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ALGERIA - A SOCIETY IN A STATE OF COLLAPSE
Since 1992, there has been civil war in Algeria and there are today more and more massacres. The insecurities and numerous killings have provoked population movements and thousands of impoverished families have been forced onto the roads.
FREEDOM PRESS INTERNATIONAL - 14th February 1999

South Africans botch military intervention in Lesotho
At 6h30 South African Time on Tuesday, 22 September 1998, 600 troops backed by AFV's and APC's crossed the border into Lesotho in an armed intervention designed to quell the unrest in Maseru and the purported mutiny of junior officers in the Lesotho army.
Joel September 23rd, 1998)

SENEGAL SPECIAL - PART ONE
During the Freinet congress which took place in Lyons from the 22nd to the 24th August we met up with Moussa Diop on behalf of Le Monde Libertaire. Moussa Diop is a street activist in the poor quarters of Dakar in Senegal. He is also active in various district associations especially in Tivaouane (a town in the region of Thiès, 92km from Dakar) in Senegal within the framework of AUPEJ (Useful Action for Children and Youth).
Translingvoj, September 20, 1998)

SENEGAL SPECIAL - PART TWO
Having covered the various initiatives in the fields of popular education and general social alternatives which have been put in place following the disengagement of the state in the social field in this article we consider the question of social struggle and the current state of the social movement.
Translingvoj, September 20, 1998)

ZIMBABWE - 18 YEARS, STILL WAITING
Eighteen years on how has Zimbabwe changed since independence? Certainly there was a change of name but if we try to measure things in terms of the political question which affects so directly the majority of the population (we are, of course, talking about land) the change is far less momentous.
Lingvoj, September 9, 1998)

SOUTH AFRICAN STRATEGY
The South African government has stated that it has no intention of sending peace-keeping or any other kind of troops to the Congo. The OAU has stated that there must be a negotiated resolution to the conflict. Kabila refuses to negotiate with the rebels, stating that they are part of a foreign invasion by Uganda and Rwanda. He states he will only negotiate with the rebels when these countries have pulled out of the Congo.
Joel September 9, 1998)

Zaire/Congo: Scene set for a break-up ?
Reports today say that the Angolan army has captured the rebel supply base, Kitonga in northwestern congo. The Zimbabwean foreign minister has stated that Zimbabwean troops have fended off rebel forces on the southern outskirts of Kinshasa, and the rebels claim to have captured Kisangani, a river port, and the third largest city in Zaire/Congo. CNN states that the rebels in western congo are trapped between the Zimbabweans in the east and the Angolans in the west.
Joel - August 25th 1998

THE WAR IN ZAIRE/CONGO Reports today (23 August 1998) indicate that Angola has definitely entered the war, and that Zimbabwe has 1400 to 1500 troops now in Zaire/Congo. Reports have been made of rebels shooting down Zimbabwean combat aircraft. How true this claim is, as it originated from rebel sources, is unknown. But witnesses have seen Angolan troops cross the border into Zaire/Congo.
Joel August 23rd 1998

ZAIRE/CONGO: FRAGMENTATION OF A PSEUDO-STATE
Laurent Kabila came to power after the ouster of Mobuto Sese Seko, who had long been a client of state-capitalist countries of the "West". Under Mobuto Sese Seko's rule, Zaire-Congo had been a staging area for Western intervention in central, southern and eastern Africa against Soviet client regimes or "African Socialist" regimes in Africa. Zaire was widely reported to be a staging base, according to mainstream media reports, for American supplies and logistical support to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement. With the end of the "cold war", and neo-liberal's ideological triumph world-wide, Mobuto Sese Seko's regime was no longer deemed essential by his Western masters.
Joel August 17th 1998

ANGOLA - CIVIL WAR LOOMS
The warlords of the reigning MPLA government and the UNITA "rebel" movement are gearing up to fight another war. The Angolan people are not served well by the leaders they place their faith in.
Joel - August 5th 1998

