From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Angola: CIA Puppet loses vote, threatens new war /ww
Date: 16 Oct 92 20:35:20 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>

CIA PUPPET LOSES VOTE, THREATENS NEW WAR

BY MONICA MOOREHEAD

Fighting has erupted in Luanda, the capital of Angola, since the
widely acknowledged electoral victory of the governing Popular
Movement for the Liberation of Angola. The MPLA, led by President
Eduardo dos Santos, was reported by most international observers
to have defeated its main rival, the pro-imperialist terrorist
grouping UNITA (the so-called National Union for the Total
Liberation of Angola) and its leader, Jonas Savimbi.

The margin of victory has not been officially released by the
national electoral council so a recount can be made by an
international United Nations team. The recount is taking place at
the request of Savimbi, who claims he was robbed of victory in
the election for president of this oil-rich country in southern
Africa.

The elections were the result of a cease-fire pact signed by the
MPLA and UNITA last year to end a 16-year-old civil war. On
hearing the outcome of the vote, Savimbi vowed that UNITA would
resume the civil war. How long the fighting will last and how
widespread it will be depends on whether Savimbi is merely making
a last-ditch effort on his own behalf or is carrying out the
bidding of his imperialist masters.

MPLA LED ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE

The MPLA earned its role as legitimate representative of the
Angolan people through years of popular resistance that led to
the defeat of Portugal, the colonial oppressor for 500 years. The
liberation struggle began in 1961 and ended in November 1975 when
the last Portuguese soldier fled Luanda.

The Angolans had hoped to rebuild their war-torn country in a
peaceful, uninterrupted manner. Instead, the MPLA found itself
fighting a new and even more formidable oppressor in the guise of
UNITA, a terrorist army of bandits politically and financially
backed by the racist apartheid regime in South Africa as well as
by the U.S. government. The Angolan economy, already crippled by
the war with Portugal, was further decimated by the civil war
with UNITA and its imperialist backers.

This cruel war, concentrated mainly in the rural areas, has left
Angola with the largest number of amputees worldwide--at least
50,000. Many are children who stepped on explosive mines planted
by UNITA bandits.

Most of Angola's revenues had to be diverted from the civilian
economy to fight a war for survival. The Angolan army and air
force, in order to beat back UNITA, received aid from the Soviet
Union as well as the direct assistance of hundreds of thousands
of Cuban military and civilian volunteers. With the dissolution
and dismemberment of the USSR, signaling the loss of its most
powerful political and economic ally, the MPLA was forced to the
bargaining table to sign the pact with UNITA.

ON WASHINGTON'S PAYROLL

Savimbi's terrorist formation was created by apartheid and the
U.S. On a recent trip to Washington, he was given the honors of a
head of state by the Bush administration. Without the generous
funding it has received from its imperialist allies, UNITA would
not be able to stand on its own.

Savimbi, who one would expect to be standing trial for his mass
atrocities against the Angolan people, was instead elevated to a
presidential candidate by his imperialist sponsors.

But now an editorial Oct. 7 in the New York Times, which
generally speaks for the U.S. foreign policy establishment,
suggests a new approach in their efforts to subdue and reenslave
Angola. It reminds Savimbi that he has received $250 million in
CIA money, and advises him to accept his impending electoral
defeat "gracefully."

Besides being the usual demagogy about respect for democracy, the
editorial also reflects the fact that the MPLA has been forced to
go to the capitalist World Bank and IMF to bail out its
devastated economy. The U.S. and South Africa may want to put
their expensive military puppet on the back burner for now and
pursue economic means of stifling Angola's independence.

However, with all the setbacks suffered in Angola and despite all
the intimidation still being carried out by UNITA, the election
was proof that the Angolan masses have not forgotten who are
their true liberators.


(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" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
"workers@mcimail.com".

 NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
 Modem: 718-448-2358  *  Internet: nytransfer@igc.apc.org
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive