Angola: Campaign for democracy expands

Campaign for a Democratic Angola

1st Public Report

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the ‘Campaign for a Democratic Angola’ – joining the hands of civil society and opposition – is to form a common front to push the government to improve democracy in Angola and to call on its leaders to announce a date for national elections.
The organisers will launch the campaign in four of the country’s 18 provinces in its first month (March) alone – Luanda, Cabinda, Huambo and Lunda-Sul.
The campaign will be launched in up to a further four provinces between April and June 2004 and the ultimate aim is to make it nationwide. Organisers will hold a conference in April during which they plan to draw up a concrete agenda for the campaign’s future activities.
The hope is that pressure from the campaign will force the government to implement significant changes in Angola but organisers are also warning the country’s leaders that they will be the ones left behind if they do not start to move quickly.

THE ANGOLAN CONTEXT

The 27-year civil war in Angola killed over a million people and displaced millions more. The conflict ended in April 2002 but after two years of peace, and despite repeated promises of a ballot, president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has failed to announce a date. He has cited the drafting of a new constitution as being the reason for the delay and most observers say elections are very unlikely to take place before 2006.
The last and only post-independence elections in Angola took place in 1992. Dos Santos is the head of the ruling MPLA and has been the country’s president for 24 years. The MPLA has been in power since Angola gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.
Angola is sub-saharan Africa’s second largest oil producer after Nigeria, producing nearly one million barrels per day (bpd). Despite this natural wealth and two years of peace, United Nations figures reveal that Angola has one of the world’s worst under-five mortality rates, 80 percent of homes do not have electricity and as many as half of all Angolans remain without safe water, proper health care or education. Most of the population of over 13 million continue to live in abject poverty. Denouncements of corruption, mismanagement of state funds and a lack of transparency have been widespread and persist.
A low-intensity military conflict continues in the northern enclave of Cabinda between government forces - estimated to number around 30,000 - and independentist guerrilla groups. Thousands of lives have already been lost and there have been massive and systematic human rights abuses against the civilian population by government troops.

ANGOLAN CIVIL SOCIETY AND OPPOSITION PARTIES

During the last period of the civil war (1998-2002) Angolan civil society was focused on finding an end to the devastating conflict.
The onset and consolidation of peace across most of the country has created a window of opportunity for its priorities to shift.
But until now the voices of dissatisfaction from within civil society have been scattered.
There are more than 100 legalised opposition parties in Angola – most are very small and lacking the most basic conditions to develop proper political activities. There has been an increase in organised protests since the end of the war with more voices of opposition heard, but these parties remain largely ineffective and are too dispersed.
Furthermore, the ruling party MPLA continues to shake off any calls, national and international, to seriously engage in talks with the rest of the society on the country’s ways forward.

THE LAUNCH : LUANDA, 9 MARCH 2004

Around 30 Angolan non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and opposition parties launched the ‘Campaign for a Democratic Angola’ at Luanda’s Hotel Tropico on 9 March 2004. Up to around 300 people attended the launch, which adopted the slogan “Peace without Democracy is a Fantasy.”
At the launch, the country’s largest opposition party UNITA (which has 70 seats in parliament) announced it would also join the campaign.
A straw-poll was taken among the participants and results showed over 90 percent of people wanted national elections held in 2005.
The Angolan rap group MCK performed the now infamous song which a young Luanda man, washing cars to earn a living, was singing when he was killed by the presidential guard. People at the launch were very enthusiastic about the performance and asked for more.
The campaign organisers launched a motion of solidarity with Angola’s only independent radio station – the Catholic Radio Ecclesia. Ecclesia, which is an essential source of non-partisan information in Angola, is currently authorised to make FM broadcasts only in the capital, having so far failed to gain permission from government to broadcast countrywide through FM repeaters already installed in 10 provinces.
A motion of solidarity with the population of Cabinda was also made.
The launch took place in a very relaxed atmosphere of singing.

POLITICAL IMPACT

The campaign now has parliament’s five opposition parties on board (UNITA (70 parliamentarians), PRS (6), PLD (3), PDP-ANA (1) and FPD (1)).
The announcement by the country’s largest opposition party UNITA that it too was joining the campaign was seen by observers as extremely significant to strengthening the call for true democracy in the country.
With half the parties represented in parliament having joined the campaign, any consensual decisions to come out of the April conference will be more politically binding.
The campaign is becoming a melting pot in which political parties are merging under the banner of democracy for Angola and a better life for its people. It is likely to speed up talks between them to come together and also create greater communication between political and civil society organisations.

OUTREACH

Angolan state media coverage of the Luanda launch was fair in as far as it reported on the event. State daily newspaper Jornal de Angola focused on the issue of elections, failing to mention more sensitive issues which the campaign is concerned with. State television TPA dedicated over 3 minutes to it on its main evening news bulletin, again with a focus on elections.
The state radio RNA (whose director general Manuel Rabelais was elected member of MPLA’s central committee in December in contravention of Angola’s media law and constitution and in effect making RNA completely partisan) did not report on the launch.

Radio Ecclesia brought live coverage of the launch from 8.30 to midday, thus enabling thousands of citizens to participate indirectly in the launch by following the discussions. On March 12, Radio Ecclesia held an hour and a half call-in program on the campaign, in which listeners were also able to express their concerns about democracy in the country.

SINCE THE LAUNCH

The campaign has continued to gain momentum since the Luanda launch. It has already widened its support base with close to 50 organisations now on board.

In reaction, days later, MPLA called a press conference, for the State media only, in which it announced a “consensual agenda” of 14 points to hold elections.

March 15 2004

The Campaign for a Democratic Angola
C/O: Largo da Unidade Africana, 41
Bairro do Miramar, Luanda
Angola
Tel: +244 91 331 034
E-mail: [email protected]