Anti-communist UNITA leader killed in Angola

AP Breaking ^

[GeronL]

Angolan Officials Inform United Nations, Foreign Countries of Rebel Leader Savimbi's Death

By Casimiro Siona Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 23, 2002

LUANDA, Angola (AP) - The body of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, scarred by 15 bullet wounds, is reportedly "unrecognizable," but the Angolan government on Saturday insisted the army had killed its longtime nemesis and informed the United Nations of his death.

The government appealed to Savimbi's fighters still hiding in the bush to surrender. The reported death of the leader blamed by the United Nations for wrecking peace efforts has raised hopes for an end to two decades of a civil war that has devastated this southwest African nation.

There was no independent confirmation of Savimbi's death, but state broadcaster Televisao Popular de Angola was expected to show footage of the body later Saturday.

Officials said they had not yet decided what to do with Savimbi's body, which is in Lucusse, about 480 miles east of Luanda, the capital, in the Moxico region where the army said Savimbi was killed in a gunbattle Friday.

A correspondent for state-run Radio Nacional de Angola reported seeing the body Saturday and said it was unrecognizable because of the bullet wounds.

Savimbi, who was 67 and led UNITA for 30 years, was a Cold War ally of the United States in a guerrilla war against a then-Marxist government, but became internationally isolated after he resisted peace efforts. He has not been seen for several years. His animosity toward President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled since 1977, has repeatedly frustrated international efforts to end the fighting.

Officials from UNITA - a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - are in hiding and were not available for comment on reports of his death.

Hermann Hannekon of the Africa Institute of South Africa, a research group, said previous reports of Savimbi's death had proved untrue. But "if they've invited journalists to see the body, they must be pretty sure it's him," he said from Pretoria, South Africa.

The Angolan government appeared certain it had killed Savimbi. Foreign Minister Joao Miranda informed the U.N. representative in Angola and the ambassadors of the United States, Russia and Portugal of Savimbi's death.

U.N. representative Mussagi Jeichande said he regretted Savimbi's killing but added, "We have to see this, probably, as the beginning of the end of Angola's war."

Miranda said government troops would continue to hunt down rebel units and force them to hand over their weapons. In a statement, the government urged rebels to surrender. The strength of UNITA's forces is not known but are though to number several thousand.

Dos Santos is due to travel to Washington for talks with President Bush on Monday in a visit announced several weeks ago. On his way, Dos Santos stop in Portugal - the former colonial power here - for talks with officials late Sunday.

Dozens of people were hurt by stray bullets in Luanda overnight as government soldiers celebrated Savimbi's death by firing into the air, police said. In several neighborhoods, residents honked car horns in celebration.

The civil war is believed to have killed about 500,000 people, 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, creating a humanitarian crisis.

The government said it would now prepare for an end to Angola's civil war and said it was ready to implement fully a failed 1994 peace accord that called for regular democratic elections.

Savimbi rejected three peace deals designed to end the fighting because they did not give him control of the country.

His death could lead to power struggles within the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, which has been kept united largely by having a common enemy in Savimbi.

It was not clear whether anyone from UNITA's ranks could replace Savimbi, who has ruled the group ruthlessly since he founded it in 1966 to battle Portugal's colonial administration.

UNITA vice president Antonio Dembo and Savimbi's close aide Paulo Lukamba Gato are believed to be hiding out in rural Angola.

UNITA is thought to have a stockpile of diamonds, sold on the international black market, which 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 claim both sides have committed atrocities.

The government army routed UNITA from its main strongholds over the past year, after a 4-year-old peace accord, brokered by the United Nations, collapsed in 1998.

Angola's civil war first erupted after the country's 1975 independence from Portugal.

The MPLA, emboldened by Cuban military might, launched an offensive that drove Savimbi and his UNITA guerrillas deep into the bush, in what became known as the movement's fabled "Long March."

UNITA began to receive the support of South African troops and CIA covert aid. Touted as a key ally against communism, Savimbi was received as a head of state by President Reagan at the White House in 1986. UNITA grew to more than 60,000 men, but always lacked the MPLA's air power.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Angolan government dropped its Marxist policies and moved closer to the United States, prompting U.S. oil companies to invest billions of dollars in the country.

Savimbi became isolated after rejecting his defeat in Angola's first-ever elections in 1992. He returned to war as Western powers pushed for democracy in Africa.

Born into a poor family in the village of Munhango in the Southwest African nation's central highlands, Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was a university-educated guerrilla fighter who spoke three African and four European languages.

[GeronL]

he started as a communist fighting Mrxists, weird. His group became anti-communist later.

[Twodees]

I was under the impression that Savimbi wasn't a communist, though most of the anti-colonial African groups in the 60's were. The first I heard of him was when the Cubans were meddling in Africa and his group was fighting the Cuban supported Angolan government.

