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XI. ANGOLAN CIVIL SOCIETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

If Angola is to achieve lasting peace, its people need to be able to move around freely and to be free to associate and express themselves as they wish. This kind of reconstruction requires cooperation between national, local, and provincial governments, NGOs, private enterprise, and international institutions. During the Lusaka peace process (November 1994 to December 1998) many parts of the country began to open up for the first time. As the Lusaka peace progressed, NGOs began to gain confidence and in 1997 and 1998 took part in a number of impressive human rights training efforts, although the U.N. did not encourage such efforts meaningfully until 1998. The return to war threatens once more to smother the progress over the last four years on rights education and protection. The major challenge for NGOs, the U.N., and the international community is to invest political and financial support in protecting these efforts from being completely destroyed by the current conflict.

Years of Repression

The space in which Angolan NGOs have been able to operate has been limited by elite domination, using the almost perpetual state of war as an excuse. NGOs with the perceived potential to oppose the government suffered their first dose of serious repression in 1977 after a short-lived coup attempt. The MPLA launched a considerable purge of mass organizations, notably the trade union federation and women's and youth organizations, of provincial organizations, and of the armed forces. Under the newly dominant leadership of the first MPLA president, Agostinho Neto, a rigorously orthodox Marxist-Leninist course was enunciated at the First MPLA Congress in December 1977. Although the MPLA showed some clemency to its opponents, several thousand people "disappeared" in the purge and remain unaccounted for today. As a result, mass organizations and local associations feared to be heard and seen.

Only slowly did the state allow nongovernmental organizations to be reestablished. Work in support of farmers, displaced persons, and shanty dwellers remained the monopoly of the government or party agencies until the end of the 1980s. The only permitted exception was for the development wings of church organizations, such as Caritas Angola and the Angolan Council of Evangelical Churches of Angola.

It is therefore not surprising that Angola's first non-church NGO, Angolan Action for Development, was launched in November 1989 with its main patronsdrawn from the MPLA political elite. AAD became quickly a favored channel for aid of northern donors and for a number of years dominated the NGO scene.

After the Bicesse accords in 1991 the Angolan government allowed the formation of local NGOs. In May 1991 the government passed legislation recognizing the rights of political parties, the freedom of assembly and association, the right to strike, and freedom of the press. Restrictions on domestic travel and curfews were also lifted. This resulted in numerous Angolan NGOs being formed, including neighborhood groups, trade and professional organizations, environmental committees, women and youth organizations, and charities. Business organizations, too, were newly allowed to be formed. By early 1992 a large number of local development associations had been formed in the provinces also, groups like "Friends of Nambuangongo" and the "Association of Natives and Friends of Libolo." How deeply rooted in their communities or how open these organizations were was difficult to gauge during this period, as such local groups multiplied by the month. Most were (and still are) oriented towards the needs for emergency aid, given the renewal of the war in 1992. By 1991 most of the "old" organizational structures, such as "residents committees" have become discredited and dysfunctional, and state control at local level was in rapid decay. They were replaced by the boom in emerging associations, community based organizations, and NGOs. A reason for this was that the churches for the first time could register associations that existed long before 1991. Such groups had provided private health and educational facilities in the musseques-the shanty towns- for a number of years, able to operate informally only because their links to a church gave them some security. By late 1991 the number of Angolan NGOs had grown to the point that two networks had established: FONGA (Forum of Angolan NGOs) and CONGA (Committee of Nongovernmental Organizations in Angola, which also permitted international NGO membership).

Although the government launched its bill of rights within a revised constitution at a multiparty conference held in Luanda in January 1992, these rights have remained on paper to date. The government after 1992 allowed the judicial system to continue to decay and the rule of law is absent from much of Angola. As one local Angolan NGO worker said, "the law is only used against us. It never defends us against the abuses of authority which we see daily."95

Although the constitution also provides for freedom of association and assembly, in practice the government controls both tightly. Union leaders such as Miguel Filho of SINPROF, the Angolan teacher's union, were in early March 1997 held at gunpoint by armed men believed to have been government agents androbbed of all papers and possessions,-in the context of a series of strikes and demonstrations. Efforts to intimidate Miguel Filho have not stopped:

Things have got a bit more quiet in the last few months. On March 28, 1998, my apartment was broken into and seven individuals wearing army uniforms stole the generator and sifted through my papers. My wife has also been threatened a number of times since, by unknown people warning her that being with me is dangerous. I have arranged for her to go to Zimbabwe for safety. Our membership in the provinces has also suffered in Malanje and Luena, our officials have been arrested for attempting to peacefully protest at the poor conditions teachers are under.96

Reports of such incidents are commonplace.

