Jonas Savimbi a Rebel Fighter Since Early ‘60s
Jonas Savimbi, who is in Washington trying to raise money for his guerrilla war in Angola, has been a rebel for most of his adult life.
In the early 1960s, when Angola was still a colony of Portugal, Savimbi fought for independence. In the years since 1975, when the Portuguese granted independence, Savimbi has been fighting against the Marxists who came to power with the help of Cuba and the Soviet Union.
When the Portuguese decided, in 1974, to pull out of Angola, it appeared that the guerrilla fighting was over. The three insurgent News Background
factions that had opposed the Portuguese joined in an interim government that was to rule until official independence day on Nov. 11, 1975.
These factions were Savimbi’s UNITA (an acronym, in Portuguese, for National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), which controlled areas in the south and east; the FNLA, or National Front for the Liberation of Angola, which held much of the north, and the MPLA, or Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which controlled the central part, including Luanda, the capital.
On independence day, the Popular Movement announced unilaterally the formation of the People’s Republic of Angola. The other factions immediately took up arms against it.
The new government was given material support by Moscow; Havana sent troops. South Africa sent troops to support Savimbi’s group, and the United States shipped arms to both the National Union and the National Front.
By March of 1976, the National Front was virtually wiped out, but Savimbi and his group have continued to fight, with help at one time or another, he has said, from South Africa, Morocco and countries in the Persian Gulf region.
Savimbi, 51, the son of a railway official, is commonly described as charismatic and stubborn. He wears a thick black beard and dresses in military fatigues with a camouflage pattern. He carries a swagger stick and a pistol, and he wears a green beret that bears a general’s stars, though his followers customarily refer to him as “the president.â€
Savimbi’s wife, Vinona, is usually with him at his headquarters in the bush country of southeast Angola. Their two children live abroad.
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