Withdrawal of South African Troops -Continuation of Guerrilla Warfare

Home , Calai, Cuangar, Withdrawal (military)

Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives), Volume 22, November, 1976 Angola, Page 28072 © 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved. Withdrawal of South African Troops -Continuation of Guerrilla Warfare throughout Country -Relations with Soviet Union and Cuba - Internal Developments - Trial of Mercenaries - Measures against Foreign Ownership - Rejection of Application for UN Membership Although the civil war in Angola had effectively ended at the beginning of 1976 with the military victory of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) [see 27661 A], guerrilla warfare was subsequently waged against the established MPLA Government by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Dr Jonas Savimbi, and by the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), led by Mr Holden Roberto. Reports up to July indicated that UNITA controlled large areas in the south-east and the centre of the country, but thereafter Cuban-led government forces appeared to gain the upper hand in the south. In the north the situation remained confused, with FNLA claims of military successes being generally denied by the Angolan Government (For military positions of the three movemens at Feburary 1976, see map on page 27604). South Africa officially withdrew all its forces from Angola by March 27 but a large Cuban force remained in the country. South African Troop Withdrawal from Hydroelectric Projects In accordance with a statement made by the South African Prime Minister, Mr B. J. Vorster, in Parliament on March 21, all South African troops remaining in Angola-i.e. a force of about 3,000 which had been left to guard the Cunene river hydroelectric projects [see pages 27665]-were withdrawn by March 27. This followed the relay of guarantees to the South African Government by the MPLA via the UN Secretary- General, Dr Kurt Waldheim, to the effect that (i) the Angola-South West Africa border would be respected, and (ii) the safety of the hydroelectric projects (which formed part of that border and were financed largely by South Africa) and of their personnel would be assured. The guarantees had been obtained through the good offices of the then British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, Mr James Callaghan, and through the Soviet ambassador in London, Mr Nikolai M. Lunkov, despite a statement from the MPLA political bureau in Luanda on March 20 that it rejected "any condition or guarantee imposed by South Africa for withdrawing its troops from Angolan territory". Several hundred refugees from the Calai and Cuangar refugee camps near the southern Angolan border, who had no claim to Portuguese citizenship [see page 27665], left Angola with the withdrawing South African troops for fear of MPLA reprisals, and were accommodated in temporary camps in Rundu (Nkarapamwe), the capital of the Kavango homeland in South West Africa, pending an improvement in the Angolan situation. Some of the refugees were UNITA and FNLA supporters who requested political asylum in Kavango. Mr Jannie de Wet, Commissioner-General for the Indigenous People of South West Africa, crossed into Angola on April 5 for a meeting with MPLA representatives regarding the hydroelectric projects, this constituting the first direct diplomatic contact between Luanda and Pretoria since the establishment of the MPLA Government in Angola. Besides confirming the above-mentioned guarantees, the two sides also established that two border checkpoints would be set up at which police from both countries could control the movement of workers. Following the clarification of these points, work on the Cunene scheme-which had been suspended on the withdrawal of the South African forces, when all the workers had moved into South West Africa together with their families until they were given guarantees of their safety-resumed on April 6 under the protection of Angolan and Cuban troops, who arrived at the scheme on April 5. As stated in, South Africa announced on May 19 that a specially prohibited buffer zone 1,000 metres wide had been established on the South West African side of the border to stem possible guerrilla raids in the country from Angola. In spite of the official withdrawal, President Neto of Angola claimed on July 10 that South African forces had again entered Angola "two or three days ago", and that Angolan troops "again had to confront South African troops, who burned down three villages and wounded one Angolan citizen". He added that" almost every day we still have to defend ourselves from our enemies and that frontier violations were occurring on both the northern and southern borders. The South African Defence Force on