VZCZCXRO9946
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0330/01 1001536
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101536Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3855
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LUANDA 000330 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
¶E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA: FEBRUARY - MARCH POLITICAL ROUNDUP 
 
REFS: (A) LUANDA 06 01196 
  (B) LUANDA 06 01305 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY 
-------------- 
 
---- PADEPA Activists Acquitted 
 
---- FNLA Founder Retires 
 
---- UNITA Loses Five Deputies, Commemorates Savimbi's Death 
 
---- MPLA Parliamentarian Denounces Lack of Freedom of Expression 
 
----MPLA President Accuses Party Dissidents of Spreading Lies 
 
PADEPA Activists Acquitted 
-------------------------- 
¶2. (U) Eight PADEPA opposition party members were acquitted on March 
2, 2007 by the provincial Court of Luanda after having been arrested 
and charged by the police with inciting the public by distributing 
inflammatory pamphlets on February 19, 2007.  The activists were 
granted bail by the court on February 23, 2007 after the public 
prosecutor told the judge that the police had erred, citing that 
pamphlet distribution is not a crime in Angola. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Comment: PADEPA members have been arrested and charged in 
court five times in the last three years for holding anti-government 
public protests or distributing pamphlets. Their score card is 
currently three acquittals and two sentences.  The sentences were 
against the party Secretary General for contempt of court in 
November 2006, which was commuted into a three thousand dollar fine 
(see reftels) and the Party Political Secretary, who spent 
forty-five days in jail for disrupting a parliamentary session in 
¶2005.  PADEPA currently holds no seats in Parliament but 
consistently has been exceptionally outspoken. 
 
FNLA Founder Retires 
--------------------- 
¶4. (SBU) On March 17, FNLA founder and President Holden Roberto 
formally retired from active politics at age 84.  The combination of 
Mr. Roberto's poor health, internal dissidence, and financial 
constraints has crippled the FNLA, once the third most powerful 
player on the Angolan political scene, in recent years.  The main 
candidates to succeed Mr. Roberto as party president are 1st Party 
Secretary Lucas Ngonda, Roberto favorite and 2nd Party Secretary 
 
SIPDIS 
Ngola Kabango, and long-time senior party members Carlinho Zassala 
and Pinto Joao. 
 
UNITA Loses Five Deputies in Parliament 
--------------------------------------- 
¶5. (U) Parliament, by administrative order, has ruled on the 
longstanding struggle between renegade UNITA deputies and UNITA 
leadership.  The Parliament accepted and upheld the request 
presented by the five UNITA Deputies to become "independent," thus 
reducing UNITA's representation in Parliament from seventy to 
sixty-five deputies.  The five were expelled from UNITA in July 2006 
after they publicly denounced the party leadership and refused to 
resign their seats to make way for new deputies of UNITA's choosing. 
 The expelled Deputies have promised to continue defending the 
interests of UNITA in Parliament, but said they will not defend the 
interests of the party's current leadership, whom they claim is 
misguiding the party. Nonetheless, they insist that they still 
belong to the greater UNITA family.  However, most Parliamentary 
observers see this pledge as pure rhetoric and believe the Deputies 
will vote with the MPLA bench. 
 
Five Years without Jonas Savimbi 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) On February 22, UNITA commemorated the fifth anniversary of 
the death of its founder, Jonas Savimbi.  While speaking to the 
press after a memorial service in honor of Savimbi, UNITA Secretary 
General Mario Vatuva promised that UNITA will do everything possible 
to have the late Savimbi's body exhumed from his current grave in 
Luena, Moxico and reburied in his hometown of Andulo, Bie.  Since 
2003, UNITA has repeatedly expressed the wish to honor its founder 
with a formal burial ceremony and memorial, but Angolan law forbids 
exhumations prior to five years after the initial interment.  Vatuva 
affirmed that UNITA has completed the legal paperwork to exhume 
Savimbi's remains. 
 
¶7. (SBU) UNITA President Isaias Samakuva used the occasion to 
declare that democracy was being smothered by the MPLA and attitudes 
reminiscent of the Party-State days were becoming frequent again. 
Further attempting to position itself as the defender of democracy, 
UNITA's Permanent Committee strongly objected to the detention of 
Global Witness activist Dr. Sarah Wykes, considering it 
anti-democratic and condemned the police agents who on February 22 
destroyed posters announcing memorial activities for Savimbi. 
 
MPLA Parliamentarian Denounces Lack of Freedom of Expression 
 
LUANDA 00000330  002 OF 002 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶8. (U) MPLA Parliamentarian and journalist Joco Melo acknowledged 
the lack of freedom of expression in Angola during a lecture 
organized by the Namibe provincial government and the provincial 
journalist union in February.  Melo made this statement in his 
keynote address on the role of journalists during the upcoming 
election campaign.  Melo pointed out that although the 
Constitutional law upheld freedom of the press, self-censored 
communication smothered freedom of expression as people find 
themselves unable to express opinions or communicate their views for 
fear of being labeled sympathetic to a group and suffering the 
repercussions that follow. 
 
¶9. Comment: The government-owned Jornal de Angola took strong 
exception to the 2006 U.S. Human Right Report's criticism of 
journalist self-censorship in Angola in an editorial by the Jornal's 
Director, Jose Ribeiro.  Melo's lecture is therefore an interesting 
glimpse into an apparent internal MPLA debate on media roles. End 
Comment 
 
MPLA President Accuses Party Dissidents of Spreading Lies 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) February 9, MPLA President Jose Eduardo dos Santos 
addressed the MPLA Central Committee during the party's annual 
meeting.  Dos Santos presented the 2006 balance sheets, which he 
called positive, praising the executive commission for its guidance. 
 However, he then criticized and warned the "dissident voices" in 
the party to stop spreading false propaganda about the party.  He 
accused the dissidents of trying to revive the old leftist MPLA with 
its socialist-dictatorial rule.  Dos Santos called on all party 
militants to expose those dissident voices, who are diverging from 
the official party line.  Dos Santos accused them of being 
"infiltrators intent on destabilizing and weakening the party," just 
as elections approach. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Dos Santos said that the party leadership was united and 
strong in its vision of "a government, by the people for the 
people."  Dos Santos also strongly advised that the decision on the 
MPLA's presidential candidate only be discussed after the 
legislative elections. 
 
EFIRD