Mario Soares in 1975. Credit: Dutch National Archives

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Jan 10 2017 (IPS)

The death of Mario Soares, former Portuguese prime-minister, president, and historic leader of Lusitanian socialism, demonstrated just how united the Portuguese are with regards to his past and his historical projection.

Analysts, politicians and foreign journalists have also pointed out that the degree of Soares’ international reputation and prestige was never matched by any other Portuguese public figure.Soares became one of the central figures in the resistance to Salazar, and he was soon to share prison cells with independence leaders from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and former Portuguese India.

Even his most ardent political opponents have paid homage to him, naming Soares as the undisputed patriarch of democracy. For his role during the democratization process up until his death last Saturday at age 92, Soares was considered a kind of “Father of the Nation”, in its 1974 democratic-constitutional incarnation.

With his death, Europe says goodbye to the last of the great leaders that marked the second half of the twentieth century, a condition he shares with figures of the caliber of Willy Brandt, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monet, Jacques Delors, Olof Palme, Helmuth Kohl, François Mitterrand and Helmuth Schmidt.

During the 1950s the young Lisbon lawyer began to distinguish himself, as noted in a file of the International and State Defense Police (PIDE), the repressive arm of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar’s corporatist dictatorship. In the file, Soares is described as a “defender of communists and terrorists of the overseas provinces,” the official denomination for the Portuguese colonies in Africa, India and the Far East.

From defender to actor, Soares became one of the central figures in the resistance to Salazar, and he was soon to share prison cells with independence leaders from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and former Portuguese India.

He went through PIDE concentration camps in the former African island colonies of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, right before heading for France in a long and forced exile. This was to be his last residence before his return to Portugal with the triumph of the “Captain’s Revolution” on April 25th 1974.

During the ensuing revolutionary period pro-communist and radical military sectors took center stage, allowing Soares to side with the moderate left.

The political battle was settled by late 1975, as Soares defeated the most revolutionary sectors of the Armed Forces. The latter lacked external support in a Europe where Conservatives, Socialists and Social Democrats shared fears of Portugal becoming communist.

When PS won the 1976 elections, Soares became the first head of a democratically-elected government, famously admitting his tenure “for some time, will put socialism in the drawer.”

It was his role in the Portuguese democratization process that earned him the title of “father of the nation”.

Until the death of his wife Maria de Jesus Barroso in July 2015, Soares was lucid and in good physical shape. He was frequently spotted climbing the many stairs and alleys of Lisbon with admirable agility.

Over the years, he increasingly shifted leftwards and became critical of neoliberal globalization, while also taking part in public demonstrations against the Iraq invasion or previously against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for its attack on Serbia.

He never forgave Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder for promoting the so-called “Third Way”, which according to Soares dealt a fatal blow to the socialist and social democratic project for Europe.

His opinion articles, published weekly in various Portuguese media, were translated into Spanish by IPS columnist service and published in several countries.

The death of his lifelong companion was unbearable to him, sending him on a steady path of deterioration that increased on a day to day basis.

In a message addressed to the Portuguese government and Soares’ family, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Portugal “owes its democracy, freedom and respect for fundamental rights to Mario Soares.”

His legacy, concluded the UN head, “far exceeds Portugal’s borders,” describing Soares as “one of the few political leaders of true European and world stature.”

Analysts agree Soares’ main trait, which accompanied him throughout his life, was the he never shied away from a political battle. And in that battle, he always stood on the same side of the trench: that of democracy, freedom, and unconditional support for human rights.

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, May 18 1996 (IPS)

Government officials, church leaders and entrepreneurs from Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa are gearing up for a summit in July aimed at forming a Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP).

But Portuguese officials and diplomats from the five African countries where Portuguese is the official language are concerned about the less than active role being played by Brazil in the runup to the meeting.

Local observers say the Community, which aims to institution- lise cooperation among the world’s 219 million Portuguese-speaking inhabitants, could be affected by the internal bickering impeding Brazil’s participation.

There are differences in that country over the role of the “father” of the proposed organisation — former Brazilian Culture Minister Jose Aparecido de Oliveira.

Some have begun to doubt the future of the CPLP after reports in the Portuguese press that Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Filipe Lampreia vetoed De Oliveira’s candidacy to the post of executive secretary.

According to former Portuguese President Mario Soares (1986- March 1996), De Oliveira “is without a doubt the father of and driving force behind the CPLP.”

Analysts Jose Carlos de Vasconcelos, Luiz Alberto Braga and Carlos Albino, the top experts on the proposed Community, echo Soares’ opinion. They warn that without De Oliveira, the CPLP could be in danger.

The proposal to create the CPLP was confirmed following a flurry of visits and exchanges between Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio and leaders of Cape Verde, Brazil, Angola and Sao Tome and Principe.

Bishops from the seven Portuguese-speaking countries — Portugal, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde and Mozambique — meeting last weekend in Fatima, 160 kilometres north of Lisbon, stressed that “giving priority to language and culture” will be crucial for reinforcing “our common identity.”

Twenty-seven members of Portugal’s business community arrived on Monday in Sao Tome and Principe, an island off the coast of West Africa with a population of 140,000, which despite its small size “could open the door to an African area of 140 million people,” according to a member of the delegation.

