Three Stars Over Luanda

"Three Stars above Luanda" is a human rights political thriller set in Angola's capital city. For some time it had been thought that Jonas Savimbi, a cold warrior blessed by President Reagan for his rebellion against the communist government, would follow through on the peace agreement brokered by UN Representative Maitre Beye. But that was not to be, and in the second half of 1998, after he resumed the civil war, it was thought that he just might send his guerillas into Luanda. Security forces were on full alert. While the historical setting is accurate enough, the story itself is pure fiction. A well known reporter is murdered by car thieves, and Matt Sheridan, a Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission smells a rat given the state apparatus of repression. He also sees this as an opportunity to give visibility to human rights issues, since the all pervasive abuse is not mentioned in any media except for the Catholic radio. Partnered by two human rights activists, Benedetta Lincolonha, a Professor and lawyer at the Catholic Law School and Angelo, a Catholic priest, the investigation of the facts highlights many questions that call for further investigations. Their progress however is being closely followed by General Bernardo, chief of the secret service. He ordered the journalist assassinated, and had previously tapped Angelo's house because the priest was a public critic of police abuse of street kids for whom he runs a training center. The case is further complicated when the police arrest three car thieves (at the General's request, since he wants to put an end to the investigations, and all suspicions that the secret service might be involved). When the thieves are displayed triumphantly on television, one of them in a coffin, Matt realizes that the so-called leader is far too young to be the man described to him previously by witnesses at the scene of the crime. Some days later a newspaper reports that the thieves were tortured into confessing to the murder. The three rights activists are now convinced that they are on to a hot case that will garner traction in the media if exposed. They are determined to show that the secret service is involved in the murder of the reporter, and the arrest of three innocent men. Benedetta decides to defend the robbers in court, where the full story will be argued before a judge plus the media for the whole world to see. However General Bernardo has other ideas, and hopes to lead them into a blind alley. In October 2001 Matt gets a whiff of an even bigger story. The government's army is reported to have engaged in a scorched earth policy after a Provincial battle with Savimbi's army. The guerilla's defeated, the army drove the wretched villagers from that entire region into camps where the international community of NGO's and the UN had to take care of them. Could this be a military strategy designed to take the water from the fish, to starve Savimbi of his support, fresh recruits and food supplies? General Bernardo realizes that his own future is now in danger, and he goes for the kill.