WHITHER THE ALLIANCE?
South Africa - report and analysis
Next year the ANC heads into an election. It faces an array of small parties whose support in terms of numbers is politically insignificant. Therefore it is assured of an electoral victory. The only unknown is the size of this victory. It has no opposition parties to its left. All left entities in South Africa of any political significance are in an alliance with the ANC.
Joel July 1998

SIERRA LEONE
Once upon a time the old Labour Party was determined to have no foreign policy - no gunboat diplomacy, no interference in the affairs of other nations. That was a long time ago - now New Labour, according to Robin Cook the Foreign Secretary, is delivering an 'ethical foreign policy'.
FREEDOM May 1998

AFRICA FOCUS
Black Africa, this continent which, according to René Daumont in the 1970s, 'got off to a bad start' seems also to be enjoying a bad 'finish'. No longer do euphemisms like 'developing countries' or 'democratic transition' fool us. Rather it is becoming more and more obvious that Africa is emeshed in a predatory economy between transnational overseas operators and local tyrants.
FREEDOM May 1998

Angola and Zimbabwe

The Suffering Continues

"At a squalid camp for displaced peasants, a man explains that he and others walk 15km to collect firewood to sell in the market. On the way, they pass a police post. When they return with the load, the policeman seizes one-third of the bundles each one carries.

I ask his views. "The policeman is poor just like me and he has not been paid his salary in the last months, so it is all right he answers.

"Is it right for the policeman to get more firewood than any of you without working, just by being there ? Why doesn't he quit his job and go collect firewood with you ?" I pursue.

He thinks hard. Finally he flashes a toothless smile. "But if the policeman comes with us, who would represent the government at the checkpoint ?"

I understand.

He has never known a state that did not exploit him and his family and his neighbours and his village.

The Portugeuse [colonial power], UNITA [rebel movement], the MPLA [government of Angola], it is all the same.The state is there to abuse him, to take half of his firewood but give nothing in exchange."

Quoted from Mercedes Sayageus, in the Mail & Guardian (Feb 26 - Mar 3, 1999)

[AFRICA]

The Angolan factions continue to fight over the prosrtate corpse of Angola. In the fighting in the central highlands, the key gateway to strategic diamond and oil reserves in the country in areas like Soyo, towns like Kuito feel the savagery of a bloodthirsty set tyrannical parties and armies battle for the decisive edge in the war.

Kuito, a town which had voted for Unita in the 1992 elections bore the brunt of Savimbi's ire at losing. In the siege that followed, 30 000 people died. In 1993 Sayageus found, in her words:

"50 000 survivors huddled in an area less than one square kilometre, among the bombed-out buildings. The stench of dried blood, rotting corpses, filth and decay hung among the ruins. Half of the wounded had gangrene. Amputations were carried out without anesthetics by nurses, between lulls in the fighting." (M & G supra)

In its offensive in December 1998, Unita decanted 100 000 refugees into Kuito.

The people of Angola live on a level that could be described as Medieval, except that Medieval culture was somewhat more civilised than present conditions in Angola. The essential tools of their survival: the hoe, the knife, the machete, the pots and blankets, clothes and identity cards, meagre savings of a few crumpled Angolan Kwanzas. and some small store of maize, are their "lives". When they lose this, they lose their lives, everything they have scraped together.

And when war comes, and they have known nothing else since the early seventies, they lose it all. It is stolen by the armies or destroyed by the artillery and the exigencies of refugee existence.

Government troops repulsed the assault on Kuito in early January 1999. Instead of fighting a war of protracted conquest as they did in 1993/4 in which they conquered more than half of Angola, Unita prefers surprise attacks and quick occupations of districts and cities, followed by strategic retreats. This is extremely disruptive to the population as the MPLA and Unita armies see-saw across central Angola. Provincial capitals are, as a result, only reachable by air. This saves Unita the "hassle" of administering large groups of population, but turns these areas into free-fire zones.

