KWACHA UNITA PRESS


THE NATIONAL UNION FOR THE TOTAL INDEPENDENCE OF ANGOLA

UNITA

STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE POLITICAL COMMISSION

1999 - Year of Generalised Popular Resistance

 

 

STATEMENT

 

The Standing Committee of the Political Commission met in session in Bailundo, from the 21st to 23rd February 1999. It examined thoroughly the political and military situation in the country, emphasising the very dangerous developments related to the cancellation of the second round of the Presidential Elections. Also, the said war crimes law-suit protagonised by Jose Eduardo dos Santos. It concluded that:

1. The cancellation of the second round of the Presidential Elections is a move that has the sole objective of restoring in Angola a regime of a one-party state, dictatorial, oligarchic and military -

(a) Eduardo dos Santos wishes to impose himself upon the Angolans as the sole holder of power in the country.

(b) The right and duty of the candidates to run for the presidentials is personal and not of the parties, coalition of parties or group of citizens who support the candidates. This being the case, the candidate is the only person who must decide to withdraw from the race for the Presidency.

(c) Despite the obstacles created by Eduardo dos Santos and his strategies devised to stay in power without being elected, the UNITA candidate, Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi unequivocally reiterates his readiness to contest the second round of the Presidential Elections, which should be held as soon as the situation allows.

(d) The UNITA militants express their total and unequivocal backing for the availability of their candidate, Dr. Jonas Savimbi for the elections. They also wish to alert the national and international communities that they will fight with all means at their disposal to enable this important event to take place, for the sake of the nascent democracy in Angola.

2. Since 1975, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the MPLA armed forces and the police, committed crimes against humanity by the steady practice of acts of political and tribal genocide in Angola.

The following are examples of what took place in Angola and UNITA can produce documentary evidence to support the accusations:-

(a) In 1975, the pica-pau genocide in Luanda where the MPLA people's power assassinated 300 (three hundred) UNITA militants.

(b) In 1975, the MPLA armed forces with the complicity of a detachment of the Portuguese armed forces, carried out the massacre of more than two thousand UNITA supporters, on the bridge over the Kwanza river, in Dondo.

(c) In 1975, the MPLA forces murdered more than 200 (two hundred) UNITA militants in Kassamba.

(d) For a short period, from 27th May 1977, the MPLA armed forces carried out collective assassination of more than 40,000 (forty thousand) Angolans, accused of being factionists and supporters of the leaders of an attempted coup-de-etat, Mr. Nito Alves and Mr. Van-Dunen.

(e) In 1992, genocide took place in Luanda, carried out by the MPLA militia, the rapid intervention police and the armed forces. More than 30,000 (thirty thousand) UNITA supporters and Angolans of ethnic ovimbundu and many thousand more in other parts of Angola were murdered. Amongst the murdered in Luanda were, 4 high ranking Leaders of UNITA: the Vice-President, Geremias Kalandula Chitunda, the Secretary General of the Party, Mr. Adolosi Paulo Mango Alicerces, the chief of the UNITA delegation to the Joint Military and Political Commission (CCPM), Mr. Elias Salupeto Pena and the Chief of UNITA administrative services, Mr. Eliseu Sapitango Chimbili. Their bodies are still under the MPLA custody in Luanda.

(f) In January 1993, on a day known as the Bloody Friday, the MPLA militia, the rapid intervention police and the armed forces, carried out a selective assassination in Luanda of hundreds of Angolans of ethnic Bakongo.

(g) In 1994, the MPLA airforce carried out a deliberate bombardment of a primary school, in Waku-Kungo. More than 150 (one hundred and fifty) children were killed.

(h) From January 1993 until November 1994, the MPLA airforce bombarded constantly the city of Huambo, causing more than 3,000 (three thousand) civilian victims, the old, the women and the children.

(i) From April 1997, during the implementation of the extension of central administration, under the Lusaka protocol, the MPLA armed forces and the police murdered more than 1,200 (one thousand two hundred) UNITA personnel of its national structural organisation.

(j) Today, more than two million Angolans are displaced within Angola. They have escaped the massacres perpetrated by the MPLA forces during the extension of State administration.

(k) In 1998, the MPLA carried out selective assassinations in Luanda, of 150 (one hundred and fifty) Angolans of ethnic ovimbundu.

(l) In 1998, Monua confirmed the massacre of more than 100 (one hundred) business people, in Bula.

(m) In 1998, the massacre in Malange of 300 (three hundred) people: Angolans, Congolese and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

- The long list of more than 100,000 (one hundred thousand) Angolans, barbarically murdered by Eduardo dos Santos and his MPLA regime, represent beyond any doubt, crimes against humanity

The Angolans have a strong reason to start the proceedings, for a law-suit to be issued against Eduardo dos Santos, to be tried in the national and international courts.

3. The African Angolans issue a firm challenge to Eduardo dos Santos, to produce conclusive proof of his real place of birth and of his parents. UNITA has the right and duty to make available to the Angolan people, the information it possesses related to the true origin of Eduardo dos Santos.

4. UNITA reminds our beloved and heroic people of Angola that, throughout our history when we gathered courage and determination to fight for our independence, our enemies labelled us:

- In the struggle against colonial Portugal, we were called terrorists and they pledged never to negotiate with us.

- In the resistance against the Russian and Cuban imperialism, the MPLA and its masters called us Fantoches and swore to crush us.

In both cases, history contradicted them and gave us reason. Today the same causes are producing the same effects. We will win, history is in our side.

5. UNITA, representing the excluded and the marginalised in their own country, conscientiously and responsibly asserts that Jose Eduardo dos Santos, his regime and its allies, leave no alternative to the African Angolans but to better our organisation in all domains, multiply its fire power to bring down the oligarchic regime of foreigners led by Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

 

Forward ..... the Generalised Popular Resistance

 

Bailundo, 23rd February 1999

The Standing Committee