2024-06-22 04:41:09
Petr Kocian survived the most important kidnapping in our historical past as a ten-year-old boy in Angola, Africa. In March 1983, partisans from the UNITA motion captured 66 Czechoslovakians within the city of Alto Catumbela and dragged them 1,300 kilometers to their army base on the different finish of the nation. They spent 1 / 4 of a 12 months there. Nevertheless, the abductors didn’t launch the twenty males till a 12 months later, on June 23, 1984. Petr Kocian gave an unique interview in 2019.
In March 1983, you and 65 different Czechoslovaks had been kidnapped by Angolan UNITA guerrilla troopers. Early within the morning they raided the city of Alto Catumbela, the place you lived. What precisely occurred?
Round six o’clock we had been woke up by gunfire. At first it seemed like some soldier acquired drunk and fired a shot into the air. However the taking pictures didn’t cease, quite the opposite, it turned stronger and stronger. Dad went to search out out what was occurring, and as quickly as he left, troopers began showing on the street and an IED went off subsequent to our home. As a toddler, I do not forget that the gunmen had been unusual, they behaved in another way, they’d braids on their heads. At one level we fell to the bottom. They began taking pictures at our home, broke down the door and stormed inside. That was roughly two hours after the taking pictures began. At the moment, we had been carrying solely fundamental garments and on our toes had been yarmilki spartakiade trainers. All I had was blue socialist tracksuit bottoms with elastic across the waist and a t-shirt. That is what all my gear seemed like with which I set out on the march.
Czechoslovaks in Angola’s Alto Catumbele | Photograph: Mates of Alto Catumbela – Amigos de Alto Catumbela/Fb
How did the UNITA commando deal with you?
They did not do something improper. They instructed us to pack up and go. That they had no destructive attitudes in direction of us. They had been very pleasant for the state of affairs, generally sharing meals with us and tobacco with the adults.
What do you assume was the objective of the abductors? Did they know that aliens had been on the scene, who might turn out to be priceless prey?
In any case. The objective of the troopers was to get rid of an vital industrial enterprise – a paper and pulp mill the place Czechoslovaks labored – and thus harm the Angolan communist authorities. The abductors themselves mentioned that they’d no concept we had been going to be there. Maybe they solely suspected that there could be Cubans in Alto Catumbela. However they had been evacuated earlier than the ambush as a result of the safety state of affairs was clearly deteriorating.
The Czechoslovak regime was accountable for us staying there. The economic system performed a vital position. He acquired some huge cash for the truth that we had been in Angola and didn’t wish to interrupt the cooperation. For instance, per week earlier than the assault, a consultant of the polytechnic came visiting. She was investigating the state of affairs on the spot. Then she went again to the metropolis of Luanda on her excessive heels. We then imagined with a bitter smile how she was marching by way of the jungle with us, outfitted like this.
So UNITA didn’t go to Alto Catumbela on goal for you. Did the troopers present that they had been improvising?
Sure. They took us to a close-by forest and began to search out out who we had been. Males had been labeled based on whether or not they had undergone army coaching. They made lists and so forth. At that second, it turned clear that they needed to explode the whole manufacturing facility. Fortuitously, we prevented that from taking place. 5 tons of chlorine had been saved within the tanks. If they’d let the manufacturing facility explode, tens of hundreds of individuals would have died within the space. It will be a serious mustard fuel type chemical assault (fight fuel, first used within the First World Warfare, editor’s word).
The primary moments after seize should have been the worst. How do you keep in mind them?
We did not know what was going to occur. We sat in a eucalyptus forest, troopers and provide carriers marched round us. Then we went to the mountains for a march. For the primary time, we waded by way of the river, crossed the bush. Within the night we reached a local mountain village, the homes had been constructed of straw.