Meanwhile, the president of the Guinea-Bissau Chamber of Commerce, Canjura Injai, visited Lisbon last weekend to invite Portuguese entrepreneurs to visit his country and identify areas for investment.

Injai pointed out that as well as investment opportunities in tourism, fishing and agriculture offered by Guinea-Bissau, its location between Senegal and Guinea — former French colonies in West Africa — “makes the country a crucial element for the expansion of investment by the Portuguese-speaking area.”

Guinea-Bissau, said Injai, could serve as the greater Portuguese-speaking business community’s entrance to the West African Economic Union.

While Brazil has taken part in all ministerial-level meetings leading up to the Lisbon summit, and a Brazilian bishop actively participated in the Fatima meeting, Portuguese analysts stress that the active role previously played by that country in the creation of the CPLP has diminished over the past few months, due to internal quarrels.

Added to that is the unfavourable impression left by foreign minister Lampreia during Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s visit to Portugal last year.

Asked about the violation of human rights in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor – where according to Amnesty International 210,000 people have been killed as a result of the Indonesian invasion that began 20 years ago – Lampreia said “it is not a good idea to irritate” Jakarta.

Lampreia’s position on East Timor, which is one of the main foreign policy concerns in Portugal, was supported by Cardoso. It caused a negative impression in Portugal and in the five Portuguese-speaking African countries, which have accorded East Timor priority as a foreign policy issue.

African countries’ mistrust of Brazil’s size and potential influence had virtually disappeared when De Oliveira, then- ambassador to Portugal, visited the capitals of the five countries in 1993 and 1994, and assured the heads of State that cooperation in the proposed CPLP would be “between equals.”

For diplomatic reasons, Brazil’s internal bickering is not openly discussed in Portuguese and African official circles. But on the condition of anonymity, sources from the six countries admitted they were concerned.

“Angola would feel very honoured to occupy the executive secretaryship of the CPLP. But are concerned that at its very birth, its ‘father’ – who is without a doubt Aparecido de Oliveira – may not play a key role,” a minister on the Angolan delegation visiting Lisbon told IPS.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, May 16 1996 (IPS)

Government officials, church leaders and entrepreneurs from Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa are gearing up for a summit in July aimed at forming a Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP).

But Portuguese officials and diplomats from the five African countries where Portuguese is the official language are concerned about the less than active role being played by Brazil in the runup to the meeting.

Local observers say the Community, which aims to institution- lise cooperation among the world’s 219 million Portuguese-speaking inhabitants, could be affected by the internal bickering impeding Brazil’s participation.

There are differences in that country over the role of the “father” of the proposed organisation — former Brazilian Culture Minister Jose Aparecido de Oliveira.

Some have begun to doubt the future of the CPLP after reports in the Portuguese press that Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Filipe Lampreia vetoed De Oliveira’s candidacy to the post of executive secretary.

According to former Portuguese President Mario Soares (1986- March 1996), De Oliveira “is without a doubt the father of and driving force behind the CPLP.”

Analysts Jose Carlos de Vasconcelos, Luiz Alberto Braga and Carlos Albino, the top experts on the proposed Community, echo Soares’ opinion. They warn that without De Oliveira, the CPLP could be in danger.

The proposal to create the CPLP was confirmed following a flurry of visits and exchanges between Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio and leaders of Cape Verde, Brazil, Angola and Sao Tome and Principe.

Bishops from the seven Portuguese-speaking countries — Portugal, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde and Mozambique — meeting last weekend in Fatima, 160 kilometres north of Lisbon, stressed that “giving priority to language and culture” will be crucial for reinforcing “our common identity.”

Twenty-seven members of Portugal’s business community arrived on Monday in Sao Tome and Principe, an island off the coast of West Africa with a population of 140,000, which despite its small size “could open the door to an African area of 140 million people,” according to a member of the delegation.

Meanwhile, the president of the Guinea-Bissau Chamber of Commerce, Canjura Injai, visited Lisbon last weekend to invite Portuguese entrepreneurs to visit his country and identify areas for investment.

Injai pointed out that as well as investment opportunities in tourism, fishing and agriculture offered by Guinea-Bissau, its location between Senegal and Guinea — former French colonies in West Africa — “makes the country a crucial element for the expansion of investment by the Portuguese-speaking area.”

Guinea-Bissau, said Injai, could serve as the greater Portuguese-speaking business community’s entrance to the West African Economic Union.

While Brazil has taken part in all ministerial-level meetings leading up to the Lisbon summit, and a Brazilian bishop actively participated in the Fatima meeting, Portuguese analysts stress that the active role previously played by that country in the creation of the CPLP has diminished over the past few months, due to internal quarrels.

Added to that is the unfavourable impression left by foreign minister Lampreia during Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s visit to Portugal last year.

Asked about the violation of human rights in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor – where according to Amnesty International 210,000 people have been killed as a result of the Indonesian invasion that began 20 years ago – Lampreia said “it is not a good idea to irritate” Jakarta.

