1. Resistance is a dynamic process that leads men of profound conviction to organize themselves on a mass basis with the aim of liberating themselves from all forms of domination.

During the twenty-three years of its existence, the Jose Eduardo dos Santos regime has revealed itself as incapable of making peace, building national unity and guaranteeing socio-economic and cultural progress for the well being of the citizens. On the contrary, it has institutionalized corruption at all levels and has failed to provide equality of opportunity for citizens. It has destroyed the virtue of work and responsibility in the minds of Angolans by inculcating in them the mentality of dependency through permanent international handouts. It has adopted a permanent policy of exclusion and a posture of subservience to neocolonial interests to the detriment of our dignity and national independence.

Therefore, all the efforts that UNITA has made in the framework of the Lusaka Protocol with the support of the international community and genuine patriots could not overcome the exclusive, militarist and anti-democratic character of the Jose Eduardo dos Santos regime as manifested in the following:

a) The inhuman treatment of more than 70,000 soldiers registered at quartering areas

b) The deliberate transformation of the extension of Central Administration--- that for UNITA should have been the concrete expression of national reconciliation---- into a true slaughter of UNITA militants and everything identified with UNITA

c) The one-sided character of the Lusaka Protocol created in the UNITA Leadership an immense distrust from the first hour of its implementation.

d) The unilateral decision of Jose Eduardo dos Santos to break off any dialogue with UNITA including preventing the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General, Ambassador Issa Diallo from ever meeting Dr. Savimbi.

e) The adoption of a particular aggressive posture in the speech of Jose Eduardo dos Santos to the IV MPLA Congress on December 5, 1998 that buried the Lusaka Protocol. At the same time he declared war and read a death sentence for UNITA and its President. Could it be that our deeply African identity is not the same as he asserts?

2. The UNITA Leadership appeals to the international community and to African countries in particular for a better understanding of the deep-seated causes of the Angolan conflict. In effect, this conflict opposes on one side, the African patriots who are fighting for a modern society open to the world and scientific and technological progress, but always based in its Africanity, preserving its identity and ancestral values. And on the other side are those who obstinately maintain Angolans in sub-human conditions by defending values totally alien to Angola’s and African social and cultural reality.

The African people of Angola cannot accept the status of the aborigines of Australia as their destiny.

3. Therefore, the popular generalized resistance emerges as a necessity by all patriots that feel their lives directly threatened by the genocidal discourse of Jose Eduardo dos Santos which incited Angolans to hate and violence. As a result, those excluded by him will not hesitate, in legitimate defense of their lives, to make use of all appropriate means within their reach with the aim of establishing a dialogue with no issues excluded, and the establishment in Angola of a responsible Government that allows for the participation of Angolan patriots in the economic, social and political life. It must be a Government that protects private property and honors the international commitments.

4. It is the position of the UNITA Leadership that the military power and economic potential of Angola, in particular its oil resources, do not confer on Angola the right to turn itself into a destabilizing factor. On the contrary, Angola should constitute itself as a pole of stability, joint efforts and cooperation between people and States on the basis of the principles of mutual respect, non-interference and reciprocity of benefits.

5. The UNITA leadership reiterates its commitment to dialogue as the only option for the solution of all problems. In this context, it reaffirms its readiness for dialogue with all Angolan patriots including the MPLA as soon as the Jose Eduardo dos Santos regime understands it.

UNITA has a clear and constructive proposal on the question of Cabinda in the conviction that oil cannot be the cause of permanent conflict with the fraternal people of Cabinda.

6. The UNITA leadership strongly desires that 1999 witnesses concrete steps towards a durable peace, the pursuit of democracy in the country and a genuine coming together of the entire Angolan family.

Happy New Year to All!

7. For UNITA, 1999 will be the Year of Generalized Popular Resistance for the Conquest of Peace and Democracy.

José Eduardo dos Santos has made massive use of his Air Force in the offensive against the Popular Resistence led by UNITA. It has indiscriminately bombed towns, villages and even agricultural fields.

The Popular Resistence reports that it shoot down a MIG-23 fighter plane with the registration number C-456 yesterday, January 1, 1999, in the Huambo theater of operations. The military aircraft went down in the vicinity of the airport of that city (Huambo).

Bailundo, January 2, 1999