From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ANGOLA: NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 17:45:29 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ANGOLA: NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION


lisbon, dec 10 (ips) -- general joao de martos, new angolan
commander-in-chief, thursday urged ''our brothers of the unita
(union for the total independence of angola)  to take up their
posts in the non-political armed forces.''

during thursday's investiture ceremony, transmitted live by
portuguese television, de matos appealed for ''the union of all
angolans'' and urged the rebels of unita to lay down their arms
''and join the democratic process.''

de matos replaces gen. antonio dos santos franca n'dalu, till
now considered the best spokesman for the governing people's
movement for the liberation of angola (mpla) when it came to
negotiating with unita leader jonas savimbi.

the new head of the armed forces also announced that his
second- in-command would be the commander-in-chief of the unita
troops, gen. arlindo pena ben ben, on whose personality the most
varied opinions have been circulating till now.

ben ben, the soldier with the most prestige among savimbi's
forces, was given up for dead in the battle of luanda one month
ago, a rumour denied by refugees arriving in luanda, who declared
they had seen him on the rebel front in the north.

in lisbon, portuguese analyst jose eduardo agualusa thursday
interpreted the change of command as ''a triumph for the tough
line'' taken by the mpla, seeing that de matos ''is the defender
of the so-called military solution for the angolan conflict.''

agualusa maintained that ''the mpla is at war with its
president, jose eduardo dos santos,'' because ''the party got
more votes than the president'' in last september's elections.

in the september 29-30 elections the mpla won 55 percent of
the votes in the parliamentary elections, while dos santos got
only 49.5 percent in the presidential elections.

the mpla, declared the analyst, ''carried out a real purge of
elements closest to the president in a concerted action by the
most radical wing of the regime against the moderates''.

examples of this ''purge'' are ''the fall of the minister of
information, rui de carvalho and his deputy minister, aldemiro da
coinceicao,'' he added.

in the meantime, unita suffered a resounding blow to its
political image with the dissidence of col. norberto de castro, a
highly placed leader of the organisation, who criticized the
leadership of his party and announced that he would take his seat
in the new parliament. (more/ips)
----


de castro, the son of a portuguese and an angolan woman,
criticised the ''racist'' attitudes of his own organisation,
citing the latest order broadcast by radio by one of the leaders,
salupeto pena, before being killed by the mpla forces in last
month's combats.

col. de castro endorsed the authenticity of the tape made
public last week by the government, where pena is heard
instructing his troops ''to fire against these mulatto rogues''.

''where is the unita of all races?'' asked de castro, but he
explained in the very next line that he ''respected savimbi,
however, he continues to be badly advised, surrounded as he is by
people who have never adapted to civilian life''.

unita won 34 percent of the votes in the elections, while
savimbi himself obtained 39.5 percent.

unita and its president refused to recognise these results,
and staged an armed uprising with fervent calls to the
ovimbundus, savimbi's own ethnic group, to join in.

the ovimbundus, who form one-third of the 10 million angolans,
responded to the call of their leader, fearing their rights would
not be recognised by ''a government of mulattoes.''

but now half-breeds who did not join the mpla have begun to
support the democratisation proposed by the government in the
face of their fear of a tribal war against them.

according to analysts ''the case of norberto de castro
demonstrates that this fear exists in the very heart of unita''.

for his part, president dos santos named marcolino moco as his
prime minister, one of the few ovimbundus in the mpla, in what
was described as ''a peace-making gesture'' to avoid any tribal
clashes later on. (end/trd/md/ego/tt/kb/92)