The government's response to this situation has been to try to regain control over what groups of people do through its security services. The government's internal security network, the Serviço de Informação (Sinfo), has in particular increased its influence since 1996, recruiting across the country and developing strong networks of informers. It reports to the Interior Ministry. Unlike much else in government it appears to have become more efficient. Sinfo is also reportedly used by ministers for commercial intelligence gathering. According to the U.S. State Department, Sinfo, also conducts surveillance, including wire tapping in its monitoring of groups-particularly journalists, opposition party leaders, members and suspected sympathizers of UNITA, National Assembly deputies, and foreign diplomats.97

Many senior government and UNITA officials showed little inclination towards building democracy or a culture of human rights. Provincial governors, who are appointed by the head of state, often acted as if they were running local fiefdoms, while several were notorious for their chronic absenteeism. In addition to not being accountable to their respective populations, the provincial, municipal, and communal governments had no fiscal resources of their own and depended on allocations from central government. The result is that local government is often discredited and ineffective. The creation of an accountable system of provincial and local government would have helped consolidate peace, by providing a framework for effective political participation. It would also have helped to end the sense ofalienation and frustration that is found in many parts of the country over the behavior of central government.

Human Rights and NGOs
George Chikoti, the vice-minister for foreign affairs, said in September 1997:

the human rights situation is a very bad one in Angola in general. A lot of improvement has to be made. Angola is in transition from war to peace. The country does not have full administration of its territory. Furthermore, it is moving from a highly centralised one-party state system, and the democratic transition is not part of Angola's traditions.98

The United States' National Democratic Institute (NDI) in 1997 surveyed people's understanding of democracy, the functions of local government, human rights, and the process of reconciliation at local and national levels. The findings surprised NDI by showing a high degree of understanding of the basic principles of human rights. Freedom of expression and freedom of circulation of goods and persons were judged to be the rights most commonly infringed in Angola. NDI was also surprised to find that most Angolans interviewed understood human rights to encompass economic and social rights. One interviewee said, "[t]here are no human rights because we don't have enough to eat and we are poor."99 Those interviewed ranked the rights to housing, basic salary, and education as important, while coexistence and tolerance were understood to be important for democracy.

Human Rights Advocacy

Angolan civil society has been weak in its efforts to publicize or lobby on human rights abuses, although some church groups have shown interest in more actively defending human rights. In one initiative, the Dominican order in 1977 opened their Mosaiko Cultural Center just outside Luanda, one of the key activities of which is the promotion of justice and human rights. The center aims to act as a resource center for reports on human rights in Angola and as a venue for forums for discussion on human rights issues. The center has also started to engage inoutreach missions to educate people around the country about their rights and has been working with prisons and the military.100 In January 1998 the center issued its first newsletter on human rights and it was also responsible for publishing two-page spreads on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Catholic monthly newspaper Apostolado throughout 1998, as well as a book on the declaration and its relevance to Angola. Fr. Domingos of Mosaiko explained that many NGOs interested in rights issues believed that, "you [Human Rights Watch] and other international NGOs have the role of exposing and disseminating what is wrong. We can't do that-our role for the foreseeable future is to toil the soil and plant the seeds for a future Angola where a culture of human rights can flourish. It will take decades to see these initiatives bare good fruit. But one has to be patient."101

As described above the Forum of Angolan Nongovernmental Organizations (FONGA), was formed in 1991 and has tried to act as a coordinator among local NGOs such as Action for Rural Development and the Environment (ADRA), the Angolan Aids Committee (AALSIDA), and Angolan Action for Development (AAD). It also supports smaller organizations such as the Kimbangista church association and ACM ( the Angolan YMCA).102 Many of these grassroots associations are very fragile: having no paid staff, they rely on volunteers and have no funds beyond what their membership provide. They also lack experience in managing projects and writing fund-raising proposals but despite these handicaps they can play an important role in improving the life of those in their immediate surroundings. "We are not very experienced in how to organize and look always for help. We also find our members worry about us becoming too controversial," said Alexandre Adão, who works for an Anglican church association.103