July 12 strongly denied the charges. In an interview broadcast over Mozambique radio on July 1 the Prime Minister, Mr Lopo do Nascimento, had warned that anti-government troops were regrouping in the north along the border with Zaire, while the Defence Minister, Commander Iko Carreira, had stated on July 7: "The South African racists are organizing provocations in the south, and all sorts of agents are infiltrating in the north and the east; the armed struggle in Angola has not ended." Mr J. P. Brand, general manager of the South West Africa Water Electricity Supply Commission, stated on Sept. 28 that at the request of the Angolan Government his workers had been temporarily withdrawn from the Calueque project. The South African Air Force commander, Lieut.-General Rodgers, said in a speech on April 1 that 28 South African soldiers had been killed and 100 wounded during the involvement in Angola. Thereafter, another soldier, injured in Angola in December 1975, died in April, while yet another was killed on April 16 in a grenade attack from the Angolan side of the South West African border for which the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) was believed responsible. The UN security Council on March 31 adopted by nine votes to nil, with five abstentions (Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States) and with China not participating in the vote, a resolution condemning South African aggression against Angola and demanding that South Africa desist from using, South West Africa to "mount provocative or aggressive acts' against Angola or any other African state. The resolution also called on South Africa to meet Angola's "just claims" for compensation for damage and destruction to the country. Continued UNITA and FLNA Activities Notwithstanding a South African press report in March that UNITA had been virtually wiped out by government forces, UNITA raids continued in the following months. A report in The star of Johannesburg on March 22 claimed that UNITA had virtually disintegrated after MPLA MiG-21s had bombed the movement's positions at Gago Coutinho and Ninda (near the Zambian border) for five days. Although UNITA had earlier claimed to have 2,000 guerrillas operating in southern and central Angola, with an additional 10,000 in training and sufficient arms for two years, The Star maintained that Dr Savimbi's force, which earlier retreated with him from Serpa Pinto eastwards to its last major base of Gago Coutinho, then comprised only 100 men. After the MPLA attacks the remaining guerrillas had fled into the bush, and one of UNITA's top commanders, Mr Smart Chatta, had been killed. Nevertheless, in a continuation of UNITA raids, the Benguela railway was cut on a number of occasions during March and April; sporadic clashes with government forces took place in May; and a number of refugees fled into Zambia and South West Africa to escape the fighting. According to a UNITA communiqué issued in London in early June, its forces had in the past five weeks killed 280 Cuban soldiers and captured 46, against the loss of 60 of its own men. In the meantime, UNITA held a congress at Cuanza (in central Angola) on May 7–10 and drew up a manifesto calling for an intensification of the armed struggle "against the regime imposed by the Cubans and Russians ", adding that any dialogue with the MPLA was out of the question as long as it was supported by foreign troops. A communiqué containing details of the manifesto and particularly of UNITA's planned campaign against the MPLA Government was presented to the press in Nairobi on June 11. UNITA set out the following four conditions for an eventual dialogue with the MPLA, namely (i) the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, (ii) the release of all political opponents from prison, (iii) acceptance by the MPLA of the principle of a government of national unity, and (iv) the disbanding of institutions such as the people's revolutionary tribunals [one of which was established in May to try 13 foreign mercenaries—see below] the directorate of information and security. Its tactics for the anti- MPLA campaign would include attacks on the Benguela railway, the sabotage of all other forms of communication, the formation of food-producing units to feed the guerrillas, and the creation of an armed people's militia to protect these units. Finally, UNITA's military and political structures would be completely reorganized. According to a report dated June 1976 which reached Lisbon by courier on July 11 and allegedly came from Cangumbe (on the Benguela railway), UNITA forces had advanced from the south-cast of Angola to a broad belt across the central part of the country. Signed by Dr Savimbi, the report listed seven ambushes, three attacks on towns, two train derailments and