ANGOLA-CHRONOLOGY: Logbook Of Despair And Hope

By Mario Dujisin Reprint | | Print |

Mario Dujisin

LISBON, Nov 9 1995 (IPS) - Angola commemorates two decades of independence Saturday. The tragic drama played out over those long years has seen the hope of independence dashed by bloody civil war, stoked by superpower and regional involvement.

The resuscitation of that hope finally came with the signing of a peace agreement last year in Lusaka, Zambia, which is generally holding. Below is the chronology of Angola’s hard road to peace.

April 25, 1974 – Military coup in Lisbon. Left-wing captains organised into the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA) overthrow the regime headed by Prime Minister Marcello Caetano and President Americo Thomaz, who are deported to Brazil. The first proclamation of the MFA guarantees “not one soldier more for Africa” and declares its intention to dismantle the Portuguese Empire.

April 26, 1974 – The MFA designates Gen. Antonio Ribeiro de Spinola as President of the Republic and Gen. Francisco da Costa Gomes as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, dismissed months before by Caetano owing to his unequivocal opposition to the war in Africa.

July 1974 – Portugal officially recognises Angola’s right to independence.

January 15, 1975 – The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) sign an agreement with Portugal to hand over power in August to a tripartite government of transition.

August 29, 1975 – The governor of Angola appointed by the MFA, Admiral Antonio Alves Rosa Coutinho, announces the attempt to form a government of transition has failed. The first skirmishes begin between the three liberation movements.

Nov 11, 1975 – Rosa Coutinho, known at the time as the “Red Admiral” for his inclination toward the pro-communist wing of the MFA, orders the withdrawal of the Portuguese army from Angola and hands over power to the Marxist-oriented MPLA.

The MPLA declares independence and names Agostinho Neto president. UNITA establishes its capital in the city of Huambo, located in the central highlands of Angola, where its leader, Jonas Savimbi had installed his headquarters during the war for independence from Portugal.

1976 – Cuban troops participate in the first large-scale military actions. With this support, the MPLA routs the FNLA army led by Holden Roberto, who takes refuge in Zaire under the protection of his brother-in-law, Mobutu Sese-Seko. The MPLA, with Cuban help, succeeds in halting an advance towards Luanda by UNITA, supported by a South African armoured column.

1977 – Attempted coup d’etat against Agostinho Neto by MPLA hard-liners. The leaders, Nito Alves and Caetano Joao Jacobo, two legendary commanders of the guerrilla war against the Portuguese (1961-74), are executed.

1979 – Neto dies after a long illness in a Moscow hospital. He is replaced as party leader and head of state by the planning minister, Jose’ Eduardo dos Santos.

1980-86 – The civil war between the government and UNITA remains deadlocked. The rebels control parts of the countryside, government offensives towards Unita base of Jamba near the Namibian border repeatedly blunted by South African troops.

1987 – The South African army invades the southeast region of Cuando-Cubango (formerly Fim do Mondo). Joint offensives by the MPLA and Cuban commandos succeed in stopping the march northwards of the combined UNITA and South African forces.

August 1988 – Under strong pressure from the United States, South African forces withdraw from Angola.

December 1988 – Angola, South Africa and Cuba sign an agreement which makes the independence of Namibia, till then administered by Pretoria, dependent on the withdrawal of the 50,000 Cubans stationed in Angola.

June 1989 – At an African summit in Zaire, Dos Santos and Savimbi accept a ceasefire, which nevertheless collapses two months later.

April 28, 1990 – Lisbon announces the first informal and secret (until this date) contacts between UNITA and the Angolan government in southern Portugal.

October 26, 1990 – The MPLA approves the establishment of multiparty democracy.

April 28, 1991 – The MPLA abandons Marxism-Leninism and proclaims itself Social Democrat, continuing peace talks with UNITA in Bicesse, a Lisbon suburb.

May 31, 1991 – Dos Santos and Savimbi sign the Bicesse peace agreement, guaranteed by the heads of government of the United States, Russia and Portugal, as well as by the secretary-general of the United Nations.

September 29-30, 1992 – Democratic parliamentary and presidential general elections with an average turnout of 90 percent.

October 5, 1992 – Unita withdraws from the new national army claiming vote irregularities.

October 11, 1992 – Heavy fighting breaks out in Luanda between Unita and government para-military forces. Similar reports in Malanje, Huambo and Huila provinces.

October 17, 1992 – Official returns give Dos Santos 49.57 percent of the vote, short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round run-off with Savimbi who won 40.07 percent. The MPLA however gets a clear majority in parliament taking 129 of the 220 seats. By the end of October hostilities spread throughout Angola.

November, 1992 – By the end of the month Unita reportedly in control of two-thirds of the country.

January 27, 1993 – March 1 1993 – Peace talks convened by the UN in Ethiopia fail when UNITA refuses to attend a second round.

April 12, 1993 – Peace talks resume in Cote d’Ivoire. Unita refuses to withdraw from territory occupied and talks suspended on May 21.

September 26, 1993 – UN security council imposes an arms and fuel embargo on Unita.

November 16, 1993 – Direct talks between Unita and the government resume in Lusaka, Zambia.

November 24, 1994 – Signing of the Lusaka peace protocol