Lampreia’s position on East Timor, which is one of the main foreign policy concerns in Portugal, was supported by Cardoso. It caused a negative impression in Portugal and in the five Portuguese-speaking African countries, which have accorded East Timor priority as a foreign policy issue.

African countries’ mistrust of Brazil’s size and potential influence had virtually disappeared when De Oliveira, then- ambassador to Portugal, visited the capitals of the five countries in 1993 and 1994, and assured the heads of State that cooperation in the proposed CPLP would be “between equals.”

For diplomatic reasons, Brazil’s internal bickering is not openly discussed in Portuguese and African official circles. But on the condition of anonymity, sources from the six countries admitted they were concerned.

“Angola would feel very honoured to occupy the executive secretaryship of the CPLP. But are concerned that at its very birth, its ‘father’ – who is without a doubt Aparecido de Oliveira – may not play a key role,” a minister on the Angolan delegation visiting Lisbon told IPS.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
PARIS, Feb 28 1996 (IPS)

The economic imperatives alone ensure the European Union will not allow rights issues to block its longed- for dialogue with east Asia this week. But gestures of support for human rights are a European habit, one not easily suppressed.

Europe goes to the landmark summit in Bangkok on Mar. 1-2, largely on Asia’s terms. “The summit is an event in itself, a recognition by Europe of the power of Asian economies and of Asia in its own right,” said Jean-Marie Bouissou, research director of the National Foundation of Political Science, Paris.

While growth in Europe averages at about three percent, the Asian ‘tiger’ economies have maintained GDP levels of eight percent since the mid-1980s. By 2000 Asia is expected to account for half of the world’s trade and one-third of the world’s production.

“Relations between Asia and Europe have reached a turning point,” says Juan Prats, Director General for External Relations at the EU’s executive Commission. “The Bangkok meeting will give a strong impetus to a future Euro-Asian dialogue.”

Entering the forum in the confident manner of ‘tigers’, East Asian leaders like Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa warn that “sensitive and irrelevant” issues like child labour, human rights and Indonesia’s occupation of the former Portuguese colony East Timor, should not be raised at the Bangkok summit.

And at a recent pre-summit meeting in Jakarta, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said if the EU raised such issues, he could think of at least “ten issues that could be seriously embarrassing to the European side”.

“Europe certainly has weaknesses with regard to the treatment of migrant workers, minorities, the aged, unemployed and victims of armed conflicts and displacement,” noted Vitit Muntarbhorn, a law professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

But the EU is undeterred. These questions are “difficult” but cannot be avoided in discussions with Asia, it says. “We are going to Bangkok with a constructive spirit,” said a Commission spokesman in Brussels, but “we intend to bring up all areas of mutual interest.” The question is, how?

“The sensitive subjects that cannot be raised during the official summit of heads of states and governments,” said Christian Lechervy, a French specialist on Asia, “will be taken up at more discreet forums including the post-Ministerial meetings.

“What we would like to do is try to enhance the understanding in a correct and accurate way about the importance of this issue to both sides,” said Shumpei Tsukahara, head of Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry, in Thailand this month.

Yet Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is still determined to raise the issue of Indonesia and East Timor at the summit. The French and British are voicing concerns about use of prison labour in China and child labour in other parts of Asia.

Resistance to placing trade ahead of rights is strong in Europe. “There exists in the EU a double standard in matters concerning human rights,” noted former Portuguese president Mario Soares this week, condemning the attitude of the EU’s “faceless technocrats”.

“It is lamentable that the EU cannot have a single moral line; one that would require us to condemn Indonesia’s invasion of Timor as we did Iraq’s attack on Kuwait in 1991,” he added.

“The truth is,” added Joaquin Trigo de Negreiros, a Lisbon analyst, “that Germany, the United Kingdom and France are banking on capturing the gigantic markets of Asia, so have no desire to arouse the susceptibilities of Jakarta”.

This is not quite so. Practices such as child labour, aside from being morally wrong, give child-employing nations a production cost advantage that Europe would like to rebalance.

Yet cynical advantage apart, Europe deploys a high-flown vision of union that requires its external alliances to be seen to be much more than a matter of cash transfers. Europe’s left-of-centre political parties also insist that the grand European Union project must be more than just a unbridled triumph for free enterprise.

“The grandeur of the European economic scheme must be matched by a no less inspirational social vision,” former Commission president Jaques Delors once told IPS. The EU expects no less from its external trade alliances.

But Trigo de Negreiros is not wrong either. Public concerns about labour or social rights have not stopped European private business from welcoming Asia open armed into the European and global trading environment.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Paris-based Centre for Studies on International Perspectives and Information (CEPII), notes there “is no real connection between the number of U.N. rights and labour conventions Asia ratifies and its integration into global trade as measured by its level of export growth.

“Except for the Philippines which has ratified seven of the nine basic U.N. labour conventions, the countries of east Asia stand out, both in terms of the low number of conventions they have ratified and in terms of their high levels of exports.”

Francoise Lemoine, an economic analyst with CEPII, further cites the example of trade between China and Europe, which has increased trade in spite the unresolved issues of human rights between them.

China provided 16.5 percent of Asian exports to Europe in 1979, but despite the human rights outcry that followed the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, China’s export share had increased to 18.1 percent by 1993. Similarly China’s share of all Asian exports to Europe rose from 6.5 percent in 1979 to 23.4 percent in 1993.

