African Activist Archive

Copy of letter from ACAS Executive Secretary Ed Ferguson to Representative Bernard J. Dwyer urging him to vote against aid to UNITA. Ferguson notes that the Cubans are withdrawing from Angola on schedule, in accordance with the December 1988 Agreement, and continued aid to UNITA could lead Cuba to slow down its withdrawal. Ferguson says President Dos Santos and the MPLA have declared their intention to amend the constitution to allow for multiparty elections, and UNITA has been invited to participate in writing the new constitution. This puts the Angolan government further along the road to a multiparty system than key U.S. allies like Kenya and Zaire. Continuation of the war now threatens upwards of 750,000 Angolans with famine; one of UNITA's tactics is to disrupt food supplies and relief shipments. While Savimbi may retain some ethnic support within the country, he retains few, if any democratic credentials. UNITA is blowing up oil pipelines. After the Gulf Crisis, it is absurd for the U.S. to sponsor attacks on a country that exports most of its oil to the United States.

African Activist Archive

[Dear Representative Dwyer: Will you please consider these arguments against aid to UNITA when you debate this issue …]

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