It is important that these local structures get outside encouragement and support. These are the green shoots of an emerging civil society of people who have decided not to allow the political elites to dominate.104 The war has long beena pretext for the ruling elites to disregard the desire of ordinary people for greater accountability; increasingly a younger generation of Angolans are refusing to be intimidated by the old system. They seek a pluralist, participatory democracy, not just another party taking over from the MPLA or UNITA. It will take time, as many groups have low self-esteem and lack experience in organizing around issues. Those that get too vocal too quickly find themselves threatened by the state and their members coopted or intimidated into compromise. One such Angolan NGO worker explained:

We tried to point out about government corruption and passed on information to Folha 8. But we found this gave us more problems. To be without problems, you need to be silent.105

Therefore many Angolan NGOs are careful about what they say in public, especially "on the record." Privately, they are more open. A number of indigenous NGOs and associations asked to provide information to Human Rights Watch did so only on condition that their identity be withheld. They still fear the government's and UNITA's hand.

Repression has made many Angolans cautious on what they do in public. When they seek minimal rights for their families and communities, it is often at great risk to themselves. When they have acted collectively to promote basic civil and socio-economic rights, they have been met with suspicion and hostility by the authorities. International and domestic journalists, embassies, churches, commercial companies, and donor agencies can all assist in protecting these brave initiatives when they come under threat.

As part of a wider crackdown on civil society, the government announced on April 20 that it planned to regulate what it termed the "anarchic" activities of national and foreign nongovernmental organizations working in the country. "Many nongovernmental organizations do not want this control and this is anarchy. Those who come to help the Angolan people must do so within parameters established by the government," the director of the Welfare Department, Damasio Dinis said.106

NGO Human Rights Activities

Several Angolan NGOs working in the human rights field identify their focus as "civic education," a term considered less controversial than "human rights." The Angolan organization Action for Rural Development and the Environment (ADRA), for example, linked up with the Association of European Parliamentarians for Action on [Southern] Africa (AWEPA) to organize workshops in 1996 and 1997 to promote civic education and increase knowledge of the provisions of the Lusaka Protocol. ADRA's civic and education program in the provinces of Luanda, Benguela, Huila, and Malanje was funded by AWEPA until August 1998. During 1997, ADRA held workshops in four provinces to introduce the program to the local authorities. The workshops included discussions on what are human rights; civil-political relations; and peace and national reconciliation. A second phase was to train people selected from their own communities to continue the work. However, the war has limited these plans.

In late 1996 FONGA launched a conflict-resolution program utilizing the experience of South African and Mozambican organizations in mediation and peacebuilding; it received assistance from the South African-based Institute of Mediation Services (IMSSA).107 FONGA on August 14, 1998 issued an open letter saying war was not inevitable if civil society, progressive members of government, and UNITA united to work for peace.108 "If you want a culture of human rights, you need peace. There is no military solution to the Angolan question," Francisco Tunga Alberto told Human Rights Watch in Luanda.109

Some of the more established Angolan NGOs are now in a position to provide some support to emerging Angolan NGOs. In 1997, Namibia's National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) trained eight Angolans to become human rights monitors, with a grant from the European Human Rights Foundation. However, Manuel Neto, executive director of the then newly formed Windhoek-based Angolan Human Rights League (LADH), was arrested on May 18, 1998 by the Namibian authorities. His whereabouts were initially unknown, although ten days later the Namibian authorities announced they had deported him to Angola because heconstituted a "threat to national security."110 He is currently in Lubango. When LADH was launched in April 1998 and registered in Namibia it was immediately denounced by the Angolan embassy in Windhoek as a mouthpiece for UNITA. The summary deportation of Neto was condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch because he had been given refugee status by the Namibian authorities.

The Angolan Campaign to Ban Landmines (CABM) was launched in November 1996 and in 1997 was active in campaigning against landmines, collecting 60,000 signatures in a petition calling for an total ban.111 The CABM has also organized exhibitions in Kuito, Malanje, and Lubango and was active in lobbying National Assembly members. However, its members are afraid to expose or investigate reports of continued government use of landmines. In addition, they found many members of the general public were too frightened to put their signature on the petition. The Angolan government supported the Ottawa process that produced the treaty and signed the ban treaty in December 1997 but has since been responsible for laying new mines.

