ANGOLA’S LONG-DELAYED ELECTION HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JULY 20, 2006 Serial No. 109–195 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 28–786PDF WASHINGTON : 2006 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Mar 21 2002 15:44 Oct 02, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\AGI\072006\28786.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, HOWARD L. BERMAN, California Vice Chairman GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American ELTON GALLEGLY, California Samoa ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey DANA ROHRABACHER, California SHERROD BROWN, Ohio EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California PETER T. KING, New York ROBERT WEXLER, Florida STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York DARRELL ISSA, California BARBARA LEE, California JEFF FLAKE, Arizona JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon MARK GREEN, Wisconsin SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada JERRY WELLER, Illinois GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California MIKE PENCE, Indiana ADAM B. SCHIFF, California THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan DIANE E. WATSON, California KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida ADAM SMITH, Washington JOE WILSON, South Carolina BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina DENNIS A. CARDOZA, California CONNIE MACK, Florida RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska MICHAEL MCCAUL, Texas TED POE, Texas THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey JEFF FLAKE, Arizona GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York MARK GREEN, Wisconsin BARBARA LEE, California JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas DIANE E. WATSON, California JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon Vice Chairman MARY M. NOONAN, Subcommittee Staff Director GREG SIMPKINS, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member NOELLE LUSANE, Democratic Professional Staff Member SHERI A. RICKERT, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member and Counsel LINDSEY M. PLUMLEY, Staff Associate (II) VerDate Mar 21 2002 15:44 Oct 02, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\AGI\072006\28786.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Mr. Dan Mozena, Director, Office of Southern African Affairs, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State ......................................................... 5 Paul Bonicelli, Ph.D., Deputy Assistant Administrator for Democracy and Governance, U.S. Agency for International Development ................................ 9 The Honorable Josefina Pitra Diakite, Ambassador, The Embassy of the Republic of Angola ............................................................................................... 33 Mr. Alcides Sakala Simoes, President, Parliamentary Group of Unita, Na- tional Assembly, Luanda, Angola ....................................................................... 45 Mr. Richard W. Soudriette, President and Chief Executive Officer, Inter- national Foundation for Election Systems ......................................................... 49 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations: Prepared statement ................ 3 Mr. Dan Mozena: Prepared statement ................................................................... 7 Paul Bonicelli, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ............................................................ 12 The Honorable Josefina Pitra Diakite: Prepared statement ................................ 36 Mr. Alcides Sakala Simoes: Prepared statement .................................................. 47 Mr. Richard W. Soudriette: Prepared statement .................................................. 51 The Honorable Donald M. Payne, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey: Prepared statement .......................................................... 63 APPENDIX Responses from Mr. Dan Mozena to questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith ................................................................. 71 (III) VerDate Mar 21 2002 15:44 Oct 02, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\AGI\072006\28786.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL VerDate Mar 21 2002 15:44 Oct 02, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\AGI\072006\28786.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL ANGOLA’S LONG-DELAYED ELECTION THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2006 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m., in room 2255, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. Mr. SMITH. The Committee will come to order. Let me begin by apologizing for the lateness of convening this hearing. We did have two votes that came up on the Floor, and ob- viously, they just finished. So, I apologize to our witnesses and to our guests for that rather lengthy delay of 40 minutes. I also want to point out that there is a hearing occurring in the Full Committee on the proposed sale of F–16s to Pakistan. So, some of our Members will be coming in and out. That was not scheduled when we scheduled this hearing. So, there will be some competition there, and that is very, very con- troversial, but that was a rescheduled hearing of the Full Com- mittee, and normally, we are not allowed to sit as a Subcommittee when the Full Committee meets so that we do not have conflicts, but that was a rescheduling issue. So, good afternoon, everybody, and while international attention in the region of southern Africa often focuses on the HIV/AIDS pandemic or the blatantly undemocratic tactics of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, less attention is directed toward the institutionaliza- tion of democracy in Angola in the run-up to its long-awaited na- tional elections, targeted to be held in September 2006. Yet the outcome of this election is important, not only for Angola itself, and for the region, but also for the United States. Angola is one of the world’s largest diamond producers, and its Okavango river basin provides valuable water to Namibia and Bot- swana. It is the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and in May 2006, Angola exported 356,000 barrels per day to the United States, making it one of the U.S.’s top 10 oil importers. By way of background, during the 1970s, Angola was engaged in a 14-year armed struggle for freedom from Portugal, the colonial power. The Portuguese gave up control of Angola in November 1975, but they did not resolve the question of who would form the govern- ment in Angola before leaving. As a result, three liberation move- (1) VerDate Mar 21 2002 15:44 Oct 02, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\AGI\072006\28786.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL 2 ments fought for control of the country for 2 years, until the Pop- ular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or the MPLA, took control of the government in 1977. However, the civil war, which began in the months before inde- pendence, and was fueled by superpower Cold War competition, raged on. There were a few cease-fire agreements over the next decade, but it wasn’t until May 1991 that peace was sufficiently es- tablished to allow Angola to hold its first-ever election, scheduled for September 1992. There were numerous obstacles along the way to these elections. Uncertain disarmament of soldiers, problematic exchanges of prisoners, discoveries of hidden weapons, assassinations of political party officials and other crises threatened to derail Angola’s elec- tions, but the process continued to move forward. Not even a brief controversy over an early end to the registration of voters in opposition areas could derail the process. On September the 29th and 30th of 1999, Angola’s first elections were held. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos won slightly less than 50 percent of the vote, while opposition leader Jonas Savimbi won 40 percent. The MPLA won 129 seats in the 220-seat National Assembly, and Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of An- gola, or UNITA, won 77 seats. Savimbi had expected to win the election and seemed unprepared to accept defeat. However, Margaret Anstee, the United Nations Special Representative in Angola, declared the elections she helped to oversee to be essentially free and fair, despite irregularities. In the post-election wrangling, an agreement was reached to hold the required presidential election run-off,