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History

The hard struggle for peace

Angola was the last Portuguese colony to become independent. Angolans fought, for about 14 years, against the Portuguese colonial regime. The November 11 date is an indelible imprint on the history of Angola, for it was on such a day, in 1975, that Angola conquered its independence.

The country experienced difficult moments of a devastating war that lasted until the first quarter of 2002. UNITA, whose leader died on 22 February 2002, had become the main factor of human degradation in Angola, causing famine and terror to thousands of people across the country.


Agostinho Neto, the leader of liberation in Angola

From the three nationalist movements that were fighting for the liberation of Angola- the People`s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA), led by Savimbi, and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA)- only the first was considered by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), in November 1964, as having the capacity to fight against the Portuguese colonialism and take control of the country. In fact, the MPLA was the first and most active liberation movement organised in Angola. So much so that the OAU recognised the legitimacy of the government of Agostinho Neto, who declared the independence and assumed the presidency of the country.

Following that, the FNLA and UNITA started a deadly war against the MPLA. Supported by some African countries and major world powers, those two movements justified their attitudes with the pretext of fighting the MPLA`s socialist ideology.

Dictatorships and world powers united

The liberation of Angola from the Portuguese colonial yoke, gave strength to other movements in the African continent, such as SWAPO (Namibia) and the ANC (South Africa). Both were fighting against the domination of the then racist South African Regime. Angola was confronted with the rage of Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire.

Thus, forces from Zaire and the racist South Africa invaded Angola in support of FNLA and UNITA, respectively. Under the threat of letting the country fall to a dictatorship, Agostinho Neto turned to Cubans for help. The Cuban authorities sent a high contingent of troops and logistics.

With this assistance, the FNLA forces were defeated in 1976, the neighbouring Zaire also backed off, and UNITA almost lost its articulation.


	Massacre of innocent civilians like the events of Calomboloca, in 1985, was typical of Savimbi`s behaviour.

Countries like Iran, France, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and, yet again, Zaire, got together to support UNITA with soldiers and logistics. This group was joined by South Africa, in 1979, following the election of Pieter Botha as prime minister. In 1981, with Ronald Reagan ascending to the presidency of the United States of America, he provided financial and logistical support to UNITA, despite the fact that the international community knew the inconsistent Maoist ideology of that organisation and the frequent denunciations of human rights violation directed to UNITA.

With all its might, UNITA troops once managed to dominate two thirds of the Angolan territory, although they always found it difficult to penetrate in highly populated and economically more developed areas.

Negotiations

Agostinho Neto passed away in 1979, having been succeeded to the presidency by José Eduardo dos Santos. The growing pressure that was being put on the USA to condemn the apartheid regime in South Africa, made the world realise that a negotiated solution for the conflict was the only way to end with its internationalisation.

In December 1988, the Governors Island, in New York, was the stage of an historical meeting among the governments of South Africa, Angola and Cuba, under the mediation of the USA. The withdrawal of the South African and Cuban troops from Angola was the main point of the agreement, which also included the negotiation of peace between the Angolan Government and UNITA, and the definition, by South Africa, of a date for the independence of Namibia.

Gbadolite was the first peace agreement, after several other attempts.

In effect, the foreign soldiers withdraw from Angola, complying with the set timetable, and Namibia became independent in March 1990. This fact is a witness to the important role played by Angola in the liberation of Namibia, and the subsequent overthrown of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Then, negotiations began to solve the internal conflicts, starting with the Franceville Summit, in Gabon, in 1988, followed by the meeting of eight African heads of State, held in Luanda. Those gatherings paved the way for the Gbadolite Summit, in former Zaire, in June 1989. Although the meeting brought about the Gbadolite Accords- with the goodwill of Angola and of about twenty African heads of State, with the mediation of Mobuto Sese Seko- the bias of the Zairean dictator, whose involvement with UNITA was notorious, made it impossible for the agreements to be carried out.


	In the Bicesse Accords (Portugal), the Angolan Government, once again, stretched the hands to peace.

