Cabinda separatists call for dialogue

Cabinda separatists have reiterated their call for internationally mediated talks with the Angolan authorities, and a referendum on self-determination, the Portuguese newspaper ‘Diario de Noticias’ reported.

“The word referendum is not welcome in Luanda,” the leader of the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave/Armed Forces of Cabinda (FLEC/FLAC), N’Zita Tiago, was quoted as saying last week. “But if Angola prefers to resolve the conflict through the armed route, in detriment of dialogue, then we do not have another alternative but to fight and demand a referendum.”

Tiago has been “particularly active” in trying to win the attention of the international community to the conflict in the oil-rich enclave, the newspaper reported. He has appealed to Portugal, the former colonial power, and the United Nations. The three main FLEC factions have rejected Luanda’s offer to grant autonomy to the enclave, separated from Angola by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Two of them, FLEC/FAC and FLEC-Renewed, have turned to kidnapping to highlight their cause and are currently holding eight Portuguese citizens and an Angolan hostage.

In an interview with ‘Diario de Noticias’ over a satellite phone published on Thursday, David Monteiro, one of the five Portuguese held by FLEC-Renewed, appealed for a political settlement. “For now our security is not bad. But I have heard that the Angolan government is preparing a military intervention. If this happens then I don’t know what is going to happen to us. We think that FLEC and the Angolans should sit around the same table and talk,” Monteiro said.