The U.S. experience with China in this field is instructive for Europe, added Bouissou. Unilateralism without dialogue led the U.S. to fail in its efforts to square Most Favoured Nation trading status for China with its domestic concern for human rights.

“The EU’s attitude of trying to start a dialogue with Asia must be contrasted with the U.S. attitude,” said Bouissou. “Europe seems to have learned from the U.S. debacle.”

Finally, a 1994 EU policy paper, Towards A New Asia Strategy, makes it clear that a failure of dialogue will only strengthen the hands of “those who view Asia as a threat rather than as a valuable partner” and raise the spectre of a trade bloc war.

As a result the issue of human rights will be raised, but diplomatically. In this the EU has the support of rights groups like the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

While it is extremely concerned about violation of workers’ rights in nations like China and Burma, it notes that other countries in Asia are gradually granting more rights to workers and it too does not want to see a “slanging match” in Bangkok.

Europe and Asia must develop a joint social agenda, argued the ICFTU’s Stephen Pursey. “There must be discussions on social and labour issues,” he said. “If not, this will hold up deeper relations between the two regions on trade and investment.”

Asia bought goods worth over 100 billion dollars from Europe in 1994 while Asian exports to the continent were valued at 145 billion dollars.

As a bloc, Asians now account for 23.2 percent of the EU’s total trade, ahead of the United States’ 17.4 percent share. These bottom lines will speak volumes at Bangkok.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Feb 6 1996 (IPS)

The new president of a body established to promote world interdependence and solidarity took up his position Tuesday, amid expectations his presence will see an expansion of its role.

Former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Miguel Angel Martinez, assumed the presidency of the North-South Centre based here by underlining its “important role”.

He stressed the centre’s role in supporting campaigns undertaken by the Council of Europe in favour of the struggle against racism and xenophobia.

Martinez, ex-leader of the Spanish Workers Socialist Party (PSOE), was elected to the new position in October. He replaces Vitor Crespo, a Portuguese Member of Parliament with national prestige but who is practically unknown abroad.

Portuguese analysts specialising in development cooperation affairs believe the activities of the NSC will considerably increase under Martinez.

“The North-South Centre will shift into high gear” with Martinez as its new president, says the influential Lisbon morning paper ‘Diario de Noticias’.

According to its own definition of its principles, the centre, which depends on the Council of Europe for support, is a centre for world interdependence and solidarity.

Members of the centre are Cyprus, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Holland, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden and Switzerland.

Lisbon was chosen as headquarters at the moment of its foundation in 1990 because it was considered the capital possessing the most characteristics which would enable it to act as a convincing “bridge” between North and South.

In his first declaration to the press on his arrival in Lisbon, Martinez said his ambition was to increase the number of member countries.

North-South Centre activities in the last few years have been concentrated more and more in this area of the world, to the point where it has been transformed “into a kind of centre of the Mediterranean,” despite the actual geography of its location, explained Martinez.

Its new phase will enable the centre to take advantage of Portugal’s long experience with Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Santo Tome-Principe, as well as increase its relations with Latin America.

The North-South centre “has already completed its initial running-in stage, and Martinez’ election demonstrates that the Council of Europe has decided to show its determination to give it more importance” commented the “Diario de Noticias”.

Another relevant aspect noted by observers is the fact that Martinez knows Latin America well and was one of the first Sandinista guerrillas to enter Managua in 1979.

The local press also recalled that the youthful Spanish revolutionary, Miguel Angel Martinez, fought side-by-side with the Dominicans against the U.S. Marine Corps when they invaded the Dominican Republic in 1965.

At the same time, his administration as president of the Assembly of the Council of Europe over the past four years has been distinguished by his tenacious action in favour of admitting the countries of the former East Bloc to membership of the Council.

Martinez’ performance in Portugal will be facilitated by the privileged relationships he enjoys with present government circles.

The Portuguese socialists of Prime Minister Antonio Guterres won last October’s parliamentary elections and repeated their victory a month ago by electing as President of the Republic the ex-mayor of Lisbon, Jorge Sampaio, who takes office Mar. 8.

Martinez’ busy programme for this Tuesday includes meetings with Guterres, with the Speaker of Parliament Antonio de Almeida Santos, with the new Mayor of Lisbon, Joao Soares, and finally with Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, all top Socialist Party leaders.

As is his habit, Martinez will be dispensing with the formality of wearing a tie despite the evident importance of these meetings. For him, a bare neck is a symbol he still keeps alive to remind himself that he once was “with a rope around his neck” in the prisons of the late Spanish falangist dictator Gen. Francisco Franco (1939-1975).

In 1959 he escaped from the franquist prison after having been sentenced to 19 years, a term longer than his own age at the time.

Martinez doesn’t easily give up his convictions. On a recent visit to London, not even the British conservatives succeeded in convincing him to put on a tie before being received by Queen Elizabeth II.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Jan 15 1996 (IPS)

The triumph of socialist candidate Jorge Sampaio in Sunday’s presidential elections has confirmed for the fourth time in the last two years that Portugal is decidedly moving to the left.

