ANGOLA-POLITICS: UNITA DEFECTOR EXPOSES PLAN TO A RETURN TO WAR

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

CHRIS SIMPSON

LUANDA, Feb 25 1995 (IPS) - A DEFECTOR BRINGING INVALUABLE INFORMATION FROM THE ENEMY CAMP, A DESERTER SPREADING LIES ABOUT UNITA, OR A UNITA PLANT ENGAGED IN A CRUDE CAMPAIGN OF DISINFORMATION, THERE IS NO CLEAR VERDICT YET ON COLONEL ISAAC MONTEIRO CAPINDICA ‘ZAVARRA’.

ZAVARRA IS THE LATEST IN A LONG LINE OF UNITA DEFECTORS PARADED BY THE GOVERNMENT. THE MOST DISTINGUISHED AND DAMAGING TO THE MOVEMENT WERE UNITA LEADER JONAS SAVIMBI’S LONG-TIME ASSOCIATES TONY DA COSTA FERNANDES AND MIGUEL N’ZAU PUNA, WHO QUIT THE MOVEMENT IN 1992, EMBARRASSING SAVIMBI WITH ALLEGATIONS OF INTERNAL POGROMS AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.

ZAVARRA’S CLAIMS ARE, IF ANYTHING, MORE EXTREME. ADDRESSING REPORTERS IN LUANDA FRIDAY, HE ANNOUNCED THE EXISTENCE OF AN ELABORATE WAR PLAN DRAWN UP BY UNITA WHICH WOULD PLUNGE THE COUNTRY INTO CHAOS IF ACTIVATED.

UNITA’S NEW STRATEGY INCLUDED THE INTRODUCTION INTO ANGOLA OF 100,000 NEW TROOPS, TO BE AIRLIFTED IN VIA UNITA-HELD AIRBASES, THE USE OF SOUTH AFRICAN MERCENARIES ALREADY ACTIVE IN ANGOLA AND AIRSTRIKES ON LUANDA.

ZAVARRA CLAIMED UNITA’S PLANS WERE BACKED BY COUNTRIES ‘WITH INTERESTS IN DIAMONDS’ AND OTHER RESOURCES, NAMING BELGIUM, IRAQ, AND MOROCCO AS COUNTRIES READY TO BACK UNITA, WITH ISRAEL THE KEY SUPPORTER.

ZAVARRA, WHO CLAIMED HE LEFT ANGOLA’S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS STRONGHOLD OF BAILUNDO ACCOMPANIED BY FRIENDS AND RELATIVES BY ROAD ON FEB 19, SAID UNITA’S EIGHTH CONGRESS, WHICH FORMALLY ENDORSED THE LUSAKA PEACE PROCESS, HAD BEEN A SHAM. WITH THE CONGRESS FORMALLY OVER, SAVIMBI HAD CONVENED A MEETING OF HIS MILITARY COMMANDERS AND OUTLINED HIS PLANS FOR A RETURN TO WAR. “HE WAS DECISIVE IN SAYING THAT WE MUST BURY LUSAKA”, CLAIMED ZAVARRA. SAVIMBI, HE SAID, HAD CALLED ON UNITA ‘TO USE THE INTERREGNUM OF PEACE TO REORGANISE’.

PRIOR TO BAILUNDO, ZAVARRA SAID HE HAD SEEN PREPARATIONS BEING MADE FOR WAR, WITH NEW WAR MATERIAL BEING BROUGHT IN AND TROOPS GOING THROUGH FRESH TRAINING. HE CLAIMED UNITA’S CHIEF OF STAFF, GENERAL ARLINDO CHENDA PENA ‘BEN BEN’ HAD BEEN REMOVED FROM HIS POST A MONTH AGO, DESPITE APPEARING AS UNITA’S MILITARY SUPREMO AT A MEETING WITH HIS GOVERNMENT COUNTERPART, GENERAL JOAO DE MATOS, AT WACO-KUNGO ON FEB 2.

HE ADDED THAT FORMER FOREIGN AFFAIRS SPOKESMAN ABEL CHIVUKUVUKU, WHO SPENT TWO YEARS IN LUANDA AS THE GOVERNMENT’S ‘PRISONER’ HAD FALLEN OUT OF FAVOUR WITH SAVIMBI.