Two years later, representatives of UNITA and of the Angolan Government met in Bicesse, Portugal. Contrary to the Gbadolite meeting, this summit ended with an ample agreement signed by the two parties, boosting the hopes for peace in Angola. The meeting drafted an extensive programme of actions, which would culminate in the holding of the first free and democratic elections in Angola, supervised by the United Nations. The Government and UNITA were also to extinguish their armed forces (FAPLA and FALA, respectively) and form a single army, the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA).

Elections

The government fulfilled its part of the agreements: demobilised a great part of its army of about 400,000 men, guaranteed the freedom of political activity and scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections for September 1992. During the campaign, which brought a climate of relative peace to the country, UNITA started to show its real objectives. With a threatening security apparatus, they intimidated the people, and started admitting actions that they denied before, making it clear they would not accept a result of the poll different from their victory.


The 1992 elections brought some hope within the democratic exercise

MPLA won the poll with 54% of the votes, while UNITA got 34%, and José Eduardo dos Santos (the MPLA presidential candidate) got 49,6% of the votes, whereas UNITA`s leader, Jonas Savimbi, got 40,1%. Despite the victory, the agreement dictated that if no candidate received 50% of the vote, there had to be a second round.

But the run-off never took place. UNITA declared that there had been fraud in the poll, going against the opinion of the international community, including the special representative of the United Nations Secretary General, Margareth Anstee. Amid the fraud allegations, UNITA leader retreated to Huambo Province and ordered his troops to resume the war. The FAPLA had been demobilised, the FAA were still in the formation process, but the FALA were intact. UNITA had two objectives, to control the country in its totality or, at least, large parts of it, inclusively the goal of creating the ?South Angola? country.

People`s Resistance


	The citizens of Luanda took up arms to fight against Savimbi`s men, who were trying to seize control of Luanda City, after the elections

UNITA was surprised by a resistance from the populations, who, infuriated by the violation of the peace treaty, took up arms in various cities and fought against the UNITA forces. In Luanda, there were fierce fights and the terrorist forces were expelled from the capital city. As the combats continued, this resistance caused the gradual increase of assassination acts against the civil population.

The FAA, helped by the people, started a series of successful attacks against UNITA, which took them closer to the final victory. But the international appeals and, mainly, the pressure of the United States, caused the resumption of diplomatic talks. The leader of the terrorists, dismayed, accepted to return to the negotiations table. His objective was to gain time.


The fighting in the streets of the capital city was intense and, with the help of the citizens, UNITA was expelled

Several meetings to re-launch the negotiations were held under the aegis of the United Nations: In Namibe, south of Angola, in 1992; in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between January and March 1993; and Abidjan, Cote d`Ivoire, in April and May 1993. All that was a failure, due to the intransigence of UNITA`s negotiators. After the resumption of contacts in Namibe City, UNITA attacked the northern Uige Province. In Addis Ababa, UNITA abandoned the negotiations table and began an attack to the central Huambo Province.

In Abidjan, six months of negotiations were wasted when UNITA refused to sign an agreement with 38 points, which the Angolan government had already accepted. In this last case, UNITA was demanding that UN troops had to enter into action, while the armies of UNITA (FALA) and the government (the newly created FAA) had to be stationed. And this went totally against the various resolutions of the United Nations which determined, after the 1992 elections, the withdrawal of the UNITA troops from the occupied territories. Meanwhile, the war was escalating.

Lusaka


	Lusaka was the third big summit under the mediation of the United Nations, in search for peace

On 20 November 1994, following months of difficult negotiations, the then Angolan minister of Foreign Affairs, Venâncio de Moura, and the then secretary-general of UNITA, Engénio Manuvakola, signed the Lusaka Protocol, in Zambia, which incorporated some basic points already included in the Bicesse Accords.

There was the hope that this new agreement would bring definitive peace due to some good reasons: the Cold War had ended, and the world was more and more turned to the defence of human rights. And, mainly, because in May 1993, the USA, in the person of president Bill Clinton, finally recognised the Government of Angola. More than repairing the injustice of his predecessors, Bill Clinton had the objective of emptying any possible political connotation to the terrorists acts of UNITA.

