Jonas Savimbi

For more information on Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, visit Britannica.com.

Jonas Malheiros Savimbi (born 1934) was a founder and the leader of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) which first fought against Portuguese rule in Angola and later against the socialist government led by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

Jonas Malheiros Savimbi was born on August 3, 1934, at Munhango, in the Moxico province of central Angola. His father was a longtime employee of the Benguela railroad. Savimbi attended the Protestant missionary school in his father's home village in Bie province and later transferred to another missionary school at Dondi. He then attended secondary school, first at Silva Porto (now called Bie), the largest town in central Angola, and then at Sa da Bandeira (now called Lubango) in the south.

Savimbi had already received far more education than most Angolans, who under Portuguese colonial rule had little opportunity of going to school. In 1958 his abilities were further recognized when he won a scholarship from the United Church of Christ to study in Lisbon. In 1960 he transferred to Fribourg University and then to the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, where he studied political science.

The Struggle for Independence

He was soon to put his knowledge to practical use as one of the leaders of Angolan resistance to Portuguese colonialism. Savimbi, however, maintained that his real training in politics came through his participation in the struggle for independence itself.

Savimbi credited the Kenyan nationalist leader Tom Mboya, whom he met at a students' conference in 1961, with persuading him to enter politics full-time. He joined a liberation movement called the Popular Union of Angola and within a year had been appointed first as general secretary and later as foreign minister of the government in exile. Disillusioned with the leadership of this group, Savimbi broke away and started to lay the groundwork for a new liberation front which was to draw most of its support from the people of central Angola, the Ovimbundu, to whom Savimbi himself belonged. In 1966 his work culminated in the founding of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) at a secret meeting in the remote bush country of eastern Angola. From this time Savimbi launched the armed struggle of UNITA against the Portuguese government in the Angolan capital, Luanda.

After the Portuguese dictatorship was overthrown in a military coup in 1974, Savimbi emerged from the guerrilla war to conclude a cease-fire with the new Portuguese leaders. He also signed an agreement with the two other Angolan liberation parties in 1975 in the hope that the three groups might come together and lead their fellow citizens in a peaceful transition to independence. This was not to be, however. Civil war broke out, and Jonas Savimbi then entered into one of the most controversial periods of his political career.

Civil War

Savimbi continued this war from 1975 into the 1990s. His enemies maintained that UNITA was a puppet organization in the hands of South Africa, the most hated regime on the African continent. UNITA also received arms and medical supplies from the United States and other Western powers. Savimbi claimed that he had a great deal of popular support among Angolans, especially in the central region of the country where the Ovimbundu live, a people downtrodden and dominated by their compatriots to the north during colonial rule. The success of UNITA early in the guerrilla war fluctuated. At times it controlled about one-third of the country, but mostly in thinly-populated regions in eastern and southeastern Angola. The most serious threat to the MPLA government was UNITA's sabotage of the Benguela railroad, which was crucial to the Angolan economy.

A Controversial Figure

Savimbi attracted some admiration throughout his career, for he was a natural politician, dynamic, charismatic, and a first-rate orator. He spent most of his time in the bush country of eastern and southern-eastern Angola, at his headquarters at Jamba, or traveling about in order to rally villagers to his party and to his guerrilla army. He also traveled in search of external support, as he did in 1986 when he was received at the White House and by some American congressional leaders who supported his resistance to the Cuban-supported government of MPLA. The burly, bearded guerrilla chief was seldom seen without his combat fatigues, beret, and swagger stick, in keeping with his image as a resistance fighter. In spite of his ability to gain foreign support (including from the United States during President Reagan's second term), the potential long-term success of Savimbi and UNITA was doubtful as a result of its association with the racist South African regime.

Still, Savimbi enjoyed considerable support among conservatives in the United States and other western countries, who saw UNITA as a foil to communist ambitions, here embodied by Cubans aiding the MPLA. Arms flowed to UNITA, despite U.S. leaders' reluctance to support the war effort openly for fear of antagonizing surrounding African countries. According to Savimbi, U.S. interests also subsidized the MPLA through $2 billion per year in oil revenues flowing into Luanda.

