|
Angola NATIONAL SECURITY ENVIRONMENT
Although Angola's boundaries with neighboring states
were not
disputed, the country's geopolitical position heavily
affected
national security. Luanda enjoyed fraternal relations with
Congo
and Zambia, but sporadic antagonism characterized the
regime's
relations with Zaire. Since Pretoria's intervention in the
civil
war of 1975-76, an undeclared state of war had existed
with South
Africa, which occupied Namibia, the territory to the south
of
Angola
(see
fig. 1).
Relations with Zaire, with which Angola shares its
longest
border, had been punctuated by hostility since the 1960s,
when
Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko sponsored and provided
sanctuary
to an MPLA rival, the National Front for the Liberation of
Angola
(Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola -- FNLA), and to
the
separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of
Cabinda
(Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda--FLEC).
Although
there had been no conflicts over the positioning of the
border
itself, the direct intervention of regular Zairian forces
in Angola
on behalf of the FNLA in September 1975 exacerbated the
three-way
civil war and attendant intrusions by South African,
Soviet, and
Cuban forces.
Despite a February 1976 accord in which the Angolan and
Zairian
governments renounced further hostilities, Zaire not only
continued
to provide sanctuary and assistance to the FNLA, which
made
periodic raids into Angola, but also facilitated FLEC
attacks on
Angola's oil-rich Cabinda Province. Aircraft based in
Zaire also
violated Angolan airspace, occasionally bombing villages
on the
northern border. In retaliation, in 1977 and 1979 Luanda
allowed
Katangan dissidents based in Angola to invade Zaire's
Shaba
Province (formerly Katanga Province), from which they were
repelled
only after the intervention of Egyptian, Moroccan, French,
and
Belgian forces
(see Angola as a Refuge
, this ch.).
Having apparently evened their scores, Angola and Zaire
normalized relations in 1978, and the two erstwhile
antagonists
entered into a nonaggression pact with Zambia in 1979. In
February
1985, Luanda and Kinshasa signed a security and defense
pact
including mutual pledges not to allow the use of their
territory
for attacks on each other; the two governments also set up
a joint
defense and security commission to develop border security
arrangements. In July 1986, Angola and Zaire set up joint
working
groups and regional commissions to implement their
pledges, and in
August 1988 they signed a border security pact.
Despite normalization and border security agreements,
AngolanZairian relations remained strained and fraught with
inconsistencies in the late 1980s. The two countries could
not
effectively control their 2,285-kilometer border, which
UNITA
forces continued to cross freely. Furthermore, Kinshasa
continued
indirect support of UNITA, particularly after 1986, by
permitting
United States use of the Kamina airbase in Shaba Province
to
deliver military aid to the insurgents and to train them
in the use
of new weapons. Despite numerous diplomatic and media
reports of
Zaire's involvement in logistical support of UNITA,
Kinshasa
persisted in denying the charges.
Zaire's erratic behavior did not constitute a direct
threat to
Angola. The activities of South Africa, however, were
another
matter. Whereas Zaire had limited itself to using its
strategic
location to support insurgencies against the Angolan
government,
Pretoria had the means to sponsor guerrilla resistance and
to wage
protracted war. In order to defend the 1,376-kilometer
Angolan
border with occupied Namibia against infiltration by South
West
Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrillas based in
Angola,
South African forces cleared a one-kilometer-wide strip
along
nearly half the border's length. The Ovambo people,
SWAPO's main
base of ethnic support, straddled the border, facilitating
SWAPO's
movements and recruitment efforts
(see Ethnic Groups and Languages
, ch. 2).
Starting in the late 1970s, South Africa had engaged in
an
escalating series of air and ground raids and prolonged
operations
in southern Angola against SWAPO and in defense of UNITA.
The South
African Defense Force (SADF) occupied parts of southern
Angola
between August 1981 and April 1985. During and after that
period,
it undertook frequent air and ground attacks, hot pursuit
operations, preemptive raids against SWAPO bases, and
major
interventions against Angolan armed forces on behalf of
UNITA. In
fact, large-scale South African air and ground attacks on
Angolan
government forces in 1985, 1987, and 1988 reversed the
momentum of
Luanda's offensives and saved UNITA from almost certain
defeat.
South Africa finally withdrew its troops from Angola in
September
1988 under the terms of the United States-brokered peace
plan.
South Africa had also provided UNITA with massive arms and
logistical support, which was to be terminated under the
tripartite
regional peace accord
(see Regional Politics
, ch. 4).
To bolster its regional position, Luanda sought to
regularize
and strengthen its security ties with neighboring states.
In
addition to its nonaggression and border pacts with Zaire,
Angola
employed regular consultation, coordination, and
cooperation with
Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in an
effort
to enhance regional security. These ties were reinforced
through
bilateral defense accords with Tanzania and Mozambique
signed in
May 1988 and July 1988, respectively. A defense pact with
Zambia
was also reported to have been signed in March 1988, but
this
report was denied by the Zambian government.
Data as of February 1989
|
