The Agony of Becoming Free

With independence from Portugal fast approaching, Angola is careering toward a bloodbath even more rapidly than the mother country. Last week, when the Portuguese high commissioner, General Antonio da Silva Cardoso, flew home for consultations in Lisbon, he left behind a torn and bleeding land. Fighting among rival liberation movements engulfed the last of Portugal's African territories and posed the prospect of a Nov. 11 changeover that will be anything but orderly. Said a bitter Silva Cardoso: "Perhaps they can just mail the flag to Lisbon."

An estimated 4,000 people, mostly blacks, have died in the fighting since the first of the year, more than the number killed during the entire 13-year war of liberation from Portugal. In recent weeks, the fighting has been concentrated in the capital of Luanda, where rival groups are dueling with heavy artillery. Last week it spread throughout the north and central parts of the country to the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda and even to the relatively peaceful south.

Some of the bloodiest fighting took place in and around Malange, the central coffee-growing area 250 miles east of Luanda. Rotting corpses contaminated the city's water supply, and authorities called for an emergency airlift of quicklime. Frightened whites formed a massive car and truck convoy, but their road route was deemed so dangerous that Portuguese troops refused to provide an armed escort. Despite the perils, most of the convoy arrived safely in Nova Lisboa, Angola's second biggest city, where 20,000 white refugees were already waiting for evacuation.

Chaotic Scene. Others fled along the seacoast to Lobito and across the borders to South Africa and South West Africa. In the north, more than a half-million black Angolans, who had fled to Zaire during the guerrilla war and returned in anticipation of independence, were cut off from food supplies and threatened with starvation. Luanda was a chaotic scene as people fled the fighting in the slums and suburbs and crowded into the downtown area in search of protection. Thousands of blacks jammed the beaches, waiting for steamers bound for the still tranquil ports in the north, while whites camped at the capital's Craveiro Lopes Airport, clamoring for flights to Lisbon.

To cope with the crisis, Portugal increased its emergency airlift to six jets a day. That is expected to increase this week when France, at Lisbon's request, joins in the evacuation effort. Even so, it is doubtful whether the airlift will be able to accommodate everybody. Virtually all of the 400,000 remaining whites want out, and nobody is sure how many of Angola's estimated 5.4 million blacks will try to leave.

The three feuding movements, whose differences were papered over during the war with Portugal, have virtually nothing in common:

> The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.), with 33,000 regulars, some of them foreign mercenaries, has the greatest military strength. Based in Zaire, the group is headed by Holden Roberto, 52, a missionary-educated soldier of fortune, and backed by Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko, Roberto's brother-in-law. It is known to be supported by Western business interests, but has obtained most of its arms from China.

> The Marxist-oriented Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.), the F.N.L.A.'s chief rival, commands 23,000 regulars and perhaps 10,000 armed civilians, who have been dubbed "Street Soviets" by other movements. The M.P.L.A. has reinforced its strength with Soviet and Czech arms. Headed by Agostinho Neto, 52, the M.P.L.A. draws most of its support in the cities and from the Kimbundu tribe of north-central Angola.

> The moderate National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), headed by Jonas Savimbi, 40, has only 6,000 poorly armed fighters and has consequently stayed out of the fighting until last week, when it mobilized and fought off M.P.L.A. attacks on its southern Angola strongholds. But UNITA enjoys solid political support, and would probably win a plurality in a free election.

Since the first of the year, the three leaders have held three full-scale peace conferences. Each time, they embraced and agreed to stop fighting. Each time, the bloodshed resumed afterward. The most recent outbreak began when the Marxist M.P.L.A. sought to expel the pro-Western F.N.L.A. from the capital. The M.P.L.A. won the round, but the F.N.L.A. has since been massing for a counterattack at Caxito, 35 miles north of the city. Meanwhile, 600 F.N.L.A. troops are holed up in Luanda's nigh impregnable 16th century fort, Sao Pedro da Barra. In the north, the F.N.L.A. tightened its hold on Malange, and at week's end was moving toward the diamond-producing area of northeastern Angola.

Big Question. The situation is further complicated by Cabinda, the rich enclave separated from Angola by a strip of Zaire territory. A separatist group known as the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (F.L.E.C.) last week declared the territory independent. Although F.L.E.C. is puny, there are fears that if Angola continues to fall apart, Zaire will seize the territory.

As the situation worsens, Portugal seems unable to control events. Lisbon sent 2,000 reinforcements last month to its 24,000-man force in Angola, but has little desire to risk more lives in an unpopular war. Meanwhile, Portugal is regularly attacked by all sides.

Portugal has indicated that regardless of the internal situation, Angolan independence will be granted on schedule. Since pre-independence elections scheduled for October now look extremely doubtful, the big question is to whom Lisbon will turn over power.

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