This shift has occurred despite the liberal market reforms which posted signs of progress in one of Europe’s poorest nations — but evidently failed to satisfy all the expectations of voters.

Sampaio obtained 53.8 percent of the votes, defeating the conservative candidate Anibal Cavaco e Silva with 46.1 percent.

The new president, who takes office March 8, will have the difficult job of replacing Mario Soares, who, according to Sampaio himself, “is the most important politician in the history of Portugal this century”.

Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio, 56, a lawyer, entered politics early. He was president of the right-wing students at the University of Lisbon, which between 1959 and 1961 was the centre of the first demonstrations against the dictatorship (1926-1974).

After graduating from law school in 1963, Sampaio began to defend political prisoners who were victims of the regimes of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar and later Marcel Caetano, who succeeded the dictator in 1969.

After the Mutiny of the Captains of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), who in April 1974 deposed Caetano, Sampaio founded the Socialist Left Movement (MES), from which he resigned this year over disagreement with the extreme leftist position taken up by his followers.

In 1975, Sampaio was a member of the government of pro- communist prime minister, Gen. Vasco Goncalves. As Secretary of State for External Cooperation, he was No. 2 man to then Foreign Minister, Ernesto de Melo Antunes, an army major who was leader of “Group of 9”, the so-called “moderate pro-socialist military”.

When the MFA split between the “Goncalvistas”, the Group of 9 and the left-wing of the party led by Major Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho in October 1975, Sampaio left the government and founded the Group for Socialist Intervention (GIS), formed by intellectuals of the independent left attached to Melo Antunes.

In declarations he made at press conferences in the course of the election campaign, however, Sampaio admitted and accepted responsibility for having voted for Saraiva de Carvalho in the 1976 presidential elections because, he said, to vote for the left- wing army major “meant reaffirming the values of the April Revolution”.

On Soares’ invitation, Sampaio joined the Socialist Party (PS) in 1978. The party elected him member of parliament in 1979. Ten years later he was elected its secretary general, becoming the PS leader.

In 1989 Sampaio was elected mayor of Lisbon with the support of the communists, the Greens and the radical left, a post which he kept till last year, when he resigned to stand for the presidency.

Sunday’s vote is interpreted by analysts not only as a clear triumph for the left, but also as a punishment for the policies of the liberal centre-right government followed for the past 10 years (1985-95 by Cavaco e Silva.

Another important factor in Sampaio’s victory was Soares’ extraordinary popularity. In fact, many electors decided not to vote for an ideology, but for the person who best qualified to become Soares’ political heir.

A third factor, noted the commentators, was that certain cultural aspects also contributed to the victory of the former socialist mayor of Lisbon.

The 10 years of “Cavaquism” were dominated by criteria of the liberal market economy, policies which, according to Soares, were dictated “by impersonal technocrats in Brussels”, who relegated to second place the cultural identity of this Euro-Atlantic nation.

The election results mean that in the the space of only two years the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Cavaco e Silva, despite its size, has suffered its fourth consecutive defeat. It shared power from 1979 to 1987, then governed alone with absolute majorities from 1987 to 1995.

The PS succeeded in becoming the main party in the country in the 1993 European parliamentary and municipal elections. Then in October 1995, it managed to win the Portuguese legislative election when general secretary, Antonio Guterres, became prime minister.

According to an editorial in the Lisbon morning paper “Diario de Noticias”, the PSD “defeated and weak, will tend to radicalise the opposition, with popular protest demonstrations”.

The most fertile territory for such a policy would be northern Portugal, where Cavaco e Silva defeated Sampaio.

Except for Oporto, the largest city in the north and the country’s industrial capital, where Sampaio emerged the winner, his conservative rival won the other districts, leaving the map of Portugal divided by the River Tajo, where Lisbon and its southern hinterland marks the frontier of leftist dominion.

Foreseeing a potentially explosive situation, both the victory speeches of Sampaio and Cavaco e Silva’s acknowledgement of his defeat appealed for the unity of the Portuguese.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Nov 25 1995 (IPS)

One out of three children in Angola die before the age of five, and one out of five do not reach their first birthday, according to a report by the Angolan Human Rights Association (AHRA) released here.

Life expectancy in Angola “is among the lowest in the world,” and the mortality rate “one of the highest,” states the document that was issued this week. And one quarter of Angola’s 11 million inhabitants are younger than six years old.

The AHRA blames that situation on civil war, “which for the past 20 years has devastated the country.

“Many of the country’s children live on the streets, consuming a low level of calories, protein, and fat, without access to basic healthcare.” A large number are orphans, while others “were abandoned due to economic reasons, or were simply separated from their families during the war.

“Street children survive by begging, prostitution or small theft,” while they “are victims of exploitation, as slave or dirt-cheap labour, and live totally outside the educational system,” the report states.

According to the United Nations, three wars, the first against the Portuguese colonial administration (1961-74) and two civil wars (1975-91 and 1992-94) cost some 1.1 million lives in Angola.

Nearly 90 percent of those deaths occurred during the second civil war, which broke out when the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) took up arms against the socialist government, refusing to recognise its victory at the polls in September 1992.

