Before the new millennium begins, there could be peace in Angola.
After 24 years of civil war - nearly 40 if the struggle for independence from Portuguese rule is included - the south-west African country may finally turn its back on violence.
At least that is what the usually silent army chief-of-staff, Gen Joao de Matos, implied this week during an interview on state television in Luanda.
The head of Angola's Armed Forces (FAA) insisted that "peace is closer than ever" and that the warring capacity of Dr Jonas Savimbi's rebel group UNITA could be destroyed by the end of the year.
His statements come less than a month after the government announced it had gained control of UNITA's symbolic central highland headquarters, Andulo and Bailundo, in a military offensive named Operation Restore.
But the prospect of peace has, for the time being, caused less of a stir than rumours that Dr Savimbi (65) is either dead or locked up in Luanda.
Gen de Matos said: "We know where he [Jonas Savimbi] is. We're watching him. We'll continue thrashing him until he is captured or he is annihilated."
But gossip in Luanda has spread as far as Johannesburg, even London, where journalists and so-called analysts are debating whether the rebel leader is even alive today.
Nevertheless, that Dr Savimbi has managed to elude both the Angolan government and the international community for many years is indisputable.
Using tried and tested Maoist guerrilla techniques is his forte, and there are still some observers who believe the UNITA leader is far from finished.
They argue that the FAA has failed to capture or kill significant numbers of UNITA troops since Operation Restore began in mid-September. They suggest, too, that the rebels have lost little equipment.
Gen de Matos, however, insists that 80 per cent of UNITA's conventional military capacity has been destroyed during the past two months. In other words, UNITA has been reduced to a guerrilla movement alone.
But UNITA sympathisers argue that this is what Dr Savimbi knows best. As a former UNITA member in Luanda puts it: "Savimbi has been a guerrilla for over three decades. He has fought a conventional-type war for only a year. He can lose heavy equipment now, but that won't stop him from causing chaos."
Since the rebels lost their headquarters the number of landmine incidents in provinces such as Moxico, in the far east, has increased dramatically.
Ambushes on vehicles have reportedly increased, some within spitting distance of Luanda. Last week three people were killed in an attack on their vehicle just 20 km from the capital.
The city of Kuito, in central Bie province, has also been shelled on two occasions this month.
"As we met with more displaced people in Kuito this week, we heard the UNITA shells still falling, unwarned, on the civilian population," comments Mr Aidan McQuaide, country director of Oxfam.
"There are still people coming in from the countryside. There are still thousands of people living in grass huts just at a time when the rains are starting again.
The children are still getting ill from diarrhoea, and the people are still being robbed and brutalised by the armies on both sides."
As Gen de Matos himself admits, the war is not over yet. Even if he does capture or kill his long-time enemy, Dr Savimbi, the population's battle to survive will continue well into the next millennium.