The Action Alert explains House bills that would provide aid to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a resistance group that has been attempting to overthrow the Angolan government for the past ten years, and urges opposition to such aid. Three bills have been introduced: 1) H.R. 3472, introduced by Claude Pepper (D-FL), will provide $27 million in "humanitarian aid" (food, clothing, and medicine) to UNITA; 2) H.R. 3609, introduced by Mark Siljander (R-MI), will provide a $27 million in military assistance to UNITA; 3) H.R. 3598, introduced by Bill McCollum (R-FL), will prohibit trade and loan to Angola and curtail new U.S. investment. Any of these bills...
The Action Alert explains House bills that would provide aid to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a resistance group that has been attempting to overthrow the Angolan government for the past ten years, and urges opposition to such aid. Three bills have been introduced: 1) H.R. 3472, introduced by Claude Pepper (D-FL), will provide $27 million in "humanitarian aid" (food, clothing, and medicine) to UNITA; 2) H.R. 3609, introduced by Mark Siljander (R-MI), will provide a $27 million in military assistance to UNITA; 3) H.R. 3598, introduced by Bill McCollum (R-FL), will prohibit trade and loan to Angola and curtail new U.S. investment. Any of these bills will aid the South African government, the principal sponsor of UNITA, to attain regional hegemony and further entrench apartheid. South Africa has been sponsoring UNITA since 1975 in an effort to establish a satellite buffer state. It is using its own troops and air power to support UNITA's military exploits. With a UNITA victory, Angola would no longer be a supporter of efforts to end South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia and eliminate apartheid. Proponents of the three bills, including the Reagan Administration, have tried to justify U.S. assistance to UNITA as a means of combatting Soviet-Cuban expansionism in the region. (Currently, 25,000 Cuban troops are in Angola by invitation of the Angolan government, to help counteract South African aggression in the region.) They exclude from their arguments how South Africa would gain from removing the current Angolan government. Please express opposition to the three bills to your Congressional representatives and the White House.