From late 1992 to November 1994, one third of the population was displaced, 200,000 children were orphaned and 300,000 people took refuge in neighbouring countries and Portugal.

An average of 94 children under five are killed by hunger, malaria, cholera, sleeping sickness, typhus, yellow fever and tuberculosis every day, according to the November report of the Portuguese non-governmental organisation International Medical Assistance.

And the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund points out that 24 percent of Angolan children are disabled or disfigured, and 95 percent have been exposed to shoot-outs, bombings and fires, which have left deep psychological damage.

Typical characteristics of Angolan children are fear of war, anxiety, panic, depression, insomnia, intolerance, disorientation, a generally sad personality and little interest in life.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Nov 25 1995 (IPS)

One out of three children in Angola die before the age of five, and one out of five do not reach their first birthday, according to a report by the Angolan Human Rights Association (AHRA) released here.

Life expectancy in Angola “is among the lowest in the world,” and the mortality rate “one of the highest,” states the document that was issued this week. And one quarter of Angola’s 11 million inhabitants are younger than six years old.

The AHRA blames that situation on civil war, “which for the past 20 years has devastated the country.

“Many of the country’s children live on the streets, consuming a low level of calories, protein, and fat, without access to basic healthcare.” A large number are orphans, while others “were abandoned due to economic reasons, or were simply separated from their families during the war.

“Street children survive by begging, prostitution or small theft,” while they “are victims of exploitation, as slave or dirt-cheap labour, and live totally outside the educational system,” the report states.

According to the United Nations, three wars, the first against the Portuguese colonial administration (1961-74) and two civil wars (1975-91 and 1992-94) cost some 1.1 million lives in Angola.

Nearly 90 percent of those deaths occurred during the second civil war, which broke out when the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) took up arms against the socialist government, refusing to recognise its victory at the polls in September 1992.

From late 1992 to November 1994, one third of the population was displaced, 200,000 children were orphaned and 300,000 people took refuge in neighbouring countries and Portugal.

An average of 94 children under five are killed by hunger, malaria, cholera, sleeping sickness, typhus, yellow fever and tuberculosis every day, according to the November report of the Portuguese non-governmental organisation International Medical Assistance.

And the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund points out that 24 percent of Angolan children are disabled or disfigured, and 95 percent have been exposed to shoot-outs, bombings and fires, which have left deep psychological damage.

Typical characteristics of Angolan children are fear of war, anxiety, panic, depression, insomnia, intolerance, disorientation, a generally sad personality and little interest in life.

Excerpt:

By 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

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By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Nov 9 1995 (IPS)

Misery, fear, insecurity, widespread corruption, wrecked economic infrastructures, galloping inflation and a precarious state of health have marked the two decades since Angola became independent on Nov. 11, 1975.

War, first anti-colonial (1961-74), then civil (1975-94), has converted this vast former Portuguese “overseas province” into one of the world’s most devastated countries and, according to the United Nations, the theatre of the most cruel armed conflict in the entire history of Africa.

The United Nations sets the cost of the two wars at 1.1 million dead, 3.5 million displaced from their traditional districts, 200,000 children orphaned and 300,000 refugees in neighbouring countries.

Analysts of the Angolan peace process agree that the goodwill of the leaders is not sufficient to ensure the start of a real national reconstruction effort in what was once one of the potentially richest countries on the face of the globe.

On the political and social fronts, the deep wounds left by 19 years of civil war will have to be healed so that the country’s economic reconstruction can finally get under way — by no means an easy task.

According to Planning Minister Jose’ Pedro de Morais, only by the year 2008 “and with a total commitment from the international community” will Angola be able to return to the economic level it had reached two decades ago, when 300,000 Portuguese left the country.

For two decades, UNITA’s heavy artillery and the government’s fighter-bombers have been vying with each other to destroy the whole productive tissue and the natural wealth of a country rich in petroleum, water, diamonds, fish, agriculture, handicrafts and livestock.

The mission of its leaders now is to implement the peace protocol signed on Nov. 20, 1994 between the government of Luanda and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), mediated by the United Nations and endorsed by the United States, Portugal and Russia, the three guarantors of the accord.

However, only the future meetings between President Jose’ Eduardo dos Santos and the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, can confirm whether what occurred in Lusaka was in fact a long step towards definitively overcoming the effects of two decades of war.

During the meeting of donor counntries organised by the European Union (EU) and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) last month in Brussels, Savimbi recognised Dos Santos as “the President of all the Angolans”, adding that it was for this reason that “I place myself at his entire disposition for the reconstruction of our country”.

Dos Santos replied by declaring that Savimbi “has a very important role to play in the future of our country, and starting right now, I immediately invite him to Luanda, making myself personally responsible for his security”. The statement was sealed by a warm public embrace between the two leaders.

The burying of the hatchet in such declarations of goodwill, however, has been overshadowed by an excessive delay in putting into practice the demobilisation of their respective armies.

There has also been undue delay in restoring the free circulation of citizens and merchandise throughout the country, in cleaning up the public service and in implementing badly needed emergency plans in the field of health.

