The Halloween Massacre (also known as the Three Day War) was a purge of UNITA party members and supporters carried out by Angola's ruling MPLA from October 30 to November 1, 1992, in Luanda, Angola. The unrest occurred as a result of the breakdown of the Bicesse Accords, on account of alleged voter fraud in the 1992 Angolan general elections, resulting in renewed military tensions, assassinations of public figures, and acts of terrorism. Thousands of UNITA supporters are estimated to have been murdered. [1]
Since independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola had been locked in a civil war between the MPLA and UNITA. [2] The Marxist–Leninist MPLA received direct military support from Cuba with the backing of the Soviet Union and other communist states, [2] whilst the UNITA branded itself as an anti-communist organization and received direct military support from South Africa and the United States. [2] Neither side was able to claim total victory over the other. [3]
As the Cold War began to draw to a close, Cuba and South Africa withdrew their troops from the conflict, [2] forcing the MPLA and UNITA into negotiating a political settlement. [3]
From 1 May 1991, UNITA and MPLA forces agreed on a framework to begin establishing peace in Angola between the two parties. [4] This framework evolved into the Bicesse Accords, signed by the People's Republic of Angola and UNITA on 31 May 1991 in Lisbon, Portugal. The United States and the Soviet Union acted as observers, while Portugal mediated the talks. [4] The accords set out a timetable and established certain conditions that each side agreed to meet by the specified dates. There were three key parts of the agreement; the beginning of a ceasefire (with the initial stages taking effect at the beginning of May and entering into force upon the signing of the accords), [4] the integration of UNITA forces into the Angolan armed forces (which was to occur upon the implementation of the cease fire agreement and had numerous provisions to establish the non-partisan nature of the armed forces), [5] and a nationwide democratic election, which was to take place between 1 September and 30 November 1992. [4]
Angola's 1992 general elections took place from 29 September 1992 to 30 September 1992. The MPLA claimed victory in these elections, taking roughly fifty-three percent of the vote and gaining one hundred and twenty nine seats in the legislature [6] whereas UNITA claimed thirty four percent of the vote and gained seventy seats. [6] For the presidency, José Eduardo dos Santos of the MPLA received forty-nine percent of the vote, compared to UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi's forty percent. [6] Despite having a higher percentage of the vote, dos Santos was just under the fifty percent majority required to be reelected. [6] Because neither the MPLA nor UNITA obtained the required absolute majority of the presidential election, a follow-up election was necessary according to the constitution. Savimbi, in spite of the UN mission's declaration that the elections were generally free and fair, claimed that the government had rigged the elections, and began pulling UNITA's soldiers out of the new unified Angolan armed forces. [6]
By October 1992, post-electoral unrest was spreading throughout the country. [7] On 20 October, unknown gunmen assassinated popular Angolan author Fernando Marcelino, sending shock waves through the country. [7] Two days later, a bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Banco de Comércio e Indústria in Luanda. [7]
On 27 October, UNITA issued a series of demands which called for a second round of elections, to be organized solely by the UN or other impartial observers, "impartial" state media, immediate withdrawal of riot police from the streets, cessation of "arbitrary arrest and persecutions" of UNITA supporters, new electoral registration procedures, a new ballot, and a new electoral code of conduct. [7] The MPLA issued a counter-proposal which agreed in principle to most of UNITA's demands, but also required that UNITA withdraw its military forces from all Angolan cities and voluntarily disarm. [7] President dos Santos declined to meet Savimbi and negotiate in person before the rule of law was reinstated. [7]
In the early hours of 30 October, Angolan police exchanged fire with UNITA troops at the Luanda airport, and twelve civilians were killed in the crossfire. [7] The dead included three civilian Portuguese expatriates, which the police falsely attempted to present as mercenaries fighting for UNITA. [7] At midnight, the UNITA militants returned and again opened fire on security forces at the airport. [7] UNITA as well as the Angolan police and army began setting up roadblocks throughout the city. [7]
On 31 October, Savimbi claimed the MPLA government had violated the ceasefire by attacking his political headquarters with artillery. [7] Several senior UNITA officials in Luanda were subsequently killed by the security forces. [7]
Although it remains uncertain who provoked the massacre, UNITA and the MPLA began attacking each other's positions in Luanda on October 30. According to some reports, the MPLA had planned to orchestrate a purge of UNITA members over the course of weeks. [8] Reports from residents of Luanda's suburbs claimed that "...arms were being distributed locally to government supporters and to former members of the security forces and militia", as well as reports that "police stations served as centres of distribution". [8] UNITA supporters were targeted in house to house searches by both police and armed government supporters, with some supporters possessing lists of local UNITA supporters who were to be rounded up. [9] Some were summarily executed while others were taken to police stations and later released, though often after being beaten. [9] Some people disappeared completely, with some human rights reports detailing accounts of security forces carrying out executions of suspected UNITA supporters. [10]
Many of the targeted were of the Ovimbundu and Bakongo ethnic groups, which were the main supporters of the UNITA and considered to be potentially disloyal. [9] Other opposition parties that supported UNITA's claim that the 1992 election results were illegitimate were also targeted. [10] This included the Partido Social Democrata Angolano (PSDA), Angolan Social Democratic Party, Partido Democrático para o Progresso-Aliança Nacional Angolana (PDP-ANA), Democratic Progress Party/Angolan National Alliance and the Convenção Nacional Democrática de Angola (CNDA), Angolan National Democratic Convention. [10]
Several leading officials from UNITA were killed in the massacre, including the UNITA Vice President Jeremias Chitunda, negotiator Elias Salupeto Pena and party secretary Aliceres Mango. [1] The total number of casualties ranges, with some sources saying the deaths numbered as high as 30,000. [1]
Angola was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. In the 15th century, Portuguese colonists began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. After the Angolan War of Independence, which ended in 1974 with an army mutiny and leftist coup in Lisbon, Angola achieved independence in 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola entered a long period of civil war that lasted until 2002.