Abduction of 66 Czechoslovaks in Angola
Troopers of the UNITA motion, who fought within the civil battle in opposition to the then Marxist Angolan authorities supported by the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, raided Alto Catumbela on March 12, 1983. They took Czechoslovakians as priceless prey. After two and a half months of marching and using on the backs of automobiles, the prisoners arrived on the UNITA base. Not lengthy after that, the partisans launched the ladies, youngsters and 7 sick males. However the insurgents saved twenty males as a whip in opposition to the Czechoslovak authorities. They demanded official negotiations with representatives of the Prague regime, which might successfully imply worldwide recognition for them. Their request was lastly fulfilled, and on June 23, 1984, a airplane with the final prisoners landed on Ruzyna.
We acquired the primary meal – pasta cooked collectively, no person appreciated it. We spent the evening sitting there. In per week we remembered how we couldn’t eat it, how spoiled we had been and what we might give for such meals now. After about two days, the troopers knowledgeable us that they had been from UNITA and that they needed to take us with them. They instructed us to go to the bottom, which is 650 kilometers away (Czechoslovaks ended up going twice as far – greater than 1,300 kilometers, editor’s word). It was stunning information. Unthinkable that we might go it.
What did you say to that announcement?
The adults talked the troopers down and repeated to them that we weren’t outfitted for such an extended march that we couldn’t deal with it. However they solely acquired the reply that it could not be in any other case and now we have to handle it. The largest issues occurred with young children who had been unable to stroll alone. That is how black porters got here in. There have been dramatic conditions the place the moms escaped as a result of they had been going at their very own tempo.
You marched for nearly three months, by way of impenetrable mountain terrain, scrub amongst snakes and tropical animals. What issues had been there?
The primary weeks had been dramatic. We had been inside vary of the federal government troops, bypassing the large cities. Every so often we acquired into firefights. We crossed huge hills, rivers and swamps – usually in the dark. Initially, possibly 5 thousand of us went, of which 66 had been Czechoslovaks. We marched in line behind one another, troopers beside us.
Czechoslovakians kidnapped by UNITA in Angola. | Photograph: CTK
Authorities troops should have identified that you just lived in Alto Catumbele and that UNITA captured you. Did they attempt to rush you?
A number of instances through the march, planes flew over us, we hid. Authorities troops had been allegedly following us. With a purpose to be as inconspicuous as potential, we needed to camouflage ourselves in some areas. The captors smeared us with ash and blackened us.
Survivors of the Angolan abduction used to explain how they suffered from diseases – primarily diarrhea. You did not even miss them?
Diarrhea was in all probability the worst. It was unstoppable. I acquired up twenty instances an evening to go to the toilet. It did not assist anyway. The weight-reduction plan was dangerous, all of us misplaced as much as 20 kilograms. After a couple of weeks, the youngsters had bloated bellies like malnourished Africans. At the same time as a hungry little one, I used to be unable to swallow some meals.
After a couple of month of marching, a tragic occasion met your group – Slovak Jaroslav Navrátil died. What precisely occurred?
A few of the individuals had been in a foul state of well being on the very starting of the march and needed to be carried on improvised stretchers woven from bast, which the porters wore on their heads. As a result of we had been going by way of hilly terrain, individuals had been falling off the stretchers. That is additionally how Jaroslav Navrátil fell. He in all probability suffered a mind hemorrhage and died inside a couple of tens of minutes. We had been finished with it. The following day we mentioned goodbye to him, we sang the Czechoslovak nationwide anthem. The troopers allegedly buried him on the confluence of three rivers. After his loss of life UNITA planes dropped provides on us. For me, this unhappy episode paradoxically meant that I acquired new footwear after 600 kilometers of march. I did not must stroll in yarmilkas, which my mom had sewn for me with a chunk of coat.
How did the abductors understand loss of life?
One thing occurred that they did not need in any respect. The UNITA troopers needed to look as pleasant as potential, there was a civil battle between East and West in Angola, and to a sure extent I sympathize extra with UNITA.
