21 August 2000
Angolan Politicians Cite Need for Dialogue Over Armed Force
UNITA/RENOVADA officials speak at NDI meeting
By Jim Fisher-Thompson and Jody Hamilton
Washington File Staff Writers
Washington -- Jonas Savimbi is wrong to believe Angola's devastating
civil war can be settled by arms rather than dialogue, say two of his
former colleagues in the Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA), the movement the rebel leader established 25 years ago.
Eugenio Manuvakola Ngola, president of the movement UNITA/RENOVADA
(Renewed), which split from the main UNITA movement in September 1998
after UNITA's refusal to disarm and abide by peace accords it had
signed, said, "The failure of the [Angolan] peace process has its
origins in the abandonment of democratic principles by Jonas Savimbi."
Manuvakola spoke at an August 21 meeting sponsored by the National
Democratic Institute (NDI), the congressionally chartered
non-governmental organization (NGO) that operates democracy promotion
programs overseas. He was joined by Abel Chivukuvuku Epalanga, a
UNITA/RENOVADA official who is also a member of Angola's Parliament.
Their trip to the United States was sponsored by the State
Department's International Visitors Program.
Speaking in Portuguese through an English interpreter, Manuvakola
explained that Savimbi's refusal to disarm and give up control of
Angolan territory, which finally led to a United Nations-sponsored
arms embargo against UNITA, obliged some of the cadres in the top
organization of UNITA in September 1998 to rebel "and create a new
[UNITA] directorate or alternative based in Luanda to continue with
the agreements that had been made with the peace process."
The renewed UNITA party, in contrast to Savimbi's group, Manuvakola
said, is dedicated to working with the Angolan government to find
peaceful, democratic solutions to Angola's problems, which most people
believe cannot be solved by armed conflict. "I don't think it's
possible to manage a party within a democratic context at the same
time that party opposes others by force of arms," he said.
During a visit to Angola last December, Under Secretary of State
Thomas Pickering told an audience at Catholic University that "too
much blood has been shed. UNITA reneged on the terms of the Lusaka
Protocols ...[and] Angola is still not at peace. But peace will not be
achieved ... on the battlefield."
Manuvakola declared that "either one is for democracy and rejects the
concept of arms, or one stays with arms and then cannot participate in
the democratic process. Jonas Savimbi preferred the arms and we
preferred the democratic process."
According to Chivukuvuku, Angola's democratic revolution, like many of
those in Africa, was not an initiated process, but rather was a
reaction to change in the international setting. This, he said, has
produced two distinct groups of people in the country.
"I do believe that at this moment we have a struggle of perspectives:
those who are part of the past and those who believe in the future,"
Chivukuvuku said. He added that one who lives in the past does not
embrace governments with accountability and does not respect human
rights -- and he made plain that Savimbi is one who lives in the past.
"In Angola, there is a striving grassroots movement made up of the
churches, of political parties, of individual personalities, of civic
organizations, which have been fighting to change that perspective and
build a new future," he said. And it is from their ranks, he added,
that Angola will build its democracy.
Chivukuvuku outlined four characteristics that he believes will bring
a lasting, peaceful democracy to Angola, including:
-- an honorable, safe retirement for those who continue to live in the
past;
-- a clear constitutional and political transformation, leading to a
decentralization and deconcentration of power, so that an
authoritarian government cannot be sustained;
-- constitutional wealth distribution, and accountability so those who
have been corrupt cannot continue this behavior; and
-- military globalization joined with a progressive reduction of
forces and social research.
The U.S. government, through its Agency for International Development
(USAID), has given Angola more than $400 million in assistance over
the last five years. In 1999 USAID provided $62 million, with much of
that money going to relieve the humanitarian distress caused by the
civil conflict, which has displaced some three million people, created
100,000 amputees, and resulted in the sowing of more than 10 million
landmines on Angolan territory.
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