U.S. role in Angola
Washington tries to pose as an 'honest broker'
By
Johnnie Stevens
After decades of financing wars and assassinations that
decapitated national-liberation struggles in Africa, the U.S.
imperialist political establishment is now trying to appear as
peacemaker. It is offering its "help" in ending the massive
suffering caused by the very wars it created.
Nowhere has this suffering been greater than in the country
of Angola. There, Washington's support for the mercenary army
UNITA in the 1970s and 1980s left a nation of refugees, land
mines, amputees and orphans.
In a recent offensive, however, the Angolan Army pushed the
UNITA bands right to the border. It is obvious that UNITA has
long outlived its usefulness for U.S. imperialism.
So on Dec. 3, Richard C. Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, met with President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of
Angola. Holbrooke announced a new U.S. "focus" on the civil war
in Angola. He called for stricter sanctions against UNITA and
"human rights reform" on all sides--except for the planners of
mass destruction in Washington.
Bloody mercenaries
financed from outside
UNITA, under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi, has been
fighting the elected MPLA government for 29 years.
It was first funded by the colonial Portuguese and then by
the South African apartheid regime. The United States openly
sent millions of dollars to the group during the 1970s and
1980s. As a demonstration of their relationship, President
Ronald Reagan received Savimbi as a virtual head of state at
the White House in 1985.
Once the Cold War ended and the anti-apartheid movement came
to power in South Africa, the United States agreed to UN
sanctions banning fuel and war supplies to the rebels. But they
have had little effect.
So in September, the Angolan Army (FAA) started a
counter-offensive that has successfully pushed UNITA out of the
central highlands of Balundo. The FAA has continued to inflict
military defeats on UNITA, which is showing signs of internal
disintegration.
On Nov. 10, a senior UNITA general, Jacinto Bradun, gave
himself over to government forces. The 14-nation Southern
African Development Community made moves to tighten sanctions
against UNITA. Now SADC will speed up humanitarian assistance
programs to the Angolan government.
Two-thirds of the Angolan population is in refugee status.
An estimated 100,000 land mines make normal existence
impossible. Statistics on infant mortality and HIV/AIDS are
unavailable due to the war, but the numbers are believed to be
very high.
Action for Southern Africa, a UN news agency, says that
malnutrition is up 43 percent in Angola. Yet the country has
one of Africa's richest soils, with the potential to feed the
whole continent.
On Nov. 9 Angolan Social Welfare Minister Albino Malungo
announced that the government, using limited resources it gets
from oil, was releasing $20 million to provide displaced
persons with seeds and tools in an attempt to get people to
grow their own food. Another $54 million will be forthcoming
next year.
UNITA sabotaged peace accord
In their meeting, the Angolan president reminded Holbrooke
that the United Nations' last peacekeeping effort in
Angola--the MONUA accord that both Savimbi and the Angolan
government signed--had failed to end the war. Even after the
United States stopped openly financing Savimbi, his access to
diamonds and--more important--to the international market
provided UNITA with the funds to continue fighting.
The MONUA accord mandated an election, which the MPLA won in
1994. But UNITA then broke the accord. It rearmed through
neighboring Congo, at that time under the rule of Gen.
Mobutu.
That's when Savimbi took over the rich Angolan diamond
region, which provided him with $5 billion a year.
DeBeers, the dominant diamond-purchasing company based in
South Africa, bought Angolan diamonds from Savimbi. However,
DeBeers announced on Oct. 5, 1999, that it would no longer buy
Angolan diamonds not accompanied by a certificate of
origin.
This decision was prompted by the new government of South
Africa, which told DeBeers it could no longer buy diamonds from
UNITA.
DeBeers has been under pressure to review its diamond-buying
operations in other strife-torn African countries such as the
Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Angolan President Dos Santos told Holbrooke that the Angolan
government rejected a political role by the UN. In a letter to
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Angolans stated that the
UN's role could only be effective if restricted to humanitarian
assistance.
President Dos Santos said that Angola also rejected a
"public information" broadcasting station, the Trans-Natiz
Foundation, proposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1208.
The United States assumes the presidency of the Security
Council in January.
Holbrooke used the occasion to raise "concerns" about the
Lusaka Accord, an African effort to end the struggle in eastern
Congo. The Lusaka Accord was brokered by South African Minister
of Foreign Affairs Nkusazana Dlamini-Zuma and signed by Angola,
Congo, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Uganda in August.
Holbrooke reminded the Angolans that he now heads a
500-strong UN military "peacekeeping" force--the Joint Military
Commission, which was formed as part of the Lusaka Accord,
signed in Zambia.
The Angolan leaders remember Richard C. Holbrooke for the
war hawk he has been in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo and
East Timor. His call for sanctions on UNITA puts the struggle
in the arena of international trade and finance, where the
imperialists have the upper hand. Sanctions also hit the masses
the hardest.
What Angola needs is a victory for the Angolan Peoples Army.
That will be a victory for the workers the world over.
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