.
FLEC, which has been fighting for Cabinda's independence from Angola for over 30 years, grabbed world headlines in January when it staged a gun attack on the Togo national soccer team during the African Nations Cup in Angola.
"If FLEC leaders say they want to talk with the government we say we are open to that," Antonio Bento Bembe, Angola's secretary of state for human rights and president of the Cabindan Dialogue Forum, told Reuters.
"But that does not mean those responsible for the recent terrorist attacks will not be brought to justice".
END OF WAR IN CABINDA
FLEC's 82-year-old leader N'zita Tiago, who is thought to be living in Paris, and the head of the splinter group FLEC Renovada, Alexandre Builo Tati, said in separate interviews with the Portuguese news agency Lusa that their war in Cabinda was over.
"No, we don't want war in Cabinda. The Portuguese government should advise the Angolan government or its leaders to start a dialogue. I would like those talks to begin in Lisbon," Tiago said.
The Angolan government branded FLEC a terrorist organisation after it claimed responsibility for the January 8 ambush of a bus carrying the Togo team, in which it killed two members of the soccer team's delegation.
Angolan authorities also issued arrest warrants for FLEC's leaders, many of whom are thought to be in Paris. Several prominent figures in Cabindan society, including a university professor, a human rights activist and a priest, have been arrested.
It is not the first time FLEC and the government have tried to settle their differences.
In 2006, FLEC rebels under Bento Bembe, who is now in the government, signed a peace deal to integrate former rebels into the army and give Cabinda more oil money, but the agreement was rejected by FLEC's Paris-based president N'zita Tiago.
Some Cabindans now hope the Angolan government and FLEC's willingness to talk can help end the conflict.
"We cannot undermine FLEC and the government's willingness to enter into talks," said Martinho Nombo, a former vice governor of Cabinda who is now a lawyer and professor.
"Everyone in Cabinda wants a solution that will put an end to their suffering".
Angola, a former Portuguese colony, rivals Nigeria as Africa's biggest oil producer.
Chevron Corp and Total SA, among others, are involved in offshore oil exploration in Cabinda, which is separated from Angola by a strip of land belonging to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and accounts for over half of the oil produced in the African nation.