Today, the survival of almost all of Angola’s 11.1 million people depends on international humanitarian aid. What is most important for a villager living in the interior of the country is to know that some non-governmental organisation (NGO) is taking, or is going to take action which can save him and his fellow citizens from dying of hunger or from epidemics.

The figures released by the Portuguese NGO ‘International Medical Action’ (AMI) to coincide with the 20th independence anniversary are higher than those issued by the United Nations. AMI claims that the dead may have actually reached 1.4 million, to which must be added 70,000 mutilated persons.

AMI has also charged that even today almost the entire export earnings of Angola are still being committed to buying weapons, while Portuguese analyst Fernando da Costa has deplored the fact that, between 1991 and 1993, national budget appropriations for health fell from 8.2 to 3.3 percent, and for education from 17 to 5.8 percent.

In the meantime, the scourges of hunger, malaria, cholera, sleeping sickness and typhus are daily killing an average of 94 children under five. No reliable figures exist on the total number of victims among the general population.

Hunger, according to Da Costa, is the principal reason for the alarming increase in delinquency and crime.

The capital, Luanda, was considered even during the war as one of the safest places in Angola. Today it is a high-risk city where hunger, fear and disease are the main causes of the spread of crime and corruption.

The average monthly wage is sufficient only to buy one meal a day. Whole families survive on a glass of sweetened water and a plate of seasoned rice a day. As usual in all wars, say NGOs working in Angola, children are the main victims.

Child prostitution is encouraged by many fathers, who send their 10 or 12 year-old children out onto the streets of Luanda to offer themselves for a dish of rice. “And as though this were not enough, they are regularly being raped, tortured and often killed by the police or soldiers,” says Da Costa.

U.N. studies indicate that Angola is the country where children suffer the most in the world.

According to Jose’ Luis Mendonca, a UNICEF (U.N. Children’s Fund) official in Luanda, 60 percent of the children have seen persons tortured and killed.

He adds that 40 percent have been subjected to beatings, prison, abuses, rape and kidnappings, 30 percent have been wounded by shell splinters, 24 percent are invalids or partially or totally mutilated, and 95 percent have been exposed to sniper fire, bombardment and fires.

In an interview with the Lisbon morning paper ‘Publico’, Mendonca said the children “suffer from profound psychological disturbances, anxiety, fear that the war will return, insomnia, depression, headaches and stomach aches, panic, disorientation, intolerance, sadness and disinterest in life”.

The children of Angola, according to Da Costa, have been marked forever by the Dantesque scenes which marked their everyday lives during the civil war. Their drawings depict bombs exploding, blood flowing copiously from wounds, babies crying, bodies dismembered and mothers hanged.

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By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Oct 2 1995 (IPS)

The Socialist Party’s (PS) triumph in Portugal’s legislative elections on Sunday is expected to bring a change in governing style, without any major shift in the present route towards integration with a Europe that increasingly pays homage to the free market.

PS leader Antonio Guterres’ victory speech gives a clear indication of this, and political commentators from the entire spectrum predict the same.

Never before in this country of 10 million inhabitants, with 4.5 million citizens living abroad, had Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa been paraphrased so often: “let’s change everything so everything remains the same.”

The surprise brought by the socialist triumph was “the severe verdict passed on the Social Democratic administration’s performance over the last four years, especially the executive branch’s leadership style,” stated Mario de Bettencourt Resendes, the director of the influential daily ‘Diario de Noticias’.

Preliminary results point to the best election in the history of the PS, which garnered 43.9 percent of the votes, and won 109 of a total of 230 seats in parliament, 14.6 percent more than in 1991.

On the other hand, the elections meant the worst defeat yet suffered by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) – that leans toward the liberal centre-right despite its name, and which has governed Portugal with that orientation for the last 10 years. The PSD took a mere 34 percent of the vote, compared to 50.4 in 1991.

The ultranationalist Right, represented by the Popular Party (PP), was the other big winner in Sunday’s elections, doubling its vote from 4.4 to 9 percent, while the communists’ share remained steady at 8.7 percent.

Meanwhile, voters dealt a harsh blow to the range of tiny minority parties, which took from 0.7 percent of the vote – the Revolutionary Movement of the Proletariat Party – to 0.04 percent – the separatist Partido do Atlantico of the Azores archipelago.

In order to govern without an absolute majority, the socialists will at least need an initial lack of hostility from the opposition, in order to get President Mario Soares to name Guterres as prime minister.

While a tallying of Sunday’s votes indicates that the left holds a majority in Portugal for the first time in 15 years, such a conclusion is merely a mathematical exercise, because the PS has never accepted the possibility of an alliance with the Communist Party (PCP).

Likewise, it is improbable that the PSD, a member of the Liberal International, will decide to join forces with the right- wing PP – which was rejected as too radical by the conservatives in the European Parliament.

Judging from Guterres’ speech, the key could lie in PCP support in aspects that differentiate the PS from the outgoing administration – in education and health – and from the PSD in terms of the reinforcing of Portugal’s integration in the European Union (EU).

Preparing the terrain, Guterres has already announced that his government “will be sensitive to dialogue with the opposition,” and will aim for “a new democratic culture, because holding a majority does not necessarily mean being right.”