ZAVARRA SAID UNITA HAD USED ITS THREE MAIN AIRBASES AT NEGAGE IN THE NORTHERN PROVINCE OF UIGE, ANDULO IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE OF BIE AND LUZAMBA, CLOSE TO THE DIAMOND REGION OF CAFUNFO IN THE NORTH-EAST TO BRING IN NEW MATERIAL.

ZAVARRA WARNED THAT UNITA WOULD FIRST TARGET THE EASTERN PROVINCES OF LUNDA NORTE AND LUNDA SUL THEN MOVE WEST ON MALANGE. HE SAID THAT UNITA HAD NO INTENTION OF COMPLYING WITH THE LUSAKA PROTOCOL AND WAS USING ITS EXPERTISE IN GUERRILLA WARFARE TO HOODWINK THE UNITED NATIONS, WHILE NOT ALLOWING OBSERVERS INTO ITS AREAS.

UNITA PROMPTLY DENOUNCED ZAVARRA AS A FAKE. “THIS MAN WAS NEVER PART OF OUR CHIEF OF STAFF”, JOINT COMMISSION DELEGATE BRIGADIER ANTONIO URBANO CHASSANHA TOLD IPS IN LUANDA THIS WEEK. HE SAID ZAVARRA HAD SPENT THE LAST SIX MONTHS WITHOUT A PROPER JOB AT KATCHIUNGO IN HUAMBO PROVINCE AND HAD NOT BEEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS.

“THESE ARE THE WORDS OF A DESERTER”, HE WARNED, ADDING THAT ZAVARRA HAD CLEARLY BEEN MANIPULATED BY OTHER FORCES.

UNITA’S RADIO STATION, THE VOICE OF THE RESISTANCE OF THE BLACK COCKEREL, OR VORGAN, ALSO RUBBISHED ZAVARRA’S CREDENTIALS, A CHIEF OF STAFF SOURCE DESCRIBING HIS CLAIMS AS ‘UNFOUNDED AND RIDICULOUS’.

BUT THE ANGOLAN GOVERNMENT MADE IT CLEAR THAT IT TOOK ZAVARRA SERIOUSLY. SPOKESMAN FOR THE GOVERNMENT DELEGATION TO THE JOINT COMMISSION, GENERAL HIGINO CARNEIRO, SAID THE GOVERNMENT WAS NOT ‘INGENUOUS’. ‘THE GOVERNMENT HAS CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND WILL NOT KEEP ITS ARM CROSSED IF WAR BREAKS OUT’, HE WARNED. CARNEIRO CALLED FOR MORE PRESSURE TO BE BROUGHT TO BEAR ON UNITA, WHILE STRESSING THE GOVERNMENT’S TOTAL SUPPORT FOR LUSAKA.

INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS EXPRESSED DIFFERING REACTIONS TO ZAVARRA. “IT’S CERTAINLY GRIST FOR THE GOVERNMENT MILL IF THEY WANT TO EXCUSE THEMSELVES FOR DOING SOMETHING”, ONE SENIOR DIPLOMAT CLOSE TO THE PEACE PROCESS OBSERVED. “BUT DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH”.

BUT OTHER SOURCES CONFIRMED THE ACCURACY OF SOME OF ZAVARRA’S ACCUSATIONS WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING THERE WERE SOME WILD EXAGGERATIONS.

“A LOT OF WHAT HE SAYS RINGS TRUE”, SAID ONE LONG-TIME UNITA WATCHER. “IT’S CERTAINLY TRUE THAT BEN BEN HAS BEEN PUSHED OUT AND THAT UNITA IS REARMING”. HE BACKED ZAVARRA’S CLAIMS THAT UNITA WAS USING ITS AIR BASES TO GET MAJOR ARMS SUPPLIES IN AND DID NOT RULE OUT MERCENARIES BEING DEPLOYED. BUT HE WARNED THAT THE INFORMATION ON INTERNATIONAL BACKERS WAS ‘SENSATIONAL’ AND DIDN’T HELP ZAVARRA’S CREDIBILITY.

THE SAME SOURCE CONFIRMED THAT UNITA WOULD BE QUITE CAPABLE OF PLANTING ZAVARRA AS A MEANS OF SPREADING DISINFORMATION, OR BOOSTING UNITA’S STOCK BY PLAYING UP ITS MILITARY POTENTIAL.