Washington, D.C. — Writing in an independent Luanda weekly a year ago, Rafael Marques portrayed Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos as a dictator. At dawn, shortly afterward, he was arrested, and ultimately convicted of defamation. Today, Marques represents the international human rights organization, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa in Luanda. On Saturday, the Society and Angola's Catholic Church announced that they were launching a new campaign to bring the Angola government and the rebel Unita movement to the peace table for negotiations. AllAfrica's Charles Cobb Jr. spoke to Rafael Marques about the effort.
Would you tell me something about how this campaign originated? The war, of course, has been going on for a very long time. It's Africa's longest war. But did something specific happen that provoked this campaign?
In March this year I hosted a forum on behalf of the Open Society on the multiple consequences of the war and that is the forum that actually led to the organization of this campaign. And also the Congress for Peace last year organized by the Catholic church, led the Catholic Church Movement for Peace to start a partnership with the Open Society in this campaign against war. The whole [peace campaign] idea is already having an effect because the government, through its mouthpiece, the Jornal de Angola, the state's daily newspaper, called us "supporters of terrorism" because we are against war.
The government called you that?
Yes. This campaign brings up many issues. One: we say, essentially, that the war does not depend on the will of the President and Savimbi, but on the will of the people and therefore our work should be focused on mobilizing people's mentality about war. I'm 30 years old and I have never lived in an Angola in peace. So, all the reality that I know is the reality of war. It's easy for the youth to support the war; in a way they do not know any other reality besides this reality of violence. That's why we want, specifically, to address the problems that this war has created within Angolan society's mentality, like the mentality of war.
Secondly, what we are also doing through this campaign is to have ballot boxes in every meeting to ensure that people can express their will through a vote for peace, or if they are for it, for war.
Do you think the government and Unita do want peace?
No. They do not want peace. That's why they keep on finding excuses to justify the continuation of war. As you will see in many statements made by the Catholic Church, and maybe from civil society, there is no legitimacy for a leadership to kill his or her own people and claim that he is killing the people to save the people. That does not make any sense. A Bishop said it clearly: four million Angolans are threatened by sleeping sickness and a quarter of the Angolan population of 12 million is displaced by the war. Another 4 million might be threatened by Aids. So how many people will be left in Angola? That's the question we're posing. Any leadership with common sense would enure that this carnage stops, to serve the interest of the people. It's not by pursuing war that the government or Unita will get legitimacy, because essentially this war is destroying the people that should be the most valuable asset of any state.
Since the government has accused you of supporting terrorism, because of your campaign against the war, will they try and block this campaign?
That is why they are using this violent language, to label people who want peace as people supporting terrorism. And they are doing it through the state newspapers. This is a way of demoralizing people who are ready to join the campaign. That will not diminish our efforts to continue with this campaign. On the contrary, it gives us strength, because it shows us that we are going in the right direction. It also shows that the government, in fact, is not for peace in this country but continues to divide people through propaganda
You have to wage two campaigns, don't you? You have to campaign in the Angola of the MPLA - the government. And then there is the campaign - if there is going to be one - in the Angola of Unita and Savimbi.
That's another misconception of the Angolan war. There is only one Angola, and if we want to live in just one Angola we cannot serve the purposes of those who want to perpetrate the war in Angola by dividing Angola into two camps - a Unita camp and a government camp. We have a state that is internationally recognized. And for us to voice our opinions, we do not have to go to the bush. We can voice them anywhere we are, because that's what makes this country a country that stands for democracy, and a people that stands for democracy.
And when you talk about Unita, let me tell you that the worst Unita people are not in the bush but here in Luanda, dealing with the government. You have many Unita generals in this city, many Unita soldiers in this city. You have the Unita parliamentarians here in Luanda. Also, with the Internet, Unita gets all the messages and that's why Unita has been quite efficient now in responding to all the calls of civil society, and the calls of the church.
Early this month, the Unita representatives in Europe met with a delegation of religious people from some of the most important religious denominations, including the Catholic Church. They had a meeting in Paris. That means that that the work of also talking to Unita began a long time ago. I personally met last month with a Unita representative in Paris. The government is also meeting secretly meeting with Unita.
The government is meeting with Unita?
That happened as well. The chief of intelligence met with Unita people in Europe.
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Are you saying that Unita is more committed to this campaign than the government? Or are you saying that they are both pretty much in the same place?
They are pretty much in the very same place. What I'm saying is there is people are talking about reaching the other side - How do you take your message to Unita? People have been talking to Unita - informally - and that talk has never stopped. Our religious delegation met with Unita in Paris early this month and it was not a secret meeting; it was a public meeting. The government is the one that has secret meetings with Unita.
I am asking because the government said recently that it intended to continue fighting Unita if it did not disarm.
And of course Unita will not disarm. That's why we have to mobilize the society to go against those who wage war in Angola, be it government or Unita. Most of the people in Angola do not want war.
How worried are you about yourself? You've been arrested before, certainly for your journalism.
Yes. And I've been threatened with death in parliament, during a parliamentary debate by a member of Parliament. Early last month I was arrested again and held for a few brief hours. But that does not stop me from trying to live in a different place, in a different Angola. And again, I'm not alone in this fight. This is what most Angolans think.
