By Norm Dixon
Thousands of Angolans have been killed since National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) contras launched a military offensive following their decisive defeat by the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in last September's general elections. There is evidence of South African complicity in UNITA's return to civil war.
The elections were the culmination of a 17-month process following the signing of peace accords in Lisbon in May 1991. Until the cease-fire at that time, Angola had been devastated by civil war since 1975.
Throughout the war, the US and South African governments backed UNITA with money and sophisticated weaponry in an effort to overthrow the radical MPLA government. On several occasions, South African troops invaded southern Angola to support UNITA's operations.
Claiming the elections were rigged, UNITA pulled out of the newly unified Angolan Armed Forces created under the peace accords. Savimbi left the capital, Luanda, for the UNITA stronghold of Huambo province, where he began concentrating his military forces.
While the government continued to respect the cease-fire, UNITA troops occupied villages and towns throughout central, northern and southern Angola. By late October, UNITA had occupied more than 50% of Angola's territory.
Heavy fighting briefly erupted following UNITA attacks in Luanda and the central and southern cities of Huambo, Benguela, Lobito and Lubango in the first days of November. UNITA used tanks to seize government buildings in Huambo. In Luanda, police eventually expelled more than 2000 heavily armed UNITA guerillas in three days of fierce fighting that left up to 1000 people dead, including three senior UNITA leaders.
UNITA's offensive continued through November. Several provincial capitals fell, and large swathes of territory in many provinces were conceded to the renegades. Unsuccessful attacks were launched against Soyo, a crucial oil refinery town in the north that processes a third of Angola's oil exports.
The Angolan government was reluctant to launch a counter-offensive, hoping that the United Nations and the US would persuade Savimbi to rejoin the peace process. The Angolan Armed Forces remained in their barracks.
"Up to now we have [only] been defending ourselves against UNITA. We believe dialogue is possible ... but if there is no other solution we will enter into war", warned Angolan Armed Forces chief General Higino Carneiro in December.
UNITA has been treated with kid gloves by the UN and US. The election d as free and fair by international observers, the UN and US included. But UN monitors, charged with overseeing the transition to peace, refused to condemn UNITA's armed offensive.
UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, echoing a similar US suggestion, urged Angola's elected President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos to meet Savimbi in Geneva. Savimbi refuses to meet Dos Santos in Luanda.
"Mr Boutros-Ghali is effectively colluding with the UNITA leader's refusal to abide by the democratic process, which gave the MPLA 57.8% at the polls", wrote British Guardian correspondent Victoria Brittain. "There can be no justification for the secretary-general's putting the prestige of his office behind a US proposal that President Dos Santos travel abroad to meet an Angolan citizen who refuses to comply with the laws of his own country."
The US continues to withhold recognition of the elected government. On October 8, US assistant secretary of state Herman Cohen told Congress that Washington would establish diplomatic relations once the UN certified the elections "free and fair". The UN Security Council did this on October 30.
The intensity of the UNITA offensive was due to the belief that the new Clinton administration might recognise the elected government. Savimbi's aim was to topple the government or at least severely weaken it before January 20.
The government finally launched a counter-offensive against UNITA in late December and early January, regaining control of most of the towns UNITA had captured. Savimbi fled Huambo after his villa and headquarters were bombed.
However, the situation remains critical. Heavy fighting is continuing in and around Huambo, Angola's second largest city, while in other areas UNITA terrorists roam the bush, making periodic sorties into government-controlled towns.
UNITA overran Soyo on January 20, taking at least 17 foreign oil workers hostage. UNITA also remains in control of Angola's vital diamond producing provinces of Lunda South and Lunda North.
There is clear evidence that the South African government is aiding UNITA. Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe have lodged protests after detecting South African fighters and air freighters systematically violating their airspace en route to Angola.
SouthScan news service reported that between October 30 and November 2 alone, at least 50 South African C-130s landed in UNITA-controlled areas with cargo that may have included tanks. On November 13 and 14, 11 transport planes flew low over Botswana.
It is also suspected that South Africa has inserted its notoriously brutal Battalion 32, the "Buffalo Battalion", into the field inside Angola. Also significant are eaking mercenaries aided UNITA's capture of Soyo on January 20.