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan War for Independence (1961–1975) and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war (1975–2002). The war was one of the most prominent Cold War proxy wars, with UNITA receiving military aid initially from the People's Republic of China from 1966 until October 1975 and later from the United States and apartheid South Africa while the MPLA received support from the Soviet Union and its allies, especially Cuba.
Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was an Angolan revolutionary, politician, and rebel military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). UNITA was one of several groups which waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974. Once independence was achieved, it then became an anti-communist group which confronted the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the Angolan Civil War. Savimbi had extensive contact with anti-communist activists in the United States, including Jack Abramoff and was one of the leading anti-communist voices in the world. Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002.
The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party, is an Angolan social democratic political party. The MPLA fought against the Portuguese Army in the Angolan War of Independence from 1961 to 1974, and defeated the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in the Angolan Civil War. The party has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975, being the de facto government throughout the civil war and continuing to rule afterwards.
José Eduardo dos Santos was the president of Angola from 1979 to 2017. As president, dos Santos was also the commander-in-chief of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and president of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the party that has ruled Angola since it won independence in 1975. By the time he stepped down in 2017, he was the second-longest-serving president in Africa, surpassed only by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
Elections in Angola take place within the framework of a multi-party democracy. The National Assembly is directly elected by voters, while the leader of the party or coalition with the most seats in the National Assembly automatically becomes President.
The Angolan Civil War was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements, the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
The United Nations Angola Verification Mission II, established May 1991 and lasting until February 1995, was the second United Nations peacekeeping mission, of a total of four, deployed to Angola during the course of the Angolan Civil War, the longest war in modern African history. Specifically, the mission was established to oversee and maintain the multilateral ceasefire of 1990 and the subsequent Bicesse Accords in 1991, which instituted an electoral process for the first time including the two rival factions of the civil war, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the de facto government of Angola, with control of Luanda and most of the country since independence in 1975, and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
The Bicesse Accords, also known as the Estoril Accords, laid out a transition to multi-party democracy in Angola under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II mission. President José Eduardo dos Santos of the MPLA and Jonas Savimbi of UNITA signed the accord in Lisbon, Portugal on May 31, 1991. UNITA rejected the official results of the 1992 presidential election as rigged and renewed their guerrilla war.
The National Assembly is the legislative branch of the government of Angola. Angola is a unicameral country so the National Assembly is the only legislative chamber at the national level. The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has held a majority in the Assembly since Angolan independence in 1975.
The Mitterrand–Pasqua affair, also known informally as Angolagate, was an international political scandal over the secret sale and shipment of arms from Central Europe to the government of Angola by the Government of France in the 1990s. The scandal has been tied to several prominent figures in French politics.
General elections were held in Angola on 29 and 30 September 1992 to elect a President and National Assembly, the first time free and multi-party elections had been held in the country. They followed the signing of the Bicesse Accord on 31 May 1991 in an attempt to end the 17-year-long civil war. Voter turnout was 91.3% for the parliamentary election and 91.2% for the presidential election.
The Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975 in Alvor, Portugal, granted Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November and formally ended the 13-year-long Angolan War of Independence.
The Lusaka Protocol, initialed in Lusaka, Zambia on 31 October 1994, attempted to end the Angolan Civil War by integrating and disarming UNITA and starting national reconciliation. Both sides signed a truce as part of the protocol on 15 November 1994, and the treaty was signed on 20 November 1994.
The Agreement among the People's Republic of Angola, the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of South Africa granted independence to Namibia from South Africa and ended the direct involvement of foreign troops in the Angolan Civil War. The accords were signed on 22 December 1988 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City by the Foreign Ministers of People's Republic of Angola, Republic of Cuba and Republic of South Africa.
Since its independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has had three constitutions. The first came into force in 1975 as an "interim" measure; the second was approved in a 1992 referendum, and the third one was instituted in 2010.
Relations between Angola and South Africa in the post-apartheid era are quite strong as the ruling parties in both states, the African National Congress in South Africa and the MPLA in Angola, fought together during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. They fought against UNITA rebels, based in Angola, and the apartheid-era government in South Africa which supported them. Nelson Mandela mediated between the MPLA and UNITA during the final years of the Angolan Civil War. Although South Africa was preponderant in terms of relative capabilities during the late twentieth century, the recent growth of Angola has led to a more balanced relation.
In the Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984, signed 19 March 1984 in Havana by president José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Fidel Castro, premier of Cuba, the two countries agreed to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola after the withdrawal of South African troops from Angola and Namibia, and after UN-Security Council resolution 435 on Namibian independence was strictly applied.
In the 1990s in Angola, the last decade of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), the Angolan government transitioned from a nominally communist state to a nominally democratic one, a move made possible by political changes abroad and military victories at home. Namibia's declaration of independence, internationally recognized on April 1, eliminated the southwestern front of combat as South African forces withdrew to the east. The MPLA abolished the one-party system in June and rejected Marxist-Leninism at the MPLA's third Congress in December, formally changing the party's name from the MPLA-PT to the MPLA. The National Assembly passed law 12/91 in May 1991, coinciding with the withdrawal of the last Cuban troops, defining Angola as a "democratic state based on the rule of law" with a multi-party system.
The People's Republic of Angola was the self-declared socialist state which governed Angola from its independence in 1975 until 25 August 1992, during the Angolan Civil War.