Critics of U.S. support for Savimbi argued he was a strange bedfellow for a country which purportedly despised tyrants. Savimbi was described variously as an opportunist and a butcher by those who found it strange that a former self-described Marxist would befriend a white racist South Africa, that a follower of Mao Tse-tung and Ché Guevara would be welcomed in the United States by conservative senator Jesse Helms. Savimbi, meanwhile, thundered that his Angolan opponent, Eduardo do Santes, was a puppet of Russian and Cuban imperialism.

Human rights watchers throughout the world worried that Savimbi was reported to participate actively in the execution of supposed witches, some of whom, coincidentally, were his opponents in UNITA. In September 1983, Savimbi allegedly participated in the burning of twelve women and three children accused of witchcraft, purportedly firing his trademark ivory pistol at one woman attempting to escape.

Elections

In December 1988, the logjam was temporarily broken by a tripartite agreement in which South Africa assented to granting independence to Namibia, Cuba agreed to pull out of Angola, and the warring sides in Angola began talks leading to elections. Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda hinted that Savimbi would go into voluntary exile, a report that proved incorrect as the UNITA leader went on the campaign trail instead after a cease-fire was negotiated to end the decade. For 17 months, a 16-year civil war which had left 350,000 people dead came to a standstill.

Savimbi's speeches were marred by threats of violence and statements, that by definition, an election would be unfair if he did not win. Despite the word of 300 foreign observers that the 1992 elections were indeed fair, Savimbi refused to accept a loss at the polls and resumed fighting six weeks later.

The civil war thus entered a particularly tragic chapter, during which another 150,000 people died and tremendous damage was done to what remained of a potentially prosperous country. Western support for Savimbi crumbled, though he was able to obtain enough weapons to regain control of about 70 percent of the country at first. By the mid-1990s, Savimbi's grip on the country weakened, however, and he once again entered talks with Dos Santos, agreeing to end 19 years of hostilities and demobilize UNITA forces in exchange for a power-sharing arrangement between UNITA and the MPLA.

Further Reading

For general background on Angola see Lawrence W. Henderson, Angola: Five Centuries of Conflict (1979), and Basil Davidson, In the Eye of the Storm (1972). On Savimbi's participation in the nationalist struggle against the Portuguese see John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, two volumes (1969 and 1978). On the role of Savimbi and of UNITA in Angolan politics after 1975, see Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, The Angolan War (1980) and Michael Wolfers and Jane Bergerol, Angola in the Front Line (1983).

A student of the conflict in Angola will find numerous reports, many of them conflicting, in the world press. Information presented here was obtained from Internet postings by International Peacekeeping News, Reuter Information Service, The Associated Press, the South African Mail & Guardian, and Voice of America.

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Personal Information

Born Jonas Malheiro Savimbi on August 3, 1934, in Angola; died February 22, 2002; son of Lot (a railroad stationmaster and preacher) Savimbi; married.
Education: Attended University of Lisbon, Portugal, 1958-60, and University of Fribourg, Switzerland, 1961-64; studied political science at University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 1964-65; studied guerilla warfare in China, 1965.

Career

Angolan rebel leader, 1965-02. Began agitating for Angolan independence from Portugal while a student in Lisbon in late 1950s; participated in the armed struggle against Portuguese rule in Angola, beginning in the early 1960s; former secretary-general of Union for the Population of Angola; foreign minister of Angolan Revolutionary Government in Exile, 1962-64; founder and leader of National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), 1966-02; carried on guerilla war against Marxist government of Angola, 1975-91; agreed to respect cease-fire in anticipation of free elections in September, 1992; presidential candidate in 1992 elections; continued to fight government of Angola, 1992-02.

Life's Work

From 1975 until his death in 2002, Jonas Savimbi campaigned relentlessly against the government of his home nation, Angola. The leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola--known by its Portuguese acronym, UNITA--Savimbi and