HUAMBO, ANGOLA – Can a terrorist group, former or current, ever be trusted to makeup part of a legitimate government?
You may remember, perhaps with a sense of disbelief, the Trump administration’s decision to enter into talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Trump and his lot were looking for an excuse to pull their troops out of the country, where they have been stationed for two decades.
Meanwhile, the Taliban are looking to regain control of the land they ruled with an iron fist in the 1990s. They see themselves as the rightful government-in-waiting.
But some are concerned that despite promises to the contrary, once American troops have left the Taliban will reimpose their barbaric form of Sharia law in which girls are not allowed to be educated and people can be executed for “crimes” such as homosexuality. With their brutal history, how can we trust that the situation will be otherwise?
And yet, historically former terrorist organisations have successfully made the transition to peaceful participation in legitimate government. Think of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa. Its members engaged in violent acts to end apartheid, but would anyone refer to Nelson Mandela’s leadership of the country in later years as a reign of terror or the former ANC head as a ‘terrorist’?
However, these groups can never wipe their records clean, no matter how much they profess to espouse good leadership. Case in point:
On this day in 1984
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) claimed responsibility for the bombing of a barracks in Angola that killed anywhere from 30 to 200 people, according to various reports. UNITA maintained that at least two Soviet and 37 Cuban officers were among the dead (Angola was a ‘client state’ of the USSR). Another 30-70 were injured; again the reports differed.
The attack happened during the Angolan civil war which only ended in February of 2002 when UNITA’s founder, Jonas Savimbi, was killed. By August of that same year UNITA gave up its armed wing and focused its efforts on morphing into a viable political party. It is now the official opposition in Angola.
So far UNITA seema to be playing by the rules of democracy, but will this continue? Only time will tell. The Taliban, on the other hand? Let’s just say, I doubt they can even spell democracy let alone abide by it.
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One reply on “April 19, 1984: Nationalist terrorists bomb military barracks in Angola”
El 19 de abril de 1984, a las 16:45 horas, un vehículo cargado con 350 kg de trinitrotolueno (TNT) explotó cerca de un edificio de 11 pisos en la céntrica calle Huambo. En este momento, los trabajadores humanitarios cubanos regresaron al edificio en el que vivían. La explosión sacudió y destruyó gran parte del objeto.
La detonación segó la vida de 15 constructores internacionalistas cubanos y de diez civiles angolanos, incluyendo entre estos a mujeres y niños.
La onda expansiva del artefacto dinamitero causó también cerca de un centenar de heridos de ambas nacionalidades, de ellos 66 cubanos: 34 mujeres y 32 hombres, en su mayoría constructores y personal de la educación y algunos de salud pública que cumplían la misión de impartir clases, curar enfermos, construir viviendas.
Contrariamente a lo divulgado por la prensa occidental, en ese edificio no residía un solo militar cubano o de otra nacionalidad, sino exclusivamente trabajadores civiles de la Isla, entre ellos un elevado número de mujeres.
Los primeros en ayudar a los heridos fueron los médicos soviéticos. Y como el hospital carecía de sangre donada, dieron la suya. Los geólogos de la empresa conjunta soviético-alemana Wismut también se unieron a las filas de los donantes. Accidentalmente se encontraron en este momento en el hospital. Allí estaba su colega y le trajeron fruta fresca.
Cuántas personas se han salvado, gracias a estos donantes, es difícil enumerar. Sus nombres no se conservan. Como en Angola, las enfermeras no pidieron nombres (debido al analfabetismo de la población local), sino que tomaron una huella dactilar. Pero un nombre se conservó accidentalmente. Es geólogo alemán J.Muller. En 1986, participó en las consecuencias del accidente en la central nuclear de Chernobyl en Ucrania. Más tarde, murió de una enfermedad por radiación.
Luego, durante la guerra civil de Angola, muchas familias en Cuba, la URSS y la RDA, también perdieron parientes. Pero participar en una misión internacional es un acto de su propia voluntad. Muchos, en los países de la antigua URSS, hasta el día de hoy están orgullosos de lo que han hecho.
Gracias a las muchas bajas de los voluntarios, se mantuvo la independencia de Angola.