Bitter Harvest of Civil War

In their desperate, headlong flight, some had waded or swum across the Cunene River into South West Africa (Namibia). Many had made the perilous journey in fishing trawlers down the reef-ridden coast to Walvis Bay. Still others had crossed the desert in broken-down trucks and cars. Then, beginning five months ago, a massive air-and sea-lift returned them to their native country (TIME, Sept. 22). By last week 300,000 of them had arrived in Portugal --os retornados (the returned), the refugees who are the bitter harvest of Angola's civil war.

Fearing anarchy, Portuguese settlers in the former colony have left homes, farms and businesses, built up over decades. Destitute in Portugal, many face the hostility of their countrymen, the apprehension of their government and the fear of left-wing political parties. Although unorganized, the refugees are believed to be potential supporters of a right-wing coup. Portuguese newspapers last week warned that rightist forces were preparing a coup on Angola independence day to oust moderate Premier Jose Pinheiro de Azevedo. Such tales, no matter how fanciful, have reinforced Portuguese mistrust and dislike of the newcomers.

The leftist-dominated press and radio have been carrying on a cruelly successful campaign to turn the population against the newcomers. The papers have created fears that the refugees will take away jobs in Portugal, which is already suffering 10% unemployment, and have been playing up the subsidy of 5,000 escudos ($200) that the refugees receive from the government when they arrive. As a result, there have been ugly street clashes between newcomers and locals, and schoolchildren from Angola are taunted by their classmates.

About half of the former Angolans have gone to the impoverished north of Portugal, where many came from, looking for work and help from relatives. Every day the local papers are filled with lists of people seeking long-lost relations. About 250 have been put into Lisbon's Ritz Hotel for lack of space elsewhere. The rest of the refugees are living in wretched shantytown camps, in hospitals or schools. The government pays for this through a new agency, established to help the newcomers, with a budget of $160 million. Hundreds are squatters at Lisbon International Airport.

Most of the refugees were Portuguese dirt farmers who went to Africa looking for a better life than the miserable existence offered by the rocky slopes of northern Portugal. Few got rich. About 10% are black or of mixed blood. Last week Maria da Silva Caldeira, 48, a widow who had been a washerwoman in Angola, sat disconsolately in a hangar surrounded by her ten children. "I did not have an easy time in Angola, but this is worse," she said. "They have spoiled our lives."

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As the plight of the refugees worsens, their anger grows. Most are furious at the successive Portuguese governments that agreed to grant Angola independence. Few differentiate between Communists, Socialists and other left-wing parties in Portugal. Luis Galv`ao Lopes, 39, formerly an Angolan office worker, spoke for many refugees last week when he cursed the former Portuguese high commissioner for Angola, Admiral Antonio Rosa Coutinho, calling him "Red Rosa" and the carrasco (executioner) of the refugees. What about a moderate like Socialist Leader Mario Scares? "The garbage is all the same," he answered.

The refugees today are an inchoate, though highly volatile mass that represents no immediate threat to the government. But if they settle down and organize, they may prove to be a formidable danger to the moderates as well as to the Communists. Meanwhile, many wealthy and professionally skilled Angolans have settled in Spain, France and Brazil rather than stay in Portugal. "These people are a gold mine of talent," said a top-ranking foreign diplomat. "If Portugal doesn't have the foresight to tap their skills, but drives them away, only the dirt farmers will be left."

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