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16. In Angola the war had been confined to the borders.
The
MPLA was the most important movement because it had the best
people. It had sprung from the white Communist Party of Angola,
was rather an urban movement and had little to do with the people
in the jungle. The FLNA had been supported by Zaire and the USA.
In any
UNITA had had contacts with the Portuguese Army.
settlement UNITA was important because of Savimbi who was the
natural leader of the most important tribe, the Ovimbundu, numbering
2 million out of the 4 million population.
The MPLA had had to
leen on the Soviet Union through, in part, the Portuguese
Communist Party not because of the war with Portugal but because
of that against the FNLA and UNITA. On the 10th November 1975, as
independence was being declared, the Russians brought weapons to Luand
for the MPLA. The Mozambique state worked, the government governed,
whereas in Angola it was confined to the towns and dependent on the
Cubans.
17.
Relations between Mozambique and Portugal had improved
recently not because Mozambique needed Portuguese co-operation
but because there were not so many internal problems in Mozambique.
Relations between Portugal and Angola had been very difficult and
the situation in Angola was deteriorating very rapidly both the
economy and the health of the people. The Cubans had no
communication with the local population; they were not liked and
could not help to get the economy running again; there was a need
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