A Brief Ceremony, A Long Civil War

In a deafening barrage of automatic weapons fire, independence came to Angola at midnight last Monday after nearly 500 years as a Portuguese colony. The territory's new beginning as an independent state was inauspicious: the liberation movements that have been fighting for control of Angola (TIME, Nov. 17) promptly set up two rival republics, each with its own government and capital. Faced with these opposing claims, the last Portuguese high commissioner, Admiral Leonel Cardoso, refused to turn over authority to anyone. "I regret that it is not possible for me to participate in any ceremony to mark this great hour for the people of Angola," he said.

In Luanda, Agostinho Neto, head of the Soviet-backed M.P.L.A., announced the birth of the People's Republic of Angola. More or less at the same time, Holden Roberto of the F.N.L.A. (backed by Zaire, France and the U.S.) and Jonas Savimbi of UNITA (aided by Portuguese and South African business interests) jointly declared that they had formed the Democratic People's Republic of Angola, with a temporary capital in the southern city of Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa.

TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief Lee Griggs, who observed independence-day celebrations in Luanda, reported that "the excited M.P.L.A. soldiers began indiscriminately firing their rifles in the air. Some shots whizzed less than 20 feet over the heads of the frightened crowd. A Red Cross DC-6, returning to the nearby airport from a relief mission, was hit by two bullets as it made its final approach but managed to land safely. The incident was quickly reported to a Portuguese Airways Boeing 747 entering the pattern, causing the cautious pilot to change course and head back to Lisbon. Ironically, the jumbo jet was packed with leftist dignitaries from Eastern Europe, Portugal and Viet Nam who were heading to Luanda to attend the M.P.L.A.'s independence festivities. Thus the ranks of visiting VIPS in Luanda were embarrassingly thin.

"The following day, after being sworn in as President in Luanda's faded green city hall, Neto reviewed his forces. Past him paraded M.P.L.A. regulars, with their Soviet-built mobile antiaircraft guns, automatic weapons and armored cars. Then came brigades of the Young Pioneers, boys aged eight to twelve, dressed in cut-down camouflage uniforms. They, along with recently trained civilians, will be mobilized if the capital comes under attack."

Blood and Tears. The chances of such an attack are growing. In Huambo, after lighting a freedom torch, UNITA's chief Savimbi told a crowd that "these celebrations may last a day, but our war for final victory --through blood and tears--will take much longer."

In that war, the F.N.L.A. and UNITA forces have made spectacular gains in recent weeks. Two months ago, the M.P.L.A. controlled twelve of Angola's 16 districts; it now appears to have only six. At week's end columns of troops were moving toward Luanda from two sides; the F.N.L.A. was a mere dozen miles to the north of the city and had already come close enough to mortar the pipeline carrying the capital its water from the Bengo River. As a result, the few VIPS attending the M.P.L.A.'S independence ceremonies were unwashed and unshaven. Meanwhile, UNITA was moving up from the south and could soon be in position to threaten the city's sole electric-power source. Lacking both water and electricity, Luanda would have difficulty in holding out for very long.

The Communist countries are desperately trying to shore up the M.P.L.A. government.* With the Portuguese presence at an end, truckloads of unarmed M.P.L.A. troops rolled into Luanda's port area unchallenged and emerged bristling with automatic rifles and grenade launchers. "We have no problem with arms and ammunition," explained one military commander. "Tactics and training are what we lack but we are overcoming that with the help of friends."

At week's end there were many unconfirmed reports from African capitals that the Soviets had moved as many as 400 military personnel and technicians, as well as some 200 tanks, into Luanda to aid the M.P.L.A. The Russians will reportedly man tanks and supply crews for MIG-21 planes. If these stories are true, the U.S. can be expected to protest vigorously. Earlier last week Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned strongly and publicly against "extracontinental" interference in Angola, singling out the Soviets and Cubans as prime offenders.

As huge supplies of Russian arms continue to pour into Luanda, the M.P.L.A. admitted that 1,200 Cuban combat troops had arrived. They will reinforce an estimated 1,000 soldiers and 700 advisers Cuba had previously sent to Neto. The M.P.L.A.'S main problem, reports Griggs, seems to be poor tactics and troop discipline. Cuban advisers assigned to the southern front complain that they have been stranded in unfamiliar territory when M.P.L.A. units broke and ran under fire.

Most foreign observers doubt that either the M.P.L.A. or the UNITA-F.N.L.A. coalition is strong enough to win a decisive victory. A long civil war in Angola, however, could involve an increasing number of interested nations. Zaire, for example, might find itself in conflict with the Congo Republic over control of the rich oil deposits in the M.P.L.A.-controlled enclave of Cabinda. Last week there were reports of clashes between units of a Zaire-backed independence front in Cabinda and M.P.L.A. soldiers. Moreover, the Soviet Union seems alarmingly determined to make Angola--by means of the M.P.L.A.--a major Communist enclave in Africa.

* When the Soviets tried to pressure Uganda, the U.S.S.R.'s major African ally, to back the M.P.L.A., they were scathingly rebuffed. Uganda's mercurial dictator Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin asserted: "The Soviet Union must not dictate to me what I should do."

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