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FLEC 3 (Cabinda, Angola)

Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda

FLEC 1984 flag

Frente para a Libertaçao do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC) - 1984

by Jarig Bakker, 6 Apr 2001, after image scanned by David Cohen, 4 Apr 2001 from the "Flags of Aspirant Peoples" chart.

To the north of Angola proper is the enclave of Cabinda, which is rich in oil and therefore has considerable significance both to the Angolan government and the western oil companies who exploit it. In 1963 a movement called the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) was formed to press for independence for this territory. FLEC was largely inert during the war against the Portuguese and languished afterwards, although UNITA staged some attacks against oil installations. FLEC was reformed in 1984 and began operations against the MPLA regime. It is currently in negotiation with the government.
FLEC has had its own factional problems and there is (or was) also an organization calling itself 'UNALEC' (presumably, the National Union for the Liberation of the Enclave in Cabinda). Whether this was a split from FLEC, a UNITA front, or merely another name for FLEC, is not clear.
Another organization is the Cabinda Democratic Front.
A flag for FLEC has been reported by "Flags of Aspirant Peoples". It is shown as being a light blue over yellow over red tricolor. In the centre is a brown circle, containing a green triangle on which there is a white star. I have little information regarding the accuracy or symbolism of this flag, although I have seen the triangle/circle device, in black and white, on FLEC literature, so I believe this part at least to be accurate.
Stuart Notholt, 10 Jan 1996

As one of the co-authors of the Flags of Aspirant Peoples Chart in 1994, I hope that it may be of interest to inform you where John Edwards and I obtained our rendition from. It cam from two different sources; the description from Vexillinfo No. 66, Page 66; and the diagram from a book called Flags of the World - 1981, Page 248 (not the Barraclough/Crampton book). I can not find a copy of this book in my collection, it may have been one of John's books, who no longer lives in Australia. Our design was further confirmed by Mr. Jacek Skorupski of Warsaw, Poland, who kindly sent me a copy of his work, Flagi Malo Znane (Little Known Flags) dated May 1991. He had the central green triangle pointing down but everything else the same.
Ralph Bartlett (Co-Author, Flags of Aspirant Peoples Chart), 6 Apr 2001