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ORPHAN of the COLD WAR Also by Margaret Joan Anstee AFRICA and the WORLD (Co-Edited with R.K.A

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ORPHAN of the COLD WAR Also by Margaret Joan Anstee AFRICA and the WORLD (Co-Edited with R.K.A ORPHAN OF THE COLD WAR Also by Margaret Joan Anstee AFRICA AND THE WORLD (co-edited with R.K.A. Gardiner and C. Patterson) GATE OF THE SUN: A Prospect of Bolivia THE ADMINISTRATION OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AID Orphan of the Cold War The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Angolan Peace Process, 1992-93 Margaret Joan Anstee I ,. © Margaret Joan Anstee 1996 Map of Angola© 1994 Michael S. Miller Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1994 978-0-333-66445-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2 I 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-66446-9 ISBN 978-0-230-37673-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230376731 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected lo conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Published in the United States of America 1996 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 For Basil Davidson, who first opened my eyes to the forgotten tragedy ofAngola in October 1966, and against whose advice I went to see for myself a quarter of a century later 'Better is wisdom than weapons of war' (Inscription on a banner embroidered by students of Newnham College . Cambridge. and carried in a procession of the National Union of Women's Suffragtte Societies on 13 June 1908.) Contents List ofPlates ix Foreword xi Acknowledgements xiii Dramatis Personae xv List ofAbbreviations xxiv Map ofAngola xxvi PART I THE CONTEXT: PERSONAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNA TIONAL 1 A Late-Night Telephone Call 3 2 The Background 7 3 First Mission to Angola 15 4 A 'Small and Manageable' Operation, or Making Bricks without Straw 30 PART II THEMILITARY AND SECURITY SITUATION- FEBRUARY TO SEPTEMBER 1992 45 5 The Military Conundrum 47 6 The Formation of the New Angolan Armed Forces 64 7 The Police Imbroglio 69 8 Alarms and Excursions 79 PART III THE PREPARATION AND ORGANISATION OF THE ELECTIONS - MARCH TO SEPTEMBER 1992 85 9 The Prelude: March to May 1992 87 10 The Registration of Voters and the Electoral Campaign 99 11 Politics, Pride and Personalities 127 PARTIV DAYTODAYLIVING 159 12 Life in Luanda 161 13 Vignettes from the Field 173 PART V THE ELECTIONS AND THEIR AFTERMATH 185 14 The Moment of Truth 187 15 The Aftermath 199 16 The Debacle 239 vii viii Contents PART VI OVER THE BRINK 263 17 The Bloodbath 265 18 The Slide into the Abyss 292 19 Cry Havoc ... 328 PART VII CONFLAGRATION AND MEDIATION 355 20 ...And Let Slip the Dogs of War 357 21 Peace Talks in Ethiopia 380 22 From Addis Ababa to Abidjan 415 23 The Abidjan Marathon 447 PART VIII MY FAREWELL TO ARMS 491 24 Going the Last Mile ... and the End of the Road 493 25 Lessons of the Forgotten Tragedy of Angola 527 Epilogue 543 Notes 545 Index 548 List of Plates 1. A 'bairro popular' (shanty town) in Luanda 2. A view of the UNAVEM headquarters in Vila Espa, outside Luanda: 'con­ tainer city' 3. The author inspecting FALA assembled troops with Major-General Unimna of Nigeria, February, 1992 4. Boy soldiers (UNITA) 5. The CCPM, photographed just before the elections in September1992. 6. The author meeting with Jonas Savimbi, Head of UNITA (also in atten­ dance are Gilberto Rizzo and Ebrima Jobarteh) 7. The crucial meeting between President dos Santos and Dr Savimbi on 26 September 1992, three days before the elections 8. A Soviet-made Ilyushin helicopter being unloaded from a giant Antonov cargo plane at Luanda Airport, to join the makeshift airforce hurriedly assembled for the elections. 9. Francisco Domingo, the sole survivor of a UNAVEM II helicopter accident, in which 15 people died, including four Russian aircrew, is carried off a rescue plane at Luanda Airport. 10. Onofre dos Santos, Director-General of the elections, and Dr Holden Roberto, Head of FNLA, during electoral registration 11. Angolan youth before the election, Luanda, September 1992 12. Women waiting in line to cast their votes in the Sumbe hinterland on 30 September 1992. 13. A cartoon of the author which appeared in the Jornal de Angola on 26 September 1992. 