Even though,it is a beautiful one.Keep them coming
Fro Freedom
saiks
>===== Original Message From The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
<[log in to unmask]> =====
>I hope this is not stale news.
>
>Momodou Camara
>****************
>
>VICTORY FOR ANGOLA: U.S.-PUPPET SAVIMBI BITES THE DUST
>By G. Dunkel
>
>When the news spread on Feb. 22 that Jonas Savimbi had been shot dead
>in an ambush by the army in southeastern Angola, the general reaction
>in Angola and the rest of Africa was one of jubilation. Savimbi was
>the most hated and despised man in Angola.
>
>His death was seen as a major victory in the 41 years of armed
>struggle that the Angolan people have waged against imperialism. It
>was hoped that peace--at least the end of armed conflict--could be
>near.
>
>The big corporate media--New York Times, BBC, CNN, Financial Times,
>the Washington Post--have called Savimbi "charismatic," "a leader in
>the struggle against Portuguese colonialism," "one of the contenders
>in a three-way tribally based struggle" for control of Angola, and so
>on. They claim he had ties to China, admired Che Guevara and had
>adopted "people's war."
>
>It is all spin. In reality, Savimbi was a puppet of U.S. imperialism
>in a war against the Angolan revolutionary government that left at
>least 500,000 dead, tens of thousands crippled for life by U.S.-made
>land mines, billions upon billions of dollars of material destruction,
> vast misery and a debt that Angola will spend decades paying.
>
>Capitalist accounts of Savimbi's life are full of distortions. For
>example, he was not an opponent of Portuguese colonialism, which was
>financed, armed and supported by the United States, a NATO ally.
>
>By the early 1970s, Savimbi's organization, UNITA, had a formal
>agreement with the Portuguese army for military cooperation in the
>struggle against the MPLA, which was leading the struggle against the
>Portuguese and currently leads the Angolan government. (See William
>Minter's book "Operation Timber: Pages from the Savimbi Dossier" for
> detailed documentation.)
>
>This is not just an interesting but minor historical footnote--it
>foreshadowed Savimbi's military and political agreements with the
>apartheid South African regime, the CIA and the most reactionary
>Reaganite wing of the U.S. ruling class.
>
>The MPLA, with significant aid from revolutionary Cuba, defeated an
>invasion by the apartheid South African army in 1975 that had been
>intended to put UNITA in power in Luanda. After that defeat, the CIA
>took over the care and construction of UNITA, while apartheid South
>Africa supplied the military muscle.
>
>The role of the CIA in Angola until 1978 is detailed in John
> Stockwell's book "In Search of Enemies." Stockwell was the CIA
>station chief in Angola but turned against the agency. While the
>connection of Savimbi to the CIA is well documented, neither the New
>York Times nor the Washington Post mentioned it in their recent
>articles on Savimbi's death.
>
>The struggle continued with ups and downs until the Angolans,
>Namibians and Cubans decisively defeated the South Africans at the
>battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1988. This defeat led to an agreement
>that involved the withdrawal of Cubans from Angola in return for the
>independence of Namibia and the end of South African invasions.
>
>After Cuito Cuanavale, the U.S., acting under the auspices of the
>United Nations, managed to put together two peace/election agreements.
>But every time UNITA lost the election, even when international
>monitors asserted they were basically free and fair, Savimbi cried
>fraud and went back to fighting. The only solution he was willing to
>accept was one that left UNITA in complete control of Angola.
>
>WHERE IS ANGOLA HEADED?
>
>Angola is a desperately poor, war-wracked, deeply indebted country
>with one of the poorest living standards in the world. Some 4 million
>people--one-third of its population-- are internal refugees. Yet it
>still supplies 8 percent of all the oil the United States consumes.
>This is a bit surprising but indicates one reason for the sustained
>and intense U.S. interest in Angola.
>
>Ever since 1992, when Savimbi pulled out of the election/peace process
>and restarted the civil war, the U.S. has followed a two-pronged
>strategy. It gave Savimbi enough money, or enough access to the world
>diamond market, to keep on fighting. At the same time it offered the
>MPLA government diplomatic recognition, development aid, access to
>U.S. markets for goods other than oil, and loans if it would make a
>deal with UNITA that Savimbi would accept.
>
>Of course, everyone knew that the only deal Savimbi would really
>accept was the MPLA's capitulation, but while this process was going
>on, UNITA had time and opportunity to regroup and rearm itself.
>
>Since the U.S. and the CIA were so closely and openly linked with
>Savimbi, a good deal of the political maneuvering that took place in
>Angola was carried out through the auspices of the UN.
>
>With the U.S. taking a two-pronged approach, two groups developed
>within the Angolan movement. One felt that an agreement with Savimbi
>was possible. The other--especially strong in the Angolan army (FAA)--
>felt that the only possible solution was to crush UNITA. After the
>last agreement with Savimbi broke up in 1996, the government adopted
>a "two-track approach" of offering dialog while maintaining military
>pressure on UNITA.
>
>Late in 2001, the FAA began a powerful offensive that swept UNITA out
>of traditional strongholds it had occupied for years and forced its
>armed units to begin retreating toward the Zambian border in
>southeastern Angola. As the success of the offensive became clear, a
>propaganda campaign was begun to blunt it in the name of peace.
>
>On Feb. 6, the UN press service IRIN ran an interview with Abel
>Chivukuvuku, a former political adviser to Savimbi. This interview
>gave Chivukuvuku the forum to propose a two- month peace process for
>the Angolan government and the UN to follow, premised on the
>recognition that a solution to the country's problems could not be
>military.
>
>The U.S., remember, is right now preparing to wage high- intensity war
>all over the globe, ostensibly because 3,000 people were killed here
>on Sept. 11. But Angola, which has lost half a million people in a war
>created and financed by the U.S., must allow its foes into the
>government in the name of peace. By this logic, George W. Bush should
>be inviting Osama bin Laden into his cabinet.
>
>IRIN reported Feb. 13 that the Irish development agency GOAL condemned
>what it called the "FAA's scorched earth policy." It didn't discuss
>how the MPLA government could protect its people against UNITA
>atrocities.
>
>The same day that the news of Savimbi's death broke, IRIN reported on
>a national conference of Angola's traditional leaders that called for
>an immediate cease-fire and the creation of a sovereign national
>conference to discuss the country's political future. This conference
>was sponsored by the Open Society Foundation, which is a creation of
>George Soros, the international financier, Wall Street tycoon and
> currency speculator.
>
>Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is due in Washington Feb. 26
>to talk to President George W. Bush, along with the presidents of
>Mozambique and Malawi, about regional security. Obviously, the
>direction of Angola after the death of Savimbi is going to be a major
>topic of discussion.
>
>Even if Angola can wrap up a 27-year-old civil war without any more
>major fighting, it is going to face major problems-- a completely
>devastated economy that needs IMF approval to borrow the funds it
>needs to start rebuilding. But the political price the IMF is
>currently demanding is a price that no poor country should have to
>pay.
>
>The armed struggle might possibly be over, but the general struggle
>will still continue. As the heroes of the African revolution against
>Portuguese colonialism put it, a luta continua.
>
>- END -
>
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>
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