ANGOLA: Trying to Heal the Wounds of War

• Share

"The wounds of war take time to heal," said an Angolan government spokesman in Luanda last week. "A bit of bad blood is bound to persist." That is quite an understatement. Nearly four months after it won the ferocious civil war for control of Angola, with the vital help of 12,000 Cuban soldiers and $300 million in Soviet military aid, Agostinho Neto's Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is still having trouble consolidating its control over the country, which is roughly twice the size of France. The cities, the Atlantic coastline and most of the central interior are secure, reports TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief Lee Griggs, who flew to Luanda last week to cover the political show trial of 13 whites, including two Americans, charged with mercenary activities. But officials in the capital concede that resistance continues in the oil-rich northern enclave in Cabinda and in the populous Central Highlands primarily along the Benguela railroad, which is still closed to copper exports from neighboring Zambia and Zaïre. Griggs' report:

In Cabinda, Cuban troops have spearheaded an air and ground action against local separatists of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (F.L.E.C.) and diehard remnants of the defeated National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.). They have apparently been successful in quieting the area—especially since Zaïre President Mobutu Sese Seko closed his border with Cabinda after Luanda protested that supplies were being funneled to the rebels. The rebel problem is more persistent in the south, where Cubans are also guarding the Benguela railway. Running clear across central Angola, the railway is difficult to defend against sabotage. The line has been blown up in a dozen places in recent weeks; three locomotives have been destroyed by saboteurs of Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) who simply loosened rail bolts and let the trains derail by their own weight.

In addition to fighting continued resistance from a so-called handful of enemies, the Neto government faces huge problems in trying to rebuild war-shattered Angola. Coffee production from devastated fazendas (plantations) in the north will be only 500,000 bags this year, down from the normal 3.5 million bags. The industrial diamond concession in northeastern Angola will produce less than half its prewar output of 2 million carats this year. Internal transport is a shambles: dozens of key bridges and roads have been destroyed. Perhaps the most hopeful note for Neto is that production of crude at Gulf Oil's refinery in Cabinda has been resumed; the $500 million annual royalties from the facility now account for 80% of Angola's foreign exchange earnings.

Peeling Paint. Because of the traffic disruption, the food-rich Central Highlands are short of flour, sugar and salt, while fresh fruit, meat and vegetables are on sale in Luanda (pop. 400,000) only three days a week. Long lines form for everything from bread and cigarettes to beer and bottled cooking gas. Three of every four buses in Luanda have been sidelined for lack of spare parts, and only about 20 taxis (of a prewar fleet of 600) are still operating.