Challenges Facing NGOs

Angolan organizations face a range of interlinking challenges in the areas of development, conflict resolution, and human rights, often involving access to resources, political exclusion, a lack of knowledge of even their elementary rights, and the lack of transparency in the political process. Development Workshop, an NGO that has worked in Angola since 1983, has been working to improve the self-confidence of fishers and market traders who have previously known little either of their basic political rights, or how to negotiate with the government. Development Workshop started off by offering training in selling produce, bookkeeping, in dealing with market police wanting bribes, and in addressing domestic violence. In doing so this NGO tried to find out how the musseque-shanty town-dwellers themselves managed to deal with these problems and how to integrate rights issues in a meaningful way, where people's daily priority is just surviving. In January 1998 Development Workshop launched a concept paper, on the "Angola-Urban Land Rights Project," which aimed to set up programs of research and public awareness on issues, policies, and lawsregulating access to urban land. This acknowledged that land, and rights to land, were emerging as potentially explosive issues. It concluded that land is being privatized arbitrarily and that it was becoming increasingly difficult to establish who has rights over what.112

Development Workshop also drew up a concept paper for an Angola Peacebuilding Program in late 1998 in an effort to have Angolan civil society initiatives fill the gap where international mediation efforts failed. The paper argued that the:

international peace brokers largely ignored the potential role of national non-state institutions such as the churches and civil society during the period since the signing of the Lusaka Accord. Notable exceptions are FONGA's Canada Fund supported initiative to bring NGOs and associations from UNITA controlled areas into the national NGO forum through training workshops in Bailundo (UNITA's heartland); and the Angolan Churches' efforts to bring their politically dispersed constituencies together in a country wide ecumenical peace movement (EDICA).113

Role Of The Churches

Some churches are also involved in civic education and conflict resolution work including discreet human rights education.114 The churches started to speak out on rights issues in 1989. In November that year, the Roman Catholic bishops issued a letter, read in all churches, calling on UNITA and the MPLA to stop the war and hold free elections. Two months later, the Angolan Civic Association (ACA) was formally launched under leadership closely linked to the Catholic church. At the top of its agenda were practical good works and efforts to persuade both sides in the conflict to respect human rights. Although the governmentinitially tried to outlaw the ACA, it relented in early 1991 and the association was legalized.115

The churches have also experienced a steady growth in membership since 1991 with congregations expanding. Despite the government's hostility to church involvement in "politics," the churches continued to raise their concerns. An initiative of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola (CICA) and Alliance of Evangelicals of Angola (AEA) in 1993 led to the first Meeting of Christian Churches of Angola (EDICEA) in September 1995, with 400 participants, although UNITA areas were not represented.116 The church leaders appealed to the government and UNITA to speed up implementation of the Lusaka accord, and also called upon church leaders to set an example by remaining nonpartisan.117

A spin-off of this initiative was that CICA and AEA began producing regular radio programs discussing the need for citizen's rights and democracy and the need for tolerance and reconciliation. Both have also tried to disseminate this message through community gatherings and visual materials. According to Rev. Malungo Pedro, General Secretary of the Evangelical Church in Angola (IERA), however, follow up has proved difficult, masking a less than full-blooded church commitment to these issues. About 8,000 believers took part on September 28, 1997 in a thanksgiving service in Luanda for peace in Angola. Organized by the Union of Churches of the Holy Spirit in Angola (UIESA), the service was held simultaneously in ten provinces. In April 1998, Church Action in Angola held a major conference on civil society and the state which discussed human rights issues.

The Catholic Church is also raising rights issues, especially through its radio station, which resumed broadcasting in 1997 after the transmitter, expropriated by the government in 1977, was returned. This radio station, Rádio Ecclesia, broadcasts a series on human rights, including programs on prisons, landmine victims, the right to freedom of expression and trade unions. It is also set up a website for news.118 The Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice in Luanda would like to become more active, but lacks funds and office equipment. On October 30, 1997, the Angolan bishops published a pastoral letter in which they condemned "extravagant arms purchases" although they avoided specifying who they were talking about.