In April 1998, the UN certified that Unita's demobilisation was "complete". But Unita emerged better equipped than ever before. Unita relies on its diamond mining areas for funds to equip its army. These diamonds are smuggled to Antwerp where they are sold outside the cartel organisation controlled by De Beers, the Central Selling Organisation (CSO). It may be, although I have no way of knowing, that the CSO buys up these surplus diamonds to maintain international diamond prices, and thereby may indirectly fund Unita's war effort. This is speculation on my part.

It has been reported that the son of Zambia's president Frederick Chiluba is involved in selling and supplying arms to Unita. Western Zambia is definitely a rear staging area for Unita's supply lines.

The MPLA and Unita are autocratic and corrupt entities. The MPLA government is notorious for its outright corruption and theft. The government elite live at a very high standard and it is reported that the president of the MPLA, Eduardo Dos Santos has numerous "investments" in Brazil. Reporting from Kuito, Sayageus states:

"It is a cold rainy Sunday evening and the 8.30 news is on. The first lady, Ana Paula Dos Santos, looking trim after her recent liposuction, tummy tuck and face lift, visits an aid project near Luanda [the capital]. To show off her new figure she wears tight black trousers. She giggles girlishly and leaves her sentences unfinished.

It is quite surreal to watch the news with a back-drop of bombed-out buildings." (Mail & Guardian, supra)

ZIMBABWE and the War in the Congo

The recalcitrance of the equally autocratic Mugabe is also endangering Zimbabwe's future. The price of basic staples has risen dramatically over the last 12 months. The currency has devalued considerably in the same time period.

When High Court judges counter an increasingly despotic executive, comrade Bob suggests that the judges should resign. In his mind its all a "white plot". Recently journalists with impeccable "liberation-struggle" credentials have been detained and tortured by the Zimbabwean army and the CIO, using colonial security legislation.

Meanwhile the war in the Congo grinds on without a clear victor, as I predicted it would in an earlier article on the subject for Communitaz. The basic factor determining this is the poor logistics capability of African armies. No army can extend its lines too far without running out of steam. This ensures that no army can ever gain the decisive upper-hand. Which is why the wars in Angola have been waged for 25 and more years and why the war in the Congo will continue two generations from now.

These are poorly developed countries with very very little in the way of developed infrastructure. The infrastructure to all intents and purposes is nonexistent. In the Congo the only passage of any width through the jungle is by river. In Angola, there are virtually no railways and what roads there are are a series of connected potholes which are heavily mined. Offensive thrusts are made through bush terrain. Which is why, despite sporadic guerrilla attacks in each others rear areas, African armies tend to wind up fighting in the centre of the country. Inevitably their "decisive" offensive thrusts peter out.

Of course, for the poor bloodied population the situation is like a deadly, and mostly fatal form of water-torture, as the "hinge of fate" keeps swinging back and forth across their territory, grinding them in its passage.

Under their thumb: The EU and South Africa

While the parties to the conflict perpetuate the Goyan reality of their countries civil wars, the First World plays a major role in ensuring that the "developing countries" continue to remain undeveloped and that these conflicts continue.

This is achieved through the rigged rule of the international system of "free trade". Now and again, events occur which shred the veil of pretensions the "civilised" Europeans take regarding the developing world. One event which has just occurred has been the vetoing of the trade agreement negotiated between South Africa and the EU. After three years of negotiating and concessions by South Africa, we are back to square one.

Alec Erwin, the Minister of Trade and Industry, is pretty outraged that 3 years of pain-staking work, which South Africa can ill-afford to waste time on has basically been eradicted. Agreements had been made which the EU is now effectively reneging on. The objection is made by the honourable members of the EU that South Africa cannot use the terms "Sherry" and "Port", but must use the term "fortified wines". On this basis 3 years of work is ditched.

This is how the First World keeps the Third World in its place, how it keeps the "mud-races" in line. It dangles the carrot, and as soon as we reach it it pulls it away, and dangles it another 20 miles down the road. Thus the "developing countries" in the quaint jargon of the EU remain "undeveloped", a euphemism for the delapidated civil structures that lead to Zimbabwe, and thence to Angola.

E MAIL COMMUNITAS