Angola Alert

 

The Rafael Marques Article November 9, 1999 Following is the English translation of the article by Rafael Marques, which appeared in Agora newspaper on July 3, and which is believed to have been directly responsible for his current incarceration in a Luanda jail. Marques is entering his 25th day of detention and he has still not been formerly charged under Angolan law. His detention is also illegal since it has gone over the legal 15-day limit the state is allowed to detain somebody without bringing them to trial. For further information, and earlier Action Alerts along with recommended action, please visit the MISA website at http://www.misanet.org . The Lipstick of Dictatorship - Rafael Marques [The title comes from the translation of the Portuguese word baton, which is a play on the word batão, meaning police baton. Earlier reports by MISA incorrectly stated that the title of the article was "The Big Stick of Dictatorship". RG] The regime is scared! Its mentors, as well as its intellectual wing are starting to cling to the war with despair. They can no longer mask that, in fact, they are the main instigators of the war in Angola. The main perpetrators of Savimbi's effect. The eternal blood suckers of the power. Two figures spearhead the regime's frontline of intellectual minders: Joao Melo and the grim Costa Andrade. Both are well known writers and MPLA Members of Parliament. They represent and embody the political evilness of MPLA. As there is no ideology and values nor any political , social, economic and cultural achievements to be proud of, both writers still find themselves in the socialist old days when they used to prosecute change and independent minds. Both of them still imagine having all the cards in their hands, whereby they can play and dispose of them as they please. In this regard, they have through their writings, forced the children of the poor and underprivileged to fight without any justifiable cause, but only to preserve their own complexities and private interests. Joao Melo, in his last week's opinion column "Multivisions", in "Agora", states that an independent peace movement coming out of civil society is an opportunist approach. The defense of the superior interest of the nation, as well as the well being of the majority is, according to him, naive and an expression of mediocre intelligence. Everything is clear now, this gentleman is what one can call a coward belicist. He wants war, yes! But one fought by barefoot people and applauded by the rich. Otherwise, he would have volunteered to join the army. Then, he could head down to the bush where he could express his patriotism by, at least, writing the letters of the illiterate soldiers. These soldiers, are as human as anyone else, and they no longer demand their underpaid salaries, forget about that, they would only like the chance to communicate with their beloved ones. This death messenger has not intervened, at any moment, to sensitize the elite and the minority group he belongs to in order to send their children to the military. Last April's military drafting targeted only the underprivileged. While the mixed race and the well-to-do blacks stayed at home or left the country. More interesting, is the fact that the majority of the top generals and power holders of the army are mesticos (Portuguese background mixed races) and whites, though these groups are barely seen in the military barracks. Therefore, the role of people like Joao Melo is more than evident. It is to defend the power for power, the ruling class, their wealth and privileged welfare, and damn the rest. Or better yet, send the rest to hell! However, perversity has its universities. Joao Melo skillfully manages to transform a ripped argument into true silk. "We must destroy the military machine of Savimbi". In fact, Jonas Savimbi, the UNITA leader, this son of Africa, so bright as imperfect, is not literally crucified in a public square because the regime is unable to put its hands on him. Why? Because the MPLA regime needs to cover its main handicap. Its main ruling weakness. MPLA and the Angolan president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, bare responsibility for the destruction of the country and the de facto disagregation of the State institutions. Moreover, Dos Santos is accountable for the promotion of incompetence, embezzlement and corruption as political and social values. For MPLA nothing is better than to raise Savimbi to the category of national obsession in order to hide Dos Santos' political and economic mess, and of those ones behind him. Definitely, Dos Santos is the most discreet and astute chieftain of the authoritarian regimes which have crossed and cursed Africa's history. In the country he is the highest example of anti-patriotic behavior. The model of anti-people's leadership. An Angolan writer, Jose Eduardo Agualusa, to better clarify the role of leadership and accountability in Angola writes that "Yes, Savimbi must be brought to trial. But, why only Savimbi? In the light of it not being possible to take all the war criminals, then, at least, their chiefs must be taken to court: Jonas Savimbi and Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Hence, the Angolan people want, above all, lasting peace, social justice and national reconciliation. Because, according to Martin Luther King, we will never get rid of an enemy by responding to hate with hate. "By its own nature, hate destroys and lacerates; by its own nature, love creates and builds. Love builds with its redeemed power". Neither Jose Eduardo dos Santos nor Savimbi, nor their puppets have such love for the country. This then brings up the need for the people themselves to unite and peacefully struggle against the war and its promoters. Joao Melo and Costa Andrade harbour a great scorn for the people. People must ask these MPLA Members of Parliament if just once they ever defended the genuine interests of the people in the National Assembly. To defend MPLA, because it is the only alternative for them to seek the "Passage to India", but not the majority of the people. As a matter of fact, these individuals have highly placed themselves in the political pedestal of the Angolan intelligentsia. In the Angolan context, intellectual recognition or space comes after political compromise with MPLA, otherwise it is just suspicion. How often have they used their verb to defend the values of the national culture and the traditions of the various people of Angola? In Angola, one thing is being an MPLA intellectual and the other is being an intellectual who cares about the country. The latter, is the one who debates about social and academic issues rather than interpreting MPLA's whims. Actually, the political program of MPLA has been transformed into UNITA's and vice-versa, at least in tautology. Though, when it comes to practice both MPLA and UNITA write in water. The persistence in the war is a pretense to cover up the dirt of the power holders. In order to erase from the collective memory the need for education, health, social equity, economic development and prosperity. Moreover, chaos and war propitiate the ruling of the country without internal contest. Particularly when it comes to the killings that undermine the "saint' image of the regime. Thabo Mbeki, the current South Africa president is an example of the regime's harshness. Who has had the courage to expose what Mbeki went through when jailed in Luanda, in Estrada de Catete, in 1983, along with other countrymen? Who has had the courage to bring up the issue that he had been forced to sign a document in which he had to assume a fake coup against Oliver Tambo? All because in 1983, 70 South Africa university students, who had joined the ANC struggle, were executed in the municipality of Cacuso, in the Northern province of Malanje. According to some sources, the ANC men were executed by the regime because they refused to fight against UNITA. The sources stated that the students believed that they were in Angola to receive military training and then to be sent back home to fight in their own struggle, and not to join another country's civil war. It is said that Thabo Mbeki protested, along with other ANC members, the killings, and for that he ended up in jail. In the same year, 26 other ANC members, from a group of 40 who were jailed in Estrada de Catete, were also executed. The survivors, Grace and Kate, are still around to give an account of their nightmare. There are many crimes to reveal and, thanks to God, Thabo Mbeki survived to become the president of South Africa. And he has reached out his hand to Dos Santos who, in turn, refused to attend his inauguration last June. Seriousness is in demand for Angola!

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