On July 14, 1998, 40,000 Angolans from different denominations gathered at the national stadium in Luanda at a rally organized by the Catholic Church, the Protestant church alliance CICA, and the evangelical churches, AEA, to pray for peace in their country and issued a public statement on behalf of the ecumenical alliance, EDICA, calling for extra efforts by all interested parties to avoid a renewed war and stop human rights abuses. Ten days later the Catholic Church issued a pastoral newsletter urging the government and UNITA to return their attentions to the peace process.119

With the country back at war in 1999 the churches have been bolder than in the past in their calls for peace and an end to human rights abuses. The Catholic Church issued a strongly worded pastoral letter, stating flatly that the war did not represent the people's voice or the people's interest, that both sides neglected the welfare of their troops, and that the troops on both sides stole from the people.120 They appealed to the NGOs and the international community not to abandon the Angolan people in their hour of need.121 The pastoral newsletter was published after a special assembly of the Catholic church. It announced the launch of a peace movement, "Movimento Pro Pace," because, "hate has reached the level that whole villages are burnt down with people inside their own homes, we have a terrible fear of what this war will do next."122 On March 14, the Pro-Pace movement called on both the government and UNITA to negotiate. March 14 was named as the National Day for Reconciliation and all priests and catechists were called to observe it. A number of bishops called for the movement to grow outside the church, to include politicians, so that "a new mentality in this country can be created that values peace."123

A number of Catholic bishops have subsequently called for reconciliation and condemned human rights abuses. On April 7, Francisco da Mata Mourisca, bishop of Uige, said there have been "violations of human rights" in the rebel-controlled districts of Damba, Maquela do Zombo, Quimbele, Sanza Pombo, and Alto Cauale.124 He also appealed to government forces and UNITA rebels to facilitate the movement of priests in the region. A few days later Bishop José Nambi in Kuito urged reconciliation through a "solid education in human values."125

Angola's Roman Catholic bishops strongly reprimanded the government and UNITA on July 27 in a statement released on July 27. The conflict "has become a twice-deadly organization-it kills with weapons and kills with hunger," the conference of bishops said at the end of its congress in Lubango. Indiscriminate attacks on civilians and aid workers were acts of "cowardly banditry," the statement added. They also called for the opening of "peace corridor," criticizing those who provided weapons to the Luanda government and UNITA rebels, holding arms suppliers partly responsible for a conflict they said is fed by greed for Angolan petroleum and diamonds.126

A Protestant-based peace initiative has also emerged. On April 2, 1999, in four Luanda newspapers, two evangelical pastors, a journalist, and an academic- Daniel Ntoni Nzinga (American Friends Society), Filomeno Vieira Lopes (academic), Francisco Tunga Alberto (FONGA), Rafael Marques (Open Society Foundation), and Carlinhos Zassala-published an open letter, "Paz Pela Via do Dialogo," and called themselves the Angolan Reflection Group for Peace.127 On July 15 the organizers launched a "Manifesto for Peace" in what they claim is the first civilian-led push for peace. They have collected 147 signatures and hope to have many thousands by the end of the year.128

A third peace initiative was launched by sixty NGOs and church members on August 5. The Angolan Group for the Promotion of the Culture of Peace (GAP)called for an "internal mediation commission" to broker an end to the civil war and vowed to "mobilize the institutions of civil society and the people."129

When the Seventh-day Adventist Church gathered in Luanda to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its mission in Angola, in January 1999, it held a seminar on freedom of conscience and religion. According to Vasco Cubenda, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Angola, this was "the first time such a seminar has been held in Angola since 1924." The seminar dealt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the issues of religious freedom in Europe and Angola.130

The International Role

Since 1995 international efforts in support of conflict resolution and human rights initiatives have mushroomed. Many of these initiatives have done nothing to find what local communities want. Few feasibility studies involving grassroots consultation are known to have been carried out, giving the impression that a number of international NGOs have started up Angola programs because funds were easily available. A feature of these efforts has been a concentration on urban areas and the holding of conferences, seminars, and workshops.

Two U.S.-based organizations, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute, provided parliamentary training and training in political party development. IRI's project began in late 1996 under a two-year $2 million cooperative agreement with USAID.131 The program had some success, improving the level of debate in the assembly. However, voting always remained along party lines. It is worth noting that during the August 1997 debate on the national budget, the assembly passed a resolution criticizing the Council of Ministers for the small amount spent on health and education, in contrast to defense. In January 1998 parliamentarians from both UNITA and the MPLA again questioned the need for such a high military budget. The government's decision in March 1998 to halt broadcasts of national assembly debates suggested that the program was taking effect.

