Historian identifies Cubans who died fighting in Angola

Posted on Saturday, 02.20.10
Historian identifies Cubans who died fighting in Angola
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

An amateur historian writing a book on a key battle of the Angola war
has obtained a list of the names of all 2,106 Cuban soldiers that the
Castro government admits were killed in that conflict.

Cuba's provincial newspapers published the names of each province's dead
around Dec. 7 1989, when all the soldiers' remains were buried in
simultaneous ceremonies throughout the island.

But the full list was not available until Peter Polack, a criminal
lawyer in the Cayman Islands, obtained it last month from a memorial in
South African to the struggle against Apartheid and colonial rule.

The Freedom Park memorial received the list in 2006 from Cuba's
ambassador to Pretoria, Esther Armenteros, so that the names could be
added to the Sikhumbuto Wall, designed to display the names of all those
killed fighting for ``liberation in South Africa.''

While the Cuban government put its Angola casualties at 2,106 soldiers,
others believe the real figure is higher. A total of 2,289 Cubans,
including 204 civilians and 2,085 soldiers, died while serving in
Angola, Ethiopia and other countries over 30 years, according to Cuban
officials.

Polack said he became interested in Cuban issues in 1992, when he met
two Cuban refugees in Jamaica who had fought in Angola. ``Their stories
were completely fascinating,'' he told El Nuevo Herald.

In the Cayman Islands, a British territory 150 miles south of Cuba, he
saw groups of Cuban would-be-refugees arriving aboard tiny boats from
what he called ``behind the mojito curtain.''

``It was very moving. It speaks volumes to me that waves of people would
risk their lives,'' Polack added. ``In my backyard I still have pieces
of some of the boats.''

Cuba first sent troops to Angola in 1975, on the eve of independence
from Portugal, to support the leftist guerrillas of the Popular Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in their civil war against two other
rebel groups that had been fighting against Portugal.

It later sent tens of thousands more troops -- overall some 300,000
Cuban soldiers served in Angola -- as the by-then MPLA-run government
fought against South African troops and U.S.-backed guerrillas of the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Havana officials took part in international peace negotiations,
concluded in 1988, and withdrew the last 119 Cuban troops in Angola in
1991, although the civil war continued until 2002.

Polack said he's writing a book, ``Black Stalingrad,'' on the battle of
Cuito Cuanavale, a key engagement during which 15,000 Cuban troops
helped Angolan government soldiers stall an offensive by South African
and UNITA (The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) troops.

Both sides claimed victory in fighting around Cuito Cuanavale from
December 1987 to April of 1988, which has been called ``Africa's largest
land battle since World War II.'' But the result was more of a stalemate
that forced all sides to start serious peace talks and eventually led to
the departure of Cuban and South African troops from Angola and the
independence of Namibia.

Relatives of the Cuban casualties during the island's 16-year
involvement in the Angola war were notified of the deaths by small
groups of Revolutionary Armed Forces officers and local Communist Party
officials.

Cuba did not announce the number of its dead until 1989, when it staged
the Dec. 7 ``National Day of Mourning'' and reaffirmation of the
government's ``internationalist'' spirit.

Historian identifies Cubans who died fighting in Angola - Miami-Dade
Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com (20 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/20/1490868/historian-identifies-cubans-who.html