14. A UN medals' parade in UNAVEM Headquarters 15. Refugees fleeing from the fighting which erupted again after the elections 16. Inauguration of Abidjan negotiations, April 1993 (the author with Foreign Minister Essy ofC6te d'Ivoire). IX This page intentionally left blank Foreword This is the personal story of my experiences as Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Angola and Head of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission from February 1992 to June 1993. It is the distillation of a more detailed analysis of my mission, which interested researchers may consult in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The aim of this book is to try to convey some flavour of what it was like to live through that turbulent time while at the same time recording the events as they happened. No one who was there could regard it as other than a traumatic experience. In stark contrast to the ferocity of the conflict that has riven their country for 30 years, individual Angolans are amiable and relaxed, generous in their instincts and endowed with a charm and inveterate gaiety that combine traits both African and Lusitanian. While stoically enduring the most unimaginable sufferings, the Angolan people have long yearned for peace. At no time was that longing more tellingly expressed than on 29 and 30 September 1992. On those two historic days more than four million of them - over 90 per cent of the registered voter population, an unheard of turnout for any Western country of long democratic tradition - waited patiently in line (sometimes overnight) to make their prefer­ ence known in the first democratic elections ever held in Angola, some of them having walked many long miles to the polling station. It was a logistical miracle that it had been possible to organise elections at all in that huge, war-ravaged country, practically devoid of infrastructure. It was a further miracle that the elections passed off peacefully, in an atmosphere of great serenity and civic responsibility. That in itself was testimony to the Angolans' wish for a democra­ tic and peaceful outcome that would allow them to get on with their lives and develop the enormous riches of their beautiful land. The ensuing debacle was all the more shattering, above all for Angolans but also for foreigners committed to seeing the peace process through. And when our desperate efforts to retrieve the situation foundered, the tragedy developed into one of incalculable proportions. Worse still, it was a tragedy that left the world unmoved and unaware. Former Yugoslavia, Somalia and Cambodia were constantly in the headlines and on the television screens. Angola scarcely rated a mention, although the toll of human death and suffering was on a larger scale than in Bosnia. In colonial times the Portuguese dubbed the south-eastern region of Angola, whose inhospitable terrain rebuffed their attempts at conquest over several centuries, as the "Terras do Fim Mundo' - the 'Lands at the end of the world'. Now, in the late twentieth century, that epithet has come to take on a new significance for the country as a whole. That is why, whenever I had a chance to speak to a wider public from distant Luanda, I called it 'the forgotten tragedy', a phrase that caught on as did the later and equally true, expression 'the worst war in the world'. It is also why, xi xii Foreword even after I ceased to have any official connection with Angola, I could not dis­ engage myself and have felt impelled to seize any opportunity to bring this shocking catastrophe to the attention of anyone willing to listen. It is why I have written this book. And it is why I dedicate it to the Angolan people and their sur­ vival. There is another purpose. The Angolan operation began just before the great burgeoning of peacekeeping efforts in the wake of the Cold War. A new hope was vested in the United Nations and huge demands were made of it, accompa­ nied by great expectations. But all too often, inadequate resources and ambigu­ ous mandates have led to massive disappointment and accusations of ineffectiveness. Such oversimplistic reactions ignored the complexities of the situations the United Nations was called upon to deal with, more often than not with one hand tied behind its back. They also conveniently overlooked the fact that the United Nations is much more than the Secretariat and the UN forces and civilian staff on the ground, whatever their shortcomings. So the short burst of popularity for the UN after the Cold War has deteriorated into a crisis of confidence, still at its height as I write.
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