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IRIN Web Special on Cabinda
Cabinda, one of Africa’s longest, least reported conflicts - Continued
Ordinary Cabindans are often unheard victims of the protracted war.
Credit: IRIN
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According to the report, the FAA had prohibited peasants in the interior of Cabinda from farming without the presence of a soldier, "to prevent them from contacting FLEC".
The provincial government has since admitted that it was aware of human rights violations, but argued that the acts of violence were committed by "individual" soldiers and were not "institutional behaviour".
The deputy governor of Cabinda Province, Joćo Santos de Carvalho Mesquita, told IRIN: "The provincial government is aware of these reports and the accusations made against the army, but I must point out that these are isolated incidents and not institutionalised behaviour. These kinds of abuses are carried out by individual soldiers. The problem is not only in Cabinda, but throughout the country. The armed forces need to be educated on the rights of the citizens. This will take some time."
According to the report, villages in the interior, such as Makonkongolo and Chimuanda, had been targeted for "repopulation movements", with families coming from the south of Angola to the enclave to be resettled there. One Cabinda resident said: "After some time, all the children in Cabinda will have an Angolan father. This would have sorted out the government's problem."
On a recent visit to the province, IRIN spoke to 30-year-old Lourenco Gomes. Gomes, a FLEC-FAC sympathiser, recounted how he had allegedly been kidnapped, beaten and detained by government troops.
"It was around midday on 16 November 2002 when they came for me. An FAA truck stopped outside my house, with many soldiers. They grabbed me, blindfolded me and tied my hands and feet with rope. About 30 minutes later I realised I was in a military garrison," Gomes told IRIN.
"I denied knowing anything, since I had never been to the forest, the more they beat me. Some used their belts, others just picked up bricks and started throwing them at me. Eventually, I think they got tired, and thought they would not get anything out of me, so they stopped.
"I was put back on the truck and driven to another garrison. When I arrived there I was put in a hole in the ground, together with another young man. I can't remember how long I was in the hole, but we didn't get much food or water. One day the soldiers fetched both of us from the hole and took us to a place in the forest.
"When we got there, they shot the other man in the leg. After that they attacked him with their guns. They stabbed him with their bayonets many times. When he began to bleed they poured peri-peri hot sauce into his wounds...
"After a few months they got used to me and gave me small jobs to do around the garrison. One evening the soldiers who were guarding me got so drunk that they fell asleep with their guns at their sides. I took that opportunity to escape," Gomes said.
ARGUMENTS FOR SECESSION AND MOVES TOWARDS A PEACEFUL SOLUTION
Cabinda is separated from the rest of Angola by a sliver of the DRC. Central to the argument for self-determination among separatist factions is that, unlike mainland Angola, Cabinda was never a Portuguese colony, but a protectorate. It was therefore subjected to only 90 years of colonial rule, in contrast to the 500 years experienced by Angola.
Moreover, Cabindan separatists claim the enclave has its own distinct and separate identity, history and culture, and that it was illegally occupied by the ruling MPLA government following independence in 1975.
An ISS report, "Cabinda: Notes on a Soon to be Forgotten War", points out that the cause for self-determination has been undermined by factionalism since the early 1960s. The report, written by Porto, noted that the government has in turn used these divisions to argue that without legitimate and representative interlocutors, negotiations towards peace would be handicapped.
The government has dismissed ethno-cultural differences as a basis for self-determination. It says the argument is "not enough to grant it [Cabinda] independence, because all the provinces in the country have specific cultures".
Santos de Carvalho Mesquita told IRIN: "There has been so much mixing and intermarriage in Cabinda that it is really very difficult to tell who is a true Cabindan. One [common] thing is that we are all Angolan."
Negotiations between the government and various FLEC factions began during the 1980s, but these exploratory talks were characterised by mutual mistrust. During the 1990s several more meetings took place under the auspices of the Gabonese President Omar Bongo.
Analysts point out that although these meetings did not achieve any meaningful results, the Cabinda issue ceased to be one of "reconciliation" with separatists and became one of working out the future status of Cabinda.
Separatists have in recent years called on the former colonial power, Portugal, to intervene in the situation. However, the Portuguese have historically seen the Cabindan issue as an internal Angolan problem. Moreover, the kidnapping of several Portuguese workers in the enclave during 1999 and 2000 by both FLEC-FAC and FLEC-R did nothing to endear the Lisbon government to the separatists' cause.
Continued 
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