Luanda, 28 th March 2008

We are commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Kuanavale which is already considered the greatest battle among regular forces that has been registered after the second World War.

At that period South Africa was being ruled by a racist white minority government who hade absolute control over power on political, military, economical and mass-media front, through a policy of racial discrimination called “apartheid”.

The regions in which the majority of black population lived hade been transformed into bantustans, a sort of cheap labour reserve that also made it possible to control people in active age in order to prevent them to take part in any movement of protest.

Namibia, which has an extensive border with Angola, was illegally occupied and administered by the government of South Africa, in violation of United Nations resolutions.

The peoples of South Africa and Namibia have launched national liberation struggle against oppression to conquer their freedom under the banners of ANC and SWAPO respectively.

The white minority government of South Africa decided then to carry out its policy of “constellation of states” which meant extending its domination to all countries in the region and destabilising them politically, militarily, economically and socially, through direct support of subversive forces, terrorist acts against leaders and high officials of the liberation movements, ANC and SWAPO, air and terrestrial military attacks on identified targets in neighbouring countries or the occupation of parts of their territories.

When the South African Defence Forces decided to carry out the offensive to occupy the locality of Cuito Kuanavale they already had control of the border between Cunene Province and Namibia and it was their intention to seize control of Kuando Kubango Province to facilitate the penetration by Unita allies in infiltrating paths that would enable them to consolidate positions in the northern part of the Benguela Railway, with the aim of spreading the guerrilla warfare and thus provoking the collapse of the Government. This collapse would also lead to the neutralization of the rear bases of the ANC and SWAPO.

The military units of the People’s Armed Forces for Liberation of Angola - FAPLA, defended Cuito Kuanavale heroically and defeated the South African forces.

They then consolidated the defence of this position with a small contingent of Cuban forces, until the arrival two or three months later of reinforcements for the Cuban contingent, in order to initiate the victorious offensive in different directions against the South African forces that had invaded the country.

These forces lost their fighting capacity and were forced to withdraw from Angola unconditionally, following an agreement reached in a European country between government delegations of Angola and South Africa.

At that time there were sufficient human and military resources in Angola to cross the border on the way to Windhoek, capital of Namibia.

Angola and Cuba set then their conditions for settlement of the conflict with South Africa, thus contributing decisively to a radical change in the southern region of the continent.

These conditions led to the definitive withdrawal of the South African occupying forces and to the final negotiation of the Tripartite Agreements on Peace and Security in Southwest Africa (Angola and Namibia) concluding a process that had been taking place since early eighties with no end in sight.

They also led to the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 435/78 which resulted in the independence of Namibia, the forced retirement of the Nationalist Party leader and profound changes in South African domestic policies.

The Cuban internationalist forces withdrew gradually to Cuba when the military aggression ceased definitely against Angola.

The battle of Cuito Kuanavale constituted therefore a decisive turning point in a war that was lasting for many years and during which the young Angolan State suffered pressures and threats from the big powers, and direct aggression of military forces they financed, supported and armed.

This great victory led to the coronation of a profound study of the military situation in the country, which culminated in the increase of the technical and military capacity of the Angolan Government’s armed forces, FAPLA (People’s Armed Forces for Liberation of Angola) and its Cuban allies deployed along the 16th parallel, both establishing for the first time air and terrestrial superiority that changed the balance of power in the theatre of operations.

This victory, associated to a huge and far-reaching political and diplomatic effort, has permitted a deeply disruption of the strategic plans intended against our country, thus managing to break up part of the alliances that support the plot.

The material evidence of the military defeat of the apartheid regime, in other words, the military hardware hasty abandoned can still be found today on the battlefield.

It is precisely in that location that the Angolan Government now plans to build a monument to honour the combined victory of Angola and Cuba, the progressive forces of our Continent and all those who supported us.

The monument will also highlight the patriotism and total commitment of the Angolan youth who engaged in the battle with no limits to safeguard the independence, national sovereignty and the integrity of our borders.

This is a historical deed that must be preserved and made widely known, because of its military, political and diplomatic significance and, above all, because of the prospect of peace and freedom that it created for the Southern African peoples.

We praise this deed because it constituted, undoubtedly, the fundamental pre-condition for peace and national reconciliation in Angola.

With this victory in Cuito Kuanavale and the subsequent measures taken later on, the major external factors which still conditioned the conflict in Angola were eliminated, thus opening a favourable path for its internal solution.

It was within this new context that the Bicesse Agreement on peace in Angola was negotiated and signed, but whose application, for reasons known by everybody, was only definitely concluded and completed by a Protocol in Lusaka and a Memorandum of Understanding in Luena, in April 2002.

Southern Africa became a different political, social and economic reality. The countries of the region got emancipated, its people became masters of their destiny and they are today the actors of their own histories, thanks to the outcome achieved in Cuito Kuanavale.

Recalling this is tantamount to recollection of peace, it is to reject war and violence as means of solving problems.

In Cuito Kuanavale we drew a great lesson. No one can prevent people from being free, independent, and sovereign when they are right and determined. No one can prevent them from tracing their own path to retrieve their dignity and build their future.

The reality of facts refutes and annuls the intention of those who, defeated in this historic battle, still try through various subterfuges and obvious distortions to also claim a victory that does not belong to them, by invoking the purported conquest of objectives they never initially announced.

In this occasion, I would like to express my satisfaction for having met some of those responsible for this extraordinary victory we achieved twenty years ago.

I pay homage to all participants, known and unknown heroes of the Cuito Kuanavale Battle. I express on behalf of the Angolan People my recognition and gratitude for all they made for Angola and Africa.

Honour and glory to the heroes and to people of goodwill.