VZCZCXRO1451
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #1297/01 3551510
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211510Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3548
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 001297 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA: SAMAKUVA ATTACKS GRA GOVERNING PRACTICES 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: In a strongly worded speech during UNITA's sixth 
party conference, UNITA President Isaias Samakuva came out swinging. 
 He accused President Dos Santos of usurping constitutional power, 
the MPLA of trying to ram though it's "Angola 2025" program as 
government policy and compared Angola under Dos Santos and the MPLA 
to the political style and leadership of Portuguese dictator and 
colonial ruler Antonio Salazar.  The Salazar reference drew strong 
negative reactions from many Angolans, but others praised Samakuva 
for acting like an opposition leader.  Samakuva's speech was most 
likely aimed at silencing UNITA leaders who criticized him for being 
too soft on the MPLA and Dos Santos and were challenging him for 
UNITA's leadership.  The controversy generated, however, is not over 
the comparison made; it is proof that the MPLA is not used to 
hearing strong criticism of itself or its leader.  End Summary. 
Samakuva criticizes GRA's and Dos Santos' Record 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶2. (U) On November 27 UNITA President Isaias Samakuva addressed the 
Political Commission of his party at the inauguration of its Sixth 
Party Conference.  In his speech Samakuva accused President Dos 
Santos and the MPLA of usurping constitutional power from the 
government by ruling through presidential decree.  Samakuva noted 
that Dos Santos had liberally established "artificial legal 
entities," i.e. commissions, which do not report to the Parliament 
to carry out many programs, thus guaranteeing the President absolute 
control over those projects without any opportunity for 
parliamentary oversight.  In addition, Samakuva called on the 
government to combat the institutionalization of corruption and poor 
government management, in order to restore public confidence in 
government institutions. 
¶3. (U) Samakuva noted that the MPLA was overstepping its role as a 
political party and instead acting as the ruling government in 
attempting to force the nation to adopt its party-generated agenda, 
"Angola 2025," as the official Angolan government program for the 
next 25 years.  He said the MPLA is attempting to push this agenda 
forward with quasi-constitutional status.  Referring to the 
one-on-one discussions Samakuva and dos Santos held in June and 
September of this year, Samakuva said that he had also made clear to 
dos Santos that as President he needed to guarantee that all 
Angolans benefited from peace and economic prosperity.  Samakuva 
also directed a point at his own party as well as to the government, 
noting that no one should support under-the-table deals dividing 
political and economic power, deriding that "certain political class 
who feels entitled to divide power among itself." 
He Who Shall Not be Named 
-------------------------- 
¶4. (U) Samakuva created the public outcry and controversy by 
comparing President Dos Santos' political style of leadership to 
that of Antonio Salazar, former Portuguese fascist dictator who also 
governed pre-independence colonial Angola with hard-line measures. 
For example, Samakuva noted the similarities between dos Santos and 
Salazar in dealing with opposition: whereas Salazar exiled 
dissenters from Portugal to the colonies, dos Santos often "rewards" 
his party critics with Ambassadorships or for those not as lucky, 
with political and economic ostracism.  MPLA reaction was swift; 
party leaders accused Samakuva of making personal comparisons 
between dos Santos and Salazar in newspaper, radio, and television 
interviews.  Official government reaction was slightly more 
balanced.  Higino Carneiro, Minister of the Interior and Government 
representative to the Bilateral Commission, accused Samakuva of 
offending the Office of the President of the Republic with 
accusations of unconstitutional conduct, and the GRA formally 
protested to the Bilateral Commission (Lusaka/Luena Accords) and 
asked UNITA to clarify its statement.  Samakuva worked to clarify in 
later interviews that he was merely comparing leadership styles 
rather than equating dos Santos with a brutally repressive colonial 
dictator, but in the eyes of many the damage had already been done. 
The full content of the speech received some press coverage in the 
weekly independent newspapers, but the government newspaper Jornal 
de Angola only provided coverage of the subsequent controversy 
surrounding the Salazar comparison. 
A Surprise even to Party Insiders 
--------------------------------- 
¶5. (SBU) UNITA spokesperson Adalberto Costa Junior told P/E chief on 
December 14, 2006, that Samakuva had not shown the speech to anyone 
in the run-up to the Party meeting, commenting that he, himself, had 
only seen it the hour before it was to be delivered and was 
surprised at the Salazar reference, knowing the reaction it would 
provoke.  Adalberto Jr. commented that this was not Samakuva's usual 
procedure, as normally as spokesperson he would have been invited to 
review and comment on the speech days before delivery. Adalberto Jr. 
affectionately called Samakuva a "stubborn old guy" who knew full 
well what he was doing and could not have been dissuaded from taking 
this tact. 
¶6. (SBU) Adalberto Junior also voiced concern that the speech might 
have jeopardized any future one-on-one meetings between dos Santos 
and Samakuva.  He expressed surprise at the level of venom with 
which some MPLA members, including his counterpart, MPLA spokesman 
Norberto dos Santos "Kwata Kanawa," reacted to the speech, noting 
that he had never seen Kwata Kanawa lose control to that extent. 
However, Adalberto Jr. seconded Samakuva's criticism of the MPLA as 
acting as a one-party government, noting that UNITA had been denied 
permission to air advertisements regarding its Party Meeting on 
 
LUANDA 00001297  002 OF 002 
 
 
national radio despite having paid for the air-time.  When asked 
about the effect of the speech on Samakuva's standing within the 
Party, Adalberto said that would-be candidates for UNITA President 
(Lukamba Gato and Abel Chivukuvuku) had enough of their own 
obstacles within the party that this wouldn't strengthen their 
candidacies.  Note: Adalberto has a long-time association with 
Samakuva dating back to their years in exile in the early 90s in 
Lisbon.  End Note. 
¶7. (SBU) Comment: Samakuva's speech came as surprise to many, but it 
was most likely a calculated effort to show dissatisfied UNITA 
members that Samakuva was not soft on Dos Santos and the MPLA.  The 
statement drowned out  speculation in the opposition press that 
Samakuva had sold out UNITA in secret meetings with President Dos 
Santos.  The visceral reaction to the Salazar comment is not so much 
a disagreement with the comparison, but a reflection that Angolans, 
and the MPLA in particular, are unaccustomed to hearing strong 
criticism of their party and/or their leader.  The week following 
Samakuva's speech the MPLA used its party Congress to attack 
Samakuva for comparing the President to Salazar.  Some analysts and 
local blogs praised Samakuva, however, for finally acting as an 
opposition party leader by calling attention to problems in the 
government and criticizing the lack of democratic process. End 
Comment 
FERNANDEZ