Angola Collapse of the Transitional Government
Inevitably, the delicate coalition came apart as the
leaders of
the three movements failed to resolve fundamental policy
disagreements or control their competition for personal
power.
Although the OAU brought Neto, Roberto, and Savimbi
together in
June 1975 for negotiations that produced a draft
constitution,
heavy fighting broke out in early July and spread swiftly
throughout the country. Within a week, the MPLA had forced
the FNLA
out of Luanda, while the FNLA had eliminated all remaining
MPLA
presence in the northern towns of Uíge and Zaire
provinces. UNITA
formally declared war on the MPLA on August 1, 1975. A
year
earlier, the MPLA had created its military wing, the
People's Armed
Forces for the Liberation of Angola (Forças Armadas
Populares de
Libertação de Angola -- FAPLA), which became the core of
the
postindependence army
(see Armed Forces
, ch. 5). The FNLA
and
UNITA, recognizing that their separate military forces
were not
strong enough to fight the MPLA, formed an alliance and
withdrew
their ministers from the provisional government in Luanda,
heralding full-scale civil war. The United States Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), meanwhile, initiated a covert
program to
have American and European mercenaries fight with the
FNLA.
On August 14, 1975, the transitional government
collapsed.
Portugal ordered the dissolution of the coalition
government and
announced the assumption of all executive powers by the
acting
Portuguese high commissioner in Angola. In reality, MPLA
officials
filled those ministries abandoned by the FNLA and UNITA,
thereby
allowing the MPLA to extend its political control
throughout the
Luanda government.
Data as of February 1989
|