From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: The Angola elections and the CIA /ww
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 19:40:41 GMT

 The Angola elections and CIA subversions
 By G. Dunkel

The Angolan people voted in elections for president and
parliament Sept. 29 and 30. Huge crowds attended rallies for
President Jose
Eduardo dos Santos, of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of
Angola (MPLA). Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, well-known as a South
African and U.S. stooge, challenged him in the election.

Nobody is saying when preliminary results will be announced. Dos
Santos has done very well in areas thought to be sewn up by
UNITA. He led with 65 percent in the only public opinion poll
taken so far. But U.S. officials believe Savimbi will win
comfortably, according to Africa Confidential, a London-based
political newsletter. The CIA has spent millions of dollars
supporting Savimbi and UNITA, and apparently believes it has this
election in the bag.

The MPLA is the party that has run the country since 1975. The
socialist countries, including heroic Cuban troops who turned
back a South African invasion, supported it.

The MPLA has said it will form a coalition government if dos
Santos wins the presidency, while UNITA has threatened to make a
coup if it loses.

ORIGINS OF DEVASTATION

Ever since the Feb. 4, 1961 MPLA-led attack on the Luanda central
prison, which began the war of national liberation, the people of
Angola have been fighting. First against the Portuguese who had
occupied their country for over 400 years. Then from 1975 to
1988, they had to repulse many South African invasions and raids
until a peace accord was reached. UNITA, a mercenary army
supported by South Africa and the United States, didn't sign a
peace accord with the central government until 1990.

All this fighting brought tremendous losses to a country that was
among the most developed on the continent before the wars began.
According to UNICEF, total damage is around $30 billion. Hundreds
of bridges, dams, roads, electric generating plants, railroads
and other infrastructure sites were destroyed.

Angola has the highest rate of infant mortality in the world,
according to UNICEF. Its government deficit is a third of its
gross domestic product, again the highest in the world. More than
50,000 Angolans have been maimed, another world record. And 1.3
million Angolans out of a total population of 10 million are
refugees;
millions more live on the edge of starvation.

Angola could be one of the richest countries in sub-Saharan
Africa. It is a major producer of oil, second only to Nigeria in
the region, and has proven deposits of diamonds, tin, copper,
iron and precious metals. There is also good land, and more than
enough water for agriculture and hydro-power. Under Portuguese
colonial rule, Angola was the world's fourth largest producer of
coffee, a major supplier of industrial agricultural products and
self-sufficient in food. Now it has to import at least a third of
its food.

SAVIMBI, A SOUTH AFRICAN/U.S. STOOGE

The MPLA was never a party with a unified political outlook,
switching its orientation from Marxism-Leninism to free-market
capitalism with a number of splits and reverses. But it led the
war against Portuguese colonialism and South African invasions,
and has remained consistent about making Angola an independent,
developed and prosperous country.

Savimbi, on the other hand, actually started out as a tool of the
Portuguese secret police, the infamous PIDE. In "Southern Africa
Stands Up" Wilfred Burchett documented the link between the PIDE
and UNITA in a campaign against the MPLA that started in 1974.
New revelations (Nouvelle Afrique-Asie, Sept. 1992) point to a
connection that goes back to 1969.

Savimbi didn't attend Angola's 1975 independence celebration
because he was in Pretoria asking for support and intervention by
South Africa's army. He would have preferred U.S. aid, but took
what he could get. Later that year, at the request of President
Mobutu of Zaire, he started getting U.S. support.

Savimbi's relationship with the U.S. became solid when Reagan
became president in 1981. In 1985, South African Minister of
Defense Magnus Malan justified an intensification of support by
saying, "Savimbi fights for the system and the values in which we
believe."

During the 1980s, Savimbi made a number of public relations trips
to the U.S., involving receptions at the White House, talks
before Congressional committees, and speeches before large
right-wing forums. He certainly has a tremendous amount of
support from right-wing elements in the U.S. for his bid to rule
Angola. Other groups in the U.S. ruling class, seeing the wealth
of Angola waiting to be tapped, would be willing to drop Savimbi
and work with a coalition government that includes the MPLA.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@mcimail.com".)

     The N.Y. Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
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