Among other things, the Lusaka Protocol outlined the creation of a government of national reconciliation, reiterated the need to demobilise the military forces of both sides, and also the handover to the governmental authorities the areas controlled by UNITA.

Despite the efforts of the United Nations, once again very little came out as agreed, starting with the demobilisation of the troops. The FAA reduced the effectives to only 70,000 men, but UNITA was still reluctant to integrate their men in the single army.


Savimbi and his men continued to ignore the peace treaty and the Government of Reconciliation

The Reconciliation Government

In the attempt to overcome the successive impasses caused by UNITA, in the search for peace President José Eduardo dos Santos decided to swear-in, on April 1997, the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation (GURN), a measure that was to be effected only after the handover of the occupied territories.

With that, UNITA held several ministerial portfolios and occupied 70 parliamentary seats, which were vacant since the interruption of the 1992 electoral process.

Throughout all that process, UNITA did not give up its terrorist actions. In December 1995, UNITA attacked the municipality of Soyo, where U.S and French oil companies are based. In March 1998, UNITA forces carried out a massacre of more than 200 civilians in Malanje Province. The terrorist movement continued to train its troops, as confirmed, in August 1997, by the then UN Observation Mission in Angola (MONUA).

Further confirmation came about, in the same year, through the secretary-general of UNITA, Eugénio Manuvakola, who had disappeared since the signing of the Lusaka Protocol. He had fled from Bailundo (then Savimbi`s main base), in the central Huambo Province. Manuvakola revealed that he had been imprisoned and tortured for having signed an accord that did not include the handover to UNITA`s control Huambo, Bie and Benguela provinces. He also revealed that UNITA forces were re-organising to resume the war at any time.


	The conflict destroyed many cities and caused lots of people to abandon their homes

Angola says "Enough"

At this point, the failure of MONUA was not realising that the leader of the guerrilla movement was taking advantage of the cease fire to do contraband of diamonds and, with that money, strengthen his troops with sophisticated armament and mercenaries from Ukraine, South Africa and also Tutsis. Meanwhile the Angolan government was trying to take the process back to the negotiation table by making concessions.

The war continued until the death of the guerrilla leader, in combat, on 22 February 2002. After nearly 40 years of conflicts, five out of six Angolans never saw peace in Angola. The figures are unknown, but it is believed that the death toll of that conflict surpassed one million people.

About 4 million people (one third of the population) became displaced by the war, since they were forced to leave their areas of origin.


The war crippled, mainly because of the anti-personnel landmines, are the living portrait of the Angolan tragedy

Angola - a country that has one of the world`s biggest diamonds deposit and with a crude oil production of 800,000 barrels per day- did not mange to enjoy this wealth and provide better living standards to its people, because of the non-stop criminal guerrilla actions. Angola is placed 161 in the world ranking for Human Development Rate.

Finally Peace Arrives

With the death of the guerrilla leader, exploratory contacts started in Luena, Moxico Province, between the remaining troops of UNITA and the FAA, a process that culminated in the signing of a Protocol of Understanding between the two parties, on 04 April 2002. On 29 April 2002, the two parties signed, in Luanda, the document that put an end to the war in Angola, which paved the way to the reconstruction of the country, to the reconciliation of all Angolans and the social reintegration of those who in the past did nothing else but fight.


	The historic embrace between President José Eduardo dos Santos and general Kamorteiro of UNITA

The stationing of UNITA troops and integration of part of them into the national armed forces, the resettlement of the displaced people in their areas of origin, as well as the social integration of former combatants are the main tasks prioritised by the Angolan government, alongside the reconstruction of social and economic infrastructures destroyed by the war.

These tasks, given their magnitude, demand extra efforts from all Angolans, besides the assistance of the international community, considering the amount of financial spending they call for.

Thus, in times of peace, the struggle of Angolans is to rebuild the country, economically and socially, and place Angola in a position it deserves, in Africa and in the world.