Anyway, this ain't the first time he's been reported killed.

[GeronL]

yes, it could be another lie... when this fight started 30 some odd years ago they were all commies and there were 3 sides.

Dos Santos stole the election and they've been fighting ever since. Obviously the Clinton administration backed the dos Santos regime.

[Tokhtamish]

Savimbi was a self-seeking warlord, pure and simple. His death is a massive step in the right direction.

[GeronL]

dos Santos death would be the biggest improvement,dictators deserve death and he's one of the worst tyrants

[GeronL]

UNITA tried to surrender once and thousands were massacred by dos Santos, including Savimbi's son after they put down their weapons.... but thats par for the course for dos Santos

[rightwing2]

THIS IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL OUTRAGE!! President Bush cooperated with Communist Angolan leader Jose dos Santos to sanction UNITA and deprive them of funding and weapons even while providing Communist Angola with tens of millions of US aid every year. Now thanks to the failed Bush pro-Communist Angolan policy, the last greater anti-Communist freedom leader on the planet has been liquidated. UNITA is the last anti-Communist freedom fighter organization left on the world. Most of the others were defeated and their nations thoroughly Communized especially those in Africa. How strange that Communism is triumphing in so many countries even while we hear the constant tired refrain that "Communism is dead." Bush is now planning to meet with Angolan Communist murderer Jose dos Santos, even before the blood of anti-communist freedom fighter Jonas Savimbi on his hands has dried. Stand by to receive Bush protest information...

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #6

The root of all African conflicts is tribal. Savimbi was the leader of Obundi tribe, mostly rural peasants. Dos Santos was the leader of another tribe or group, the urbanized educated ones who are naturally more Marxists. Dos Santos' people are usually dressed better naturally. I met children of these urbanized Anglolans who came here to study English. They acted like lazy high school students. Hardly studied and busy having fun.

[Twodees]

Yep, I just did a search and read some things about him. He was self described as a Maoist in the 60's and visited China, and had also gone to Eastern Europe and Russia seeking backing for his organization, which the USSR refused.

This is at least the third time I remember his death being reported since I've been online ('95).

[Red Jones]

bump

[Lessismore]

This is all true. But Savimbi, like Noriega, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden had outlived his usefulness to the CIA.

[Scholastic]

Thank you Dave.

I just came from a press confrence held by Howard Phillips in which Frank Gaffney spoke as well. This is a sad day indeed and a shameful day for those "conservatives" who are still in the Republican party.

The Chester Crocker-Cohen-Kennedy-Clinton-Bush-Castro-big oil policy on UNITA must be opposed by all who love freedom and hate tyranny.

[Scholastic]

Ping

[rightwing2]

Glad you could make it. How did it go? That was a special treat to have Frank Gaffney there along with Howard Phillips. They both are amazing men. What did Frank have to say about Bush in regards to supporting Communist regimes?

[rightwing2]

Since that occurrance which began under Bush I, accelerated under Clinton I, and capped off in Clinton II, Savimbi has lost his support world-wide, his sympathetic Intelligence Community and Patriot Community supporters in the US were forced aside, and he slowly lost power to the International's man in town-Santos.

I saw the writing on the wall when Savimbi disarmed several thousands of his troops in accordance with the peace agreement with the Communists in Luanda and surrendered the diamond mines which had financed his anti-Communist freedom fighters for so long in the hopes of gaining international acceptance around 1999. Instead, the UN and the Clinton Administration condemned Savimbi every time the Angolan Army launched an offensive to crush him, even when his Vice President was assasinated by the Communists in 1994 shortly after the peace accords, he received the blame. It got so bad that Kofi Annan's report on UNITA depicted them as terrorists and the Clinton Administration, agreeing with the report, increased the sanctions against them.

I knew at that time that the UNITA freedom fighters were finished and that the best thing to do was to guarantee safe passage for UNITA out of Angola to the US or some other friendly country. The outcome, which had once favored the anti-Communist freedom fighters in their bids to retake control of both Angola and Mozambique, became pre-ordained in the case of UNITA. Once they gave up half their troops, weapons and the diamond mines to Communist control in accordance with UN strictures/demands, they were as good as finished.

[mathurine]

How's that jingle go" "If you've got a buddy who's tried and true, f*** your buddy before he get you." Politics get a lot tougher over across the sea. Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and the elder President Bush move about with impunity here, whereas losers in some places are shot up beyond recognition. Some way I blame those societies for problems such as this, and the situations in most of these far away places with strange sounding names are not likely to improve until the people there decide they don't want or need to live like baboons and jackals any more. I wouldn't give any foreign powers any credit for anything that happens over there; if any of them, including the US, had much influence, the places wouldn't be the violent, pestilent hell-holes they are.

[Free the USA]

Bump List