The U.S. government agencies, USAID and the U.S. Information Agency, also funded a Voice of America operation in Angola, which included journalism training for reporters and managers. Through this government's Democracy and Human Rights Fund, the U.S. embassy in Luanda is endowing a chair in human rights studies at the Agostinho Neto University, funding the Association of Women Jurist's project to publish a guide to women's legal rights, providing support for the human rights office at the Ministry of Justice, and helping the Angolan Association for the Handicapped launch a public awareness campaign on the rights of these citizens.

In 1998 USAID also supported a "rule of law" program aimed at assisting judicial reform. In August 1997, the NDI held in Luanda a conference on Human Rights in the Context of the Judicial System as the start of this program. In 1997 and 1998 USAID commissioned the U.S.-based organization World Learning to hold a series of seminars in the provinces on what rights Angolans should enjoy.132 World Learning reported training 224 trainers (60 percent of them women) and 185 journalists in human rights protection. They also reported that in November 1997, as a result of this training, public prosecutors in Bie and Huila provinces released over one hundred prisoners on the grounds that the time they had spent in jail exceeded the maximum statutory incarceration they would have faced if tried, although this has not been independently verified.

In 1999 USAID is implementing activities in five general areas: (1) development of local NGOs and their relations with the government and private sector; (2) improving local government and constituent relations; (3) support to human rights and media organizations; (4) development of community-based and other democratic organizations; and optimistically, (5) election participation.133

The European Union has also been involved. In 1995 it committed funding for expanding UNAVEM III's program of human rights monitors, providing ECU 600,000 for a human rights project managed by the Netherlands-based AWEPA. Six human rights specialists were sent to Angola by AWEPA in the program which ended in June 1997. Some individual E.U. countries have shown an interest in rights issues. Sweden is working with Mosaiko and the Angolan Association for Human Rights, and took a leadership role on trying to win a higher priority for human rights issues in the U.N. and in Angola. The British, after the arrival of a new ambassador, Caroline Elms, appeared to be for the first time taking a more serious interest in rights protection. Canada has also supported a number ofpeacebuilding and rights initiatives, particularly through Development Workshop and FONGA.

In October 1997, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation opened an office in Luanda. Its stated aim was to invest in programs aimed at the promotion of democracy and the encouragement of civil society. The Open Society Institute (OSI) works on media issues and primary education in Angola since it opened an office in Luanda in 1998. In January 1999 the Windhoek-based Misa Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) opened an office in Luanda. MISA-Angola published its first bulletin in April.134

Human rights protection has not attracted much interest from the large multinational oil companies and diamond companies that extract the majority of Angola's wealth, apart from a growing awareness that coming into the spotlight as implicit in rights abuses can prove costly. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of export earnings-50 percent of state revenues, and 30 per cent of gross domestic product, while production is increasing at 10 per cent a year. Alongside the state-run Sonangol, international oil companies include BP-Amoco (U.K./U.S.), Shell (U.K./Netherlands), Elf (France), Fina (France), Chevron (U.S.), Mobil/Exxon (U.S.), and Texaco (U.S.). There were eighty international companies operating in the diamond areas, including Odebrecht (Brazil), De Beers, Ashton Mining (Australia), and DiamondWorks (Canada). While BP-Amoco and Norway's Satoil in 1998 and 1999 commissioned reports that included a human rights component, Human Rights Watch is unaware of other companies doing so or otherwise taking into account human rights issues in their operations.

95 Interview, Luanda, August 1998.

96 Human Rights Watch interview, Luanda, August 20, 1998.

97 U.S. Department of State, "Angola," Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996, pp.1-8.

98 Cited in, Action for Southern Africa (ed), Achieving Lasting Peace in Angola: The Unfinished Agenda. Report of conference held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, on 4 September 1997 (London: ACTSA; Christian Aid; CIIR, 1997), p.18.

99 Instituto Democratico Para Asuntos Internacionais, Democratição, Reconciliação Nacional e Direitos em Angola. Grupos de Discusão (Luanda: NDI/Angola, 1997).

100 When in Angola in 1998 Human Rights Watch attended a number of talks on human rights in the series held (August 19-22) by Mosaiko in conjunction with the University Agostinho Neto. Human Rights Watch also attended a workshop held by ICRA with the assistance of Mosaiko in August 1998 in which human rights trainers explained the difficulties that they faced in the field.

101 Interview with Fr. Domingos, Luanda, August 25, 1998.

102 Bob van der Winden (ed), A family of the musseque. Survival and development in postwar Angola (London: One World Action, 1996).

