UNITA 1976
Source: The Workers’ Advocate [U.S.] Volume 6, Number 3, March 15, 1976;
Extracted from The Workers’ Advocate for the MIA Africa pages: by Paul Saba.
Volume 6, Number 2 (dated February 1,1976) of The Workers' Advocate carried an item entitled: UNITA'S OFFICIAL POSITION ON THE CURRENT WAR IN ANGOLA. At that time only a partial text was available. The two additions belong in the middle and end portion of the statement. Portions missed were indicated in the original by asterisks.
FIRST ADDITION Continuing on from: As an example of this kind of popularity UNITA....enjoyed even in MPLA's birthplace and known stronghold - Luanda - was President Savimbi's joyous reception there by 400,000 cheering Angolans enthusiastically waving UNITA flags and banners. Comparable crowds greeting Savimbi and other UNITA leaders were occurring in other villages, towns and cities all over Angola during this same period.
It thus became crystal clear to MPLA and ominously clear to the Soviet Union, which has imperialistic and neo-colonialistic designs on Angola, that in any free and open elections held in Angola UNITA would win, hands down.
Only through military force could MPLA dominate the Angolan people all over the country, who did not politically support MPLA. Soviet weapons were then supplied to the extent necessary to make this domination possible.
Once this fact was unmistakably demonstrated through UNITA's mass rallies and other forms of popular support, MPLA began to attack UNITA offices all over the country, killing not only UNITA militants, but also more than 600 civilians in the process. On June 4, even as the Nakuru unity meeting was getting underway, UNITA's office in Luanda was virtually destroyed by an MPLA armed attack in which men, women and children were murdered; on June 10 a similar attack occurred in Gabela in the province of Cuanzo-Norte; on June 30 in Cassamba; on July 15, in Henrique de Carvalho; July 22, Kalabo; and July 30, Lukusse. After each such attack on UNITA offices until the last one, the MPLA leadership would apologise for the "mistakes of a few undisciplined MPLA troops" and make a treacherous pretense of continuing lack of hostile intent toward UNITA.
SECOND ADDITION Beginning from: By and large, they have not been to Huambo, Silva Porto, Luso or Sa da Bandeira to talk with UNITA leaders and militants, UNITA...
supporters or any other Angolans for that matter. Instead when they leave the beaches and hotels of Luanda, they do not come to Huambo where UNITA is headquartered, but to other places in Africa for second, third and fourth hand accounts and "reports" of what is happening in southern Angola. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to UNITA that the European press, including American correspondents, is quick to spread the Soviet-MPLA lie that UNITA is "an ally of South Africa".
THE DANGERS OF FURTHER SOVIET/CUBA IMPERIALIST INVOLVEMENT IN ANGOLA AND HOW TO STOP IT.
If the Soviet bloc continues its interventionist, imperialist path in Angola, it is easily predictable that the Western bloc will deepen its involvement here on a tit-for-tat basis. They will not have to be invited, they will come not in the interest of one liberation movement or another, or in the interest of the Angolan people, but out of pure international world order and politics.
If, like UNITA, peace loving peoples and governments of the world want South Africa out of Angola and do not want the rest of the western powers to intervene, then they must succeed in forcing the Soviets out also. Then, and only then, will it be possible for the Angolan parties and people to settle their differences internally. This is the goal that UNITA has always pursued, continues to believe in and is determined to fight for.
You see UNITA takes lightly neither its revolutionary history or self-reliance and independence, nor its name. We are rightfully called the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.
LONG LIVE THE ANGOLAN REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE THE ANGOLAN PEOPLE!
LONG LIVE A FREE ANGOLA!
For more information please contact:
T. C. Fernandes UNITA Inform-office,
35/37, Grosvenor Square,
London, W. 1. -end-