At least within his party, Guterres – a 46-year-old electronic engineer – has demonstrated his ability to hold bickering factions together, in the face of in-fighting that broke out when Soares left the party leadership in 1985.

From 1985 to 1992, when Guterres rose to the head of the party, the PS had three general secretaries, and was plagued by major differences regarding policy towards Angola, where an influential sector of the PS headed by the president’s son, Joao Soares, supported rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.

After a major effort by Guterres – who has won the support of influential independent intellectuals – within the party, a newly united PS rose to the occasion on Sunday, winning the elections by a comfortable margin.

Excerpt:

By Mario Dujisin
LISBON, Sep 29 1995 (IPS)

The platforms of Portugal’s two leading forces, the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the opposition Socialist Party (PS) for Sunday’s legislative elections are so similar it is popularly said that the only difference between the two parties is the final “D”.

Polls, which show a 40 percent positive rating for the PS against 32 percent for the PSD, predict that the socialists will return to power after a decade of government by liberal centre- right Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco e Silva, who has announced that he will retire from politics after Sunday.

Meanwhile, Portugal’s political class is preparing to sweep the technocrats from power in the elections, in which all 230 seats of parliament will be renewed for four years.

It is “politicians” rather than technocrats who dominate the tickets of both the PSD and PS.

The last “politicians” to govern Portugal were former PSD leader Francisco Pinto Balsemao (1980-83) and current president Mario Soares, formerly of the PS, who served as prime minister from 1983 to 1985.

A fervent defender of the all-powerful market, Cavaco e Silva, an economics professor with a Ph.D. from the University of York in England, replaced Pinto Balsemao in the party leadership in 1985, abandoning the social democratic line and pushing the PSD towards the liberal centre-right.

But what has been dubbed “Cavaquismo” in Portugal began to lose hold in 1994.

And while in the 1991 legislative elections, the PSD garnered 50.4 percent of the vote against the PS’ 29.3 percent, that year’s municipal elections ended in a draw with 40 percent of the vote going to each of the country’s two largest parties.

In the face of such results, the prime minister left the presidency of the PSD in the hands of the party’s eternal second- in-command, Fernando Nogueira, in February, announcing his plans to abandon the realm of politics and return to teaching following the elections.

In those elections, after an intense three-week campaign dull in political terms but rich in publicity, Portugal’s 8.9 million voters will have to decide between candidates with differing personalities but similar programmes of government.

Any novelties have come from the two parties that hold a minority in parliament – the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the right-wing Popular Party (PP), which hope to break through the 10 percent barrier – as well as from the imaginative campaigns of two tiny groups from the radical left.

The policies of today’s Socialist Party, particularly in economics, have little to do with those followed a decade ago by Soares, an old anti-Fascist fighter and the historical leader of Portuguese socialism.

Concerned with market reactions, the socialists have done their utmost throughout the campaign to dissolve any possible doubts that their Marxist past has been left behind once and for all.

For example, frequent pacifying messages to large national firms and foreign investors have been forthcoming.

Meanwhile, the PS is seeking the popular vote in the name of improved education, better access to healthcare, stepped up crime- fighting and an all-out battle against corruption.

The PSD has wielded similar promises, while leaning on the experience it claims to have demonstrated during a decade in which – it claims – Portugal took great leaps towards becoming one of the European Union’s most developed members at the turn of the century.

And the novelties offered by the communists – PCP – have included the disappearance of the old guard party leadership and tickets headed by 30 to 50 year-old candidates who have heatedly denied accusations that the party is anti-EU.

In order to keep traditional communist voters from deserting to the small left-wing Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR) and Popular Democratic Union (UDP), PCP General Secretary Carlos Carvalhas mobilised 83-year-old Alvaro Cunhal, the party’s mythical former leader, who toured the country from north to south.

The PP, in the meantime – after having been rejected as too radical by the European Parliament’s conservative group – has come up with a strategy designed to attract the young, aggressive members of the new right as well as elderly Portuguese nostalgic for the country’s dictatorial past.

Attacks on the EU and ultra-nationalist references to the “glorious Portuguese epic achievements” since the arrival of Vasco da Gama in India or Pedro Alvares Cabral in Brazil, as well as praise of the de facto “Estado Novo” (1926-74) led by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, are the daily spice of the speeches of PP leader Manuel Monteiro.

On Friday, the day all campaign activity ended, a high-level PP leader proposed Adriano Moreira, a minister in Salazar’s de facto military regime, as candidate for next February’s presidential elections.

And besides the four parties that have traditionally been represented in parliament, polls indicate that the PSR or the UDP could each win a seat.

The PSR platform is attractive to the young: the party calls for an end to mandatory military service and offers to be a source of constant parliamentary denunciations of police brutality.

It also criticises “the EU racists,” while splattering city walls with graffiti proclaiming “Viva Portugal mestizo” (Long Live mixed-race Portugal).

The UDP has put forth several black and mulatto candidates, while leaning on the charisma of its leader, retired army Major Mario Tome, one of the most well-known leaders of the Captains’ Movement that overthrew the Salazar dictatorship in 1974, allowing a return to a democratic system of government in Portugal.

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