103 Interview, Luanda, August 20, 1998.

104 Walter Viegas "The role of NGO's in reconciliation and reconstruction," in Eduardo Mondlane Foundation and Holland Committee on Southern Africa (eds), Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Civil Society in Angola, Conference 16 October 1996 Report(Amsterdam: KZA and EMS, 1997), pp.20-26.

105 Interview, Luanda, August 1998.

106 Lusa (Macão), April 20, 1999.

107 On 16 January 1998, Francisco Tungu Alberto, secretary-general of FONGA announced that the priority for 1998 was to train trainers for community rehabilitation programs. He also said FONGA planned to strengthen the capabilities of all national NGOs in self-management of human and financial resources. In 1998 FONGA embraced some 300 Angolan NGOs.

108 FONGA, "Lamentações da Sociedade Civil Sobre a Situação Socio-Politica Prevalecente no Pais," August 14, 1998, N/Ref no. 99/SG/FO/98.

109 Interview with Francisco Tunga, Luanda, August 28, 1998

110 Human Rights Watch was meant to have met Manuel Neto in Johannesburg, but he failed to make the appointment because of his arrest. See Human Rights Watch Press Release,

111 Human Rights Watch Arms Project, Still Killing: Landmines in Southern Africa, p.57.

112 A June 1 to 5, 1998 workshop in Benguela attended by eighteen local and international NGOs, including ADRA, Mosaiko, JRS and Caritas decided that land rights and human rights and civic education were priority areas for outreach. Apostolado (Luanda), August 1998.

113 Development Workshop, "Angola Peacebuilding Programme: Concept Paper," Ang-461 Peace Bldg\Proposal\Concept Paper.doc, no date, but November 1998.

114 Steve Kibble, "Trading trouble in Angola," Catholic Institute for International Relations News, February/March 1997; see also, Stephen Baranyi etal, Making Solidarity Effective: Northern Voluntary Organizations Policy Advocacy and the Promotion of Peace in Angola and East Timor, CIIR discussion paper, 1997. pp.24-26.

115 Alex Vines, Peace Postponed: Angola Since the Lusaka Protocol (London: Catholic Institute of International Relations, 1998).

116 Information provided to Human Rights Watch by Rev. Augusto Chipesse, General Secretary, Angolan Council of Churches, January 7, 1999.

117 Benjamin Castello, "The role of the Christian Churches in the process of Reconstruction and National Reconciliation in Angola after the signing of the Lusaka Protocol on November 1994," in Eduardo Mondlane Foundation and Holland Committee on Southern Africa (eds), Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Civil Society in Angola, Conference 16 October 1996 Report (Amsterdam: KZA and EMS, 1997), pp.27-31.

118 www.snet.so.ao

119 See, O Apostolado (Luanda), No.3075, August 1998.

120 For a published collection of pastrol statements on war and peace see, Missionários Espiritanos (ed.), A Igreja em Angola Entre a Guerra e a Paz (Lisbon: Missionários Espiritanos, 1999).

121 Público (Lisbon), January 29, 1999.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid.

124 Lusa (Macão), April 7, 1999.

125 Lusa (Macão), April 10, 1999.

126 Público (Lisbon), July 28, 1999. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also held talks in June 1999 in New York with Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento, archbishop of Luanda, on Catholic Church mediation in the conflict. Reportedly, the Cardinal said he could only mediate if both sides agreed to a cease-fire first. Público (Lisbon), July 24, 1999.

127 www.africapolicy.org/docs99/ang9906a.htm.

128 According to Nzinga this initiative is gaining support in Angola among the unions, at the university and among professionals. Human Rights Watch interview, Johannesburg, May 3, 1999.

129 Irish Times (Dublin), August 4, 1999.

130 "Adventist Church Sponsors First Religion and Human Rights Seminar," Adventist Press Service, January 28, 1999. This was not the first seminar on human rights and religion in Angola since 1924, Mosaiko had organized such a seminar with the university in August 1998.

131 These projects come under Title Number: Increased National Reconciliation through Strengthened Democratic and Political Institutions, 654-S002.

132 Ten workshops were held in 1997 and five in 1998.

133 "Angola," USAID Congressional Presentation, US FY 1999.

134 MISA-Angola, Boletim Informativo, no.0, April 1999.

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