There is little current information on the youth wing of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

In information dated February 1989, Angola: A Country Study reported that the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Youth Movement (JMPLA)

was founded in 1962 and converted into a training ground for MPLA-PT activists in 1977. It claimed a membership of 72,000, mostly teenagers and students, in 1988. The JMPLA conducted military exercises and political study groups, measuring success within the group primarily by an individual's commitment to the socialist revolution. ...

Despite the symbolic and practical importance of the political role of the nation's youth, MPLA-PT officials generally had a derisive attitude toward JMPLA leaders during the 1980s. At the MPLA-PT congresses of 1980 and 1985, party officials criticized youth leaders for their failure to encourage political activism. They also remonstrated against youth group officials for the bourgeois attitudes, materialism, and political apathy they detected among children and teenagers.

After independence the JMPLA was one of several mass organizations that

came under the strict control of the party and were given the role of intermediaries between the MPLA-PT and the population. ...

The JMPLA, which claimed a membership of 72,000 teenagers and students in 1988, became the only route to party membership after 1977. JMPLA members were required to participate in the Directorate of People's Defense and Territorial Troops, formerly the People's Defense Organization (Organização de Defesa Popular - ODP), and political study groups. The relatively small size of the organization, however, was indicative of the difficulty the government faced in recruiting young people from rural areas (ibid.).

In 1977, the JMPLA became a "party affiliate" and although "formally subordinate to the party ... continued to operate with relative autonomy" and by the late 1970s, along with other "mass organizations," became a conduit "for the dissemination of information about party policy and the encouragement of participation in programs" (ibid.).

With regard to the JMPA's activities, Angola: A Country Study reported that the MPLA-PT "assigned" the JMPLA responsibility for "guiding the national children's organization, the Agostinho Neto Organization of Pioneers [OPA]," and that "JMPLA leaders generally viewed the OPA as a recruiting ground for potential political activists" (ibid.). In addition, municipal committees formed to protect railways from UNITA attacks included representation from the MPLA, the government, the armed forces, and the JMPLA (ibid.).

In 1990, Youth Movements of the World reported that the JMPLA had been "the principal coordinating youth movement in Angola" since the MPLA achieved power in 1975 and was the "only sanctioned national youth movement," with other groups "forbidden" at the time of liberation (1990, 48-49). The JMPLA claimed to have a membership of over one million youth (ibid., 49).

With respect to the JMPLA's links to the government, Youth Movements of the World reported that several "youth-serving ministries," the Secretary for Youth [from the MPLA], and "especially" the JMPLA, were responsible for developing "national youth policy" (ibid., 48). The aims and objectives of the JMPLA-JP were reported as: "to promote national reconciliation and development in Angola; to mobilize the youth of the country to support the MPLA; and to represent the views of youth to the party" (ibid., 49). Its budget in 1990 was derived from

membership dues and subsidies from the MPLA and the government [while] ... its structure consists of a national congress which elects officers and adopts the work programme and an executive committee which directs the daily work of JMPLA-JP through a network of national, regional and village units (ibid.).

In more recent information, a 18 December 1998 broadcast from Radio Nacional de Angola reported that the MPLA Political Bureau had recommended that the first secretary of the JMPLA should be a member of the Political Bureau.

Televisao Publica de Angola reported on 18 December 1998 that the JMPLA had organized a demonstration calling for Jonas Savimbi to be tried as a war criminal by an international court. "Hundreds of youth" were reported to have participated, with JMPLA leaders and members giving speeches (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Angel, William D. 1990. Youth Movements of the World. London: Longman Group UK Ltd.

Angola: A Country Study. February 1989. Edited by Thomas Collelo. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aotoc.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2001]

Radio Nacional de Angola [Luanda, in Portuguese]. 18 December 1998. "MPLA Elects Political Bureau Secretariat Members." (BBC Summary 23 Dec. 1998/NEXIS)

Televisao Publica de Angola [Luanda, in Portuguese]. 18 December 1998. "MPLA's Youth Wing Blames USA, UN for War." (BBC Summary 24 Dec. 1998/NEXIS)

IRB databases

LEXIS-NEXIS

REFWORLD

World News Connection (WNC)

One non-documentary source contacted did not provide information on the requested subject.

Internet sites including:

Africa Online

Index on Africa

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge].

Mail and Guardian [Johannesburg].

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

United Nations, Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).

Zimbabwe Independent

Zimbabwe Standard

Search engines including:

Google

HotBot