SSSR

NAS

Eel daar inet

>

Following is an interview with Comman-
dante Dibela, member of the Central Com-
mittee of the MPLA of the People’s Republic
of Angola. It was conducted by Portia Siegel-
baum for World Magazine, in Havan#*6n
‘February 29.

HAVANA
Q: What is the current political and mil-
itary situation in Angola?

A: We. have a very good military sit-
uation, We can assure you that just about
all the territory is under our control. We
have put an end to the invasion by Zairean
troops under the cover of FNLA in the
North. We completely control the center,
and only a little part in the South around a
dam in the River Cuene is not under our
Control. There are South African troops
there, but we are sure we shall be able to
finish with them in the Southern part of
Our country. We are asking and demanding
that all former soldiers from FNLA and
UNITA who are in the bush to come out. A
lot of them are doing this, giving us their
‘Weapons and uniforms, and we let them go
free. It would be very stupid for us to put
all of these people in jail. There are too
Many. Although a large number of Angol-
ans are enrolled in FNLA and UNITA out
of tribal, regional and other sentiments,
We are sure they will understand that they.
Were wrongly engaged, and they will par-
ticipate with us in the construction of the
New society.

Of course there are still some of them
who have no courage to present themselves

ut we are sure that the population will

bring them in one by one. am

_ More complicated is the political situa-
tion, because after the war with the Zair-
€an troops and the South African troops
under the cover of FNLA and UNITA, we
are left with a country that is completely
disorganized. Factories were stopped com-
Pletely, we were left with roads and bridges
that have been comipletely destroyed, and
We suffered an exodus of technicians. This
18 our problem:

We must put back into operation the
hospitals, the schools and the factories.
I think we shall be able in the very near

@)
°)
_ 24
mf @ =
Vo R;

CABINDA Gs 7

ATLANTIC OCEAN &

(444¢( (CCC CCE

\ ?
e Nova Lis

,
boa

were

IN AIA

S.W. AFRICA
~ ° ae 290 ;

Surrounded on three sides by countries with still hostile governments, The People’s Republic

of Angola must remain vigilant.

Exclusive interview on

future to put everything into operation ©

through the humanitarian help we shall re-
ceive from friends and allies.

The political situation must also be
studied because Angola is situated in a
very strategic and sensitive area of the
world. We are in the southern part of Afri-
ca and we have a very large border with
Namibia, a South African colony. We are
not so far from Zimbabwe,* which is un-
der white minority rule, and we are not so
far from South Africa itself. In these three
countries there exist freedom movements,
liberation movements, that fight for inde-
pendence and liberty.

Of course you can see — everybody can

see — that a country like Angola, recently-

coming as it does from a very long and ter-
rible war, must not only devote its atten-
tion to its own reconstruction but also to
helping its brothers and sisters who are
under exploitation and discrimination near

our borders.

Q: What political policy does the An-
golan government intend to follow internal-
ly and internationally?

A: Internally our policy will be to try
to apply democracy, a popular democracy,
because we think that this will be the only
way to defend the aspirations of our popula-
tion and also the only way to defend what
our people have already won. During the
struggle the peasants and the workers,
especially, fought and supported all our
efforts, and they will take first place in the
attention of our government and liberation
movement. We shall work especially for

this class of our people because they were

the ones who suffered most under the colo-
nial system. I think we shall go in the di-
rection of socialism and organize the peas-
ants in cooperatives, and later on we will
organize the workers in factories.

In foreign affairs, we will pursue a very
firm policy of non-alignment. We are de-

termined not to participate in any military .

bloc. .

At the South African Tourist and Trade
neil, Beverly Hills, Calif., in January.

* The African name for Rhodesia.

Q: What are the Angolan government’s
relations with Portugal? -

A: The relations between Angola and
Portugal are at this moment not so good,
but we expect and we wish that in the very
near future we will have very good rela-
tions. After all, we have 500 years in com-
mon. We have by now very close cultural
relations, and we even fought together,
both the peoples in Angola and Portugal, ~
against the fascist-colonial regime. And so
we wish, and I am sure that in the near fu-
ture we shall have a very good relationship
between the two peoples and the two coun-
tries.

But at this moment the relations are
very bad because the Portuguese govern-
ment didn’t understand and didn’t behave
very honestly and clearly toward the situa- .
tion in Angola. First of all, when the Por-
tuguese government went out they didn’t
surrender the power to our movement.
They went out only with the declaration
that they shall give power to the Angolan
people. And they didn’t co ne on Independ-
ence Day to participate in the celebrations.
So, in spite of the recognition of our gov-
ernment by more than half of the African
countries, the Portuguese government con-
tinued to declare in the United Nations and .
all over the world that they didn’t recog-
nize a government formed by only one lib-
erat‘on movement because in the agree-
ments they accepted only a single! govern-
ment formed by the three liberation move-
ments. But it was clear that only the MPLA
was a really representative organization of
our people. We were the only ones standing
and fighting against the invasion of the
South African regular.army, and when the
invasion of foreign armies. inside Angola
came, the Portuguese government still had
military forces in Angola but they did noth-
ing — absolutely nothing — to stop the in-
vaders. This was also counter to the agree-
ment, a violation of the so-called Algarve
agreement that the three so-called libera-
tion movements signed with the Portu-
guese government.

This agreement clearly states that the
participants are obliged to defend the three
so-called liberation movements. Therefore,
the Portuguese government was bound by
this agreement to defend the integrity of
Angolan territory until November 11. The
South Africans invaded Angola in October,
one month before the date of independence,
but Portuguese forces which were in An-
gola, did nothing. They continued their
withdrawal to Portugal and they did noth-
ing to repel the invasion. Such behavior is
really not one of friendship and good rela-
tions.

Q: What is the Angolan government’s
attitude toward establishing relations with
the United States?

A: We have nothing. against such rela-
tions. On the contrary, we are, as I said,
pursuing a non-aligned foreign policy. To
carry out such a policy we must have rela-
tions with all the countries of the world,
including the United States.

But, of course, there are some princi-
ples which we shall emphasize before ex-
changing diplomats and ambassadors:
non-interference in our internal affairs,
acceptance of the sovereignty of our goy-
ernment, and even official. recognition.
The U.S. has until now not recognized our
government. I think that with mutual re-
spect and mutual interest in the relation-
ship we shall have relations with everybody.

Q: If the Gulf Oil Company is interested
in resuming operations in Angola, in Ca-
binda, what will be the Angolan govern-
ment’s policy towards that company? ~

A: There should be no problem. We
shall discuss a new agreement because
Gulf Oil violated the former agreement. In
any case we start with the position that we

don’t recognize the agreements that such

companies made with the colonial regime.

The Portuguese didn't give the power to
our government. We came to power by
force, so we start from the position that all
the agreements made between third parties
and the Portuguese colonial regime are
now completely non-operative, and every-
body must sign new agreements with the
People’s Republic of Angola.

Image of
r oxk 3 4 \%

the CIA
ALE ‘a

In Fairfax County, Va., in February, A. Den-
nis Levesque helped train U.S. mercenaries.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 2, 1976—Page 7