an undisclosed number of land-mine attacks which had occurred in May. The guerrilla forces had moved westwards and northwards and attacks had been reported as far west as Cassiva (65 miles south-east of Benguela) and as far north as Mussende (70 miles south of Malanje). The document also claimed that lack of food had led to "near mutiny" among MPLA troops, that the people around Pereira d'Eca (in the south) were starving, and that food shortages had also been reported in other parts of Angola, particularly in Saurimo and Carmona (Uige). In early August UNITA strongholds close to the South West Africa border were reported to have been wiped out by MPLA forces and 700 refugees to have crossed into South West Africa, the number rising to 1,500 by the end of August after further action against UNITA positions by Cuban-led MPLA troops. Moreover, refugees who fled into South West Africa at the end of September and early October claimed that MPLA and Cuban forces supported by SWAPO were destroying the last pockets of UNITA resistance in the south, and that at least 500 local inhabitants of Cuangar, Calai and Dirico had been killed. Pastor Cornelius Ndjoba, the Chief Minister for the Ovamboland homeland, said that "total chaos" existed in southern Angola, that about 1,000 civilians had fled into Kavango, and that thousands more were expected. Cuban and MPLA troops were alleged to be looting and pillaging because they had received no pay or provisions for three months. Commenting on the reports that his organization was involved in anti-UNITA action, the SWAPO foreign secretary, Mr Peter Mueshihange, said on Oct. 4 that "there is no agreement on joint forces with the MPLA" and that "SWAPO is only interested in attacking South African troops". A further eruption of fighting was reported at the end of October in southern Angola, with SWAPO again apparently fighting alongside Cuban and MPLA forces. Intensified hostilities at the beginning of November caused a further 3,000 refugees to flee into Ovamboland, but reports reaching Luanda on Nov. 9 alleged that some were being shot as they approached the border. In a communique dated Sept. 25 and signed by Dr Savimbi, which was brought out of Angola by courier and published on Nov. 2, UNITA claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on government and Cuban forces in the latest offensive, the fourth against it in recent months, with the loss of 200 UNITA troops. The communiqué claimed that the largest offensive was that in July and early August [see below] in which 6,000 MPLA and 4,000 Cuban troops had participated, 800 of them losing their lives against 120 UNITA losses. Dr Savimbi in early November told the French Gamma news agency that he had 6,000 men at his disposal, and that there were 15,000 Cubans in Angola, plus 4,000 administrative cadres who also carried out local defence duties. Meanwhile, a resurgence of FNLA activity was reported in the north of the country. According to a communique issued by the FNLA office in Paris on June 28 the movement had launched a "systematic sabotage campaign" against the Neto regime, which involved "harrassing enemy communications, ambushing supply convoys and launching surprise attacks on bridges and other key points". However, a claim that a ferry over the Loge river, north of Luanda, had been destroyed on June 22, "isolating the capital from the northern regions of the country", was denied by the Angolan Minister of Information, Dr Luis de Almeida. According to the Paris representative of the FNLA on July 25, the movement had on July 18 captured Toto and its military airfield and subsequently Lucanga, 25 miles further north, and 41 Cuban soldiers had been killed in the attacks (these military gains being also denied on July 26 by Dr Almeida). According to a further communiqué in early October the FNLA claimed to have killed 132 Cubans during September. Mr Holden Roberto, the FNLA leader of whom little had been heard since February, emerged in Brussels in October and claimed on Oct. 21 that the FNLA and UNITA now controlled two-thirds of Angola. He alleged, moreover, that there were 30,000 Cuban troops in the country, with more arriving daily. Describing the military situation, Mr Roberto said: "The FNLA alone controls in the north, the north-east and the centre of the country a zone larger than France…. This year there has been no sale or export of coffee because all the rich plantations are in this zone. The Cubans are billeted in the towns of Sao Antonio do Zaire, Silo Salvador and Carmona [Uige]. UNITA controls an equally vast zone in the east and south- east, where it is preventing the railways from functioning. Geographically, the UNITA and FNLA military commands are far apart but are permanently in contact." Mr Roberto said that the