Photograph creator: ČTK
Czechoslovakians in Angola’s Alto Catumbele
Czechoslovak specialists within the distant Angolan city of Alto Catumbela helped begin up manufacturing within the native paper and pulp mill. Throughout the Chilly Warfare, they got here right here with their households as a part of an settlement between the pleasant socialist authorities of Czechoslovakia and Angola. Petr Kocian arrived in Africa in December 1982 collectively along with his mom and youthful brother. Father was already in Angola at the moment. After his launch from captivity, Petr Kocian graduated from Masaryk College, on the age of 21 he turned the director of a hospital in Neratovice. In June 2008, he based the attention clinic NeoVize.
You had been ten years previous on the time of your abduction. What do you keep in mind most about him?
I’ve a couple of recollections that hit me. I see a number of photographs in entrance of me. We handed by way of devastated burned out farms. Within the central a part of Angola we entered a ghost city. It seemed like one thing out of the ebook Day of the Triffids, the homes and streets had been regularly overgrown. It was miserable.
The strongest feelings appeared instantly after the seize and the announcement that we might stroll such a distance. Full despair then occurred after the loss of life of Jaroslav Navrátil. We thought to ourselves: “We won’t survive this.”
Ultimately, you walked precisely 1,326 kilometers in two and a half months. And one other 1,800 kilometers on vans awaited you to the UNITA base on the southeastern tip of Angola.
Sure, at some point we got here to the locations the place the automobiles had been imagined to be, however we did not see them anyplace. The captors instructed us that she could not await us and that we needed to march the following week. We had been falling into lethargy. Once we lastly reached the second meeting level and noticed the automobiles, one man within the group could not imagine it. He did see the automobiles, however he went to the touch them if he did not prefer it.
However the anabasis continued…
Though we had been pleased that we acquired peanut butter to eat and that the worst was behind us, we quickly found that transferring in automobiles was simply one other horror – army vans loaded with varied baggage of canned items and different supplies. We principally drove at evening for security, with out lights on. There have been no roads, drivers tended to race one another, tree branches hit us within the head. However, we skilled daybreak within the bush, roaring lions close by, undulating Angolan panorama, acacia bushes, merely romance. It occurred {that a} soldier was taking pictures subsequent to our heads, the automotive was being chased by a pack of hyenas that had been leaping on it.
From the city of Alto Catumbela to the bottom of Jamba. The Czechoslovaks needed to overcome this route throughout Angola. | Photograph: Jan Kačer
After a while, you arrived on the UNITA base close to the town of Jamba, the place you additionally met the chief of the motion, Jonas Savimbi. What involves thoughts?
I’ve higher recollections of that. We had been fattened on the base, we got condensed milk. After that, the Pink Cross mission agreed with the abductors to launch the ladies and youngsters. We had been pleased to go residence, however on the identical time, my mother and brother and I knew that dad needed to keep there. On the finish, Savimbi mentioned goodbye to us, and a army parade befell. I keep in mind his fleshy hand, gold rings and fragrance. He bade us farewell, saying that he seemed ahead to assembly us once more in free Angola. Once we had been leaving for the airplane, we discovered that UNITA had additionally launched the boys who had been within the worst well being situation, together with Dad.
Do you keep in mind the kidnapping in Angola even now, after greater than 35 years? That’s, in case you are not presently giving an interview.
Actually. When it is nightfall and I odor the smoke, one thing usually switches in my head and I consider Angola, which the smoke jogs my memory of. My strategy is that what would not kill me makes me stronger. What I skilled in Angola is principally constructive. It was a really highly effective expertise. Now I do know that the state of affairs can change from minute to minute. You might be completely advantageous and immediately end up in a disastrous state of affairs. I at all times have a reserve in enterprise. After I drive, I take sufficient fuel. That is what Angola taught me.
Angolan Civil Warfare
The battle in Angola started instantly after gaining independence from Portugal in 1975. The ruling Individuals’s Motion for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), supported by the Soviet Union, Cuba or Czechoslovakia, and the Nationwide Union for the Whole Independence of Angola (UNITA), fought for energy within the newly sovereign state. which was aided by the US. Either side fought with indiscriminate cruelty. The multi-year battle, which plunged the nation into chaos and excessive poverty, lastly ended with the loss of life of UNITA chief Jonas Savimbi and the conclusion of a definitive peace on 4 April 2002.