Angolan Army: Rebel Leader Is Dead
By CASIMIRO SIONA
Associated Press Writer
February 22, 2002, 7:43 PM EST
LUANDA, Angola -- Jonas Savimbi, leader of the rebel group that has fought
the government and frustrated peace efforts for nearly three decades, was
killed Friday in a military attack on UNITA forces in southeast Angola, the
army and government said.
The armed forces said Savimbi, 67, died around 3 p.m. in an offensive in
Moxico province.
There was no independent confirmation of the claim. UNITA officials, who are
hiding in the Angolan bush, were not available for comment.
Savimbi was a key U.S. ally during the 1980s as the United States sought to
counter Soviet advances in Africa. His influence waned, however, as the
Soviet Union came apart and U.S. relations with Angola improved over the
past decade.
If confirmed, Savimbi's death could open the way for long-lasting peace in
the southwest African country where civil war has raged off and on for 27
years.
Half a million people are believed to have died because of the war, though
there are no confirmed figures. About 4 million people -- roughly one-third
of the population -- have been driven from their homes by the fighting.
Savimbi's animosity toward President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled
since 1977, has repeatedly frustrated international efforts to end the
fighting. Three peace deals have collapsed.
The government said Friday it was ready to fully implement a 1994 peace
accord calling for regular democratic elections.
Aldemiro Vaz de Conceicao, the presidential spokesman, said the army was
holding Savimbi's body in Moxico.
"We're going to broadcast television footage of the body," Vaz de Conceicao
told The Associated Press by telephone. The footage wasn't expected to
arrive in Luanda until Saturday because of bad weather.
In several neighborhoods, local residents hooted their car horns in
celebration Friday.
Police urged calm. Two police helicopters hovered over the coastal city, and
red tracers from automatic weapons fired by the presidential guard streaked
across the night sky. Several thousand elite troops were guarding the
presidential palace on the outskirts of the capital.
It was not clear whether anyone from UNITA's ranks could replace Savimbi.
UNITA vice president Antonio Dembo and Savimbi's close aide Paulo Lukamba
Gato are believed to be alive and hiding in rural Angola.
His death could also prompt a power struggle within the ruling Popular
Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, which was united by the
fight against Savimbi.
The army in recent months has said it was closing in on Savimbi's column,
which was moving through the rural province of Moxico, about 480 miles
southeast of Luanda. Savimbi had not been seen for several years.
UNITA is believed to have a stockpile of diamonds, sold on the international
black market, that has allowed it to keep fighting despite U.N. oil and arms
sanctions. The government has financed its war through offshore oil
production.
Human rights groups accuse both sides of atrocities.
Born into a poor family in the village of Munhango in Angola's central
highlands, Savimbi was a university-educated guerrilla who spoke three
African languages and four European languages.
He founded UNITA, the Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola, in 1966 to battle the colonial Portuguese
administration, and ruled the group ruthlessly for three decades.
Civil war first erupted after the country gained independence from Portugal
in 1975.
At the time, the MPLA, emboldened by Cuban military might, launched an
offensive, driving Savimbi deep into the bush in what became known as the
movement's fabled "Long March."
UNITA regrouped, and began receiving the support of South African troops and
CIA covert aid.
Savimbi became a key player in the Cold War struggle for dominance in
Africa, becoming a proxy for the United States and South Africa in the
battle against the Marxist government.
Savimbi enjoyed the strong support during the 1980s of the Reagan
administration, which saw him as a stalwart anti-communist rebel in his
fight against the pro-Soviet government and its Cuban allies. He was
received at the White House like a head of state in 1986, and Savimbi's
UNITA forces received millions in covert American assistance.
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester A.
Crocker said Savimbi had "a world-class strategic mind."
"It was difficult not to be impressed by this Angolan, who combined the
qualities of warlord, paramount chief, demagogue, and statesman," Crocker
wrote in his 1992 book "High Noon in Southern Africa."
However, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the government dropped its
Marxist policies and began aligning itself more closely to the United
States, prompting U.S. oil companies to invest billions of dollars in the
country and Western powers to push for democracy.
In 1992, Savimbi rejected his loss in Angola's first-ever elections and
returned to war, earning himself further international isolation.
Today, the government enjoys close ties with Washington. Dos Santos is
scheduled to meet in Washington next week with President Bush and Secretary
of State Colin Powell.
In 1994, the United Nations brokered a peace accord for Angola, but the
accord collapsed four years later, launching the country back into civil
war. Over the years, Savimbi amassed a fighting force of more than 60,000
men but, crucially, always lacked the MPLA's air power.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press
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