Cubans had set up two concentration camps at Mamba and Sao, to indoctrinate recalcitrants, "including soldiers of the MPLA who no longer like the present scheme of things" and that the camps were run by "East Germans, Soviets, Czechs, Poles and Cubans". He accused the Cubans of atrocities and claimed that 47,000 refugees had fled to South West Africa. Mr Roberto also said that, following a congress held in early March, a new political and military structure had been established within the FNLA and that the movement's aim was now to "bring about free elections so that the Angolan people can choose its leaders". Guerrilla Resistance in Cabinda The Angolan Government was in April also reported to be facing increased resistance in Cabinda from the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), which was alleged to operate from bases in Zaire in spite of the Feb. 28 agreement between President Mobutu and Dr Neto that neither country would allow "military activities" in its own territory directed against the neighbouring Government [see page 27665; see also page 27500 for FLEC's declaration of Cabindan indeendence in November 1975]. Recurring ambushes were reported against MPLA and Cuban forces, and Cabinda's (MPLA) military commander said in March that the guerrillas were attacking civilians to obtain food. During a visit to the enclave in May Dr Neto called on Angola's neighbours to "carry out agreements" concluded with Angola, saying that "when neighbours are not friends they must at least coexist". The US Christian Science Monitor reported on July 8 that there were 3,000 Cubans in Cabinda, most of whom were troops, but that FLEC were opposing them with some success. The Refugee Situation The Angolan Government in May provided the following refugee estimates to United Nations agencies 445,000 refugees outside Angola, including 400,000 in Zaire and 35,000 in Zambia 250,000 displaced persons inside the country and 35,000 refugees from former Portuguese strategic hamlets ("peace villages"), also inside the country. Later in the year, however, on Oct. 1, the Luanda representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that over a million Angolans—one.sixth of the population-were either refugees or displaced persons (there being 500,000 refugees in Zaire and 700,000 displaced persons in Angola). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in April made preparations to withdraw from Angola at the request of the Government, which expressed the wish for a national Red Cross Society then being organized to take over the ICRC's responsibilities. Continued Cuban Presence in Angola In a letter to the then Swedish Prime Minister, Hr Olof Palme, in May, Dr Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader, asserted that the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola would commence at the rate of 200 per week. In the letter which was communicated to the US Secretary of State (Dr Henry Kissinger), Dr Castro said that Cuba had no intention of sending its troops into other countries in southern Africa or Latin America to aid liberation movements, and added that he did not wish to become "the crusader of' the 20th century". Dr Kissinger on May 25 described the communication as "a positive development" but said that only a total Cuban withdrawal would satisfy the United States. In a further announcement, Dr Castro said on June 7 that Cuban troops were leaving Angola "gradually" but that some units would remain until the Angolan Government could assume full responsibility for the country's defence. With the intensification of the guerrilla warfare by the FNLA and UNITA, however, Cuba was in mid-July reported to have increased the number of its soldiers in Angola to 20,000 at the request of the MPLA Government. During an official visit by Dr Neto to Cuba on July 22–29, Dr Castro said at a rally on July 27 that Cuba was ready to carry on helping Angola with technical assistance and that the number of Cuban technicians there would be increased from a few hundred to 3,000 or more. In a joint communiqué published after the visit in Granma (the Cuban Communist Party newspaper) on Aug. 2, (i) Cuba and Angola warned South Africa, Zaire and Zambia against allowing "counterrevolutionary elements and mercenaries " to use their territories as a base for attacks on Angola, and (ii) Cuba reiterated "that it will be firmly on the side of Angola in the case of further interventions from the exterior against its sovereignty and territorial integrity ". A Cuban soldier who hijacked a Lisbon-bound Portuguese Boeing 747 from Luanda on April 4 stated that he opposed the presence of Cuban troops in Angola and was granted political asylum in Portugal. A second Cuban soldier defected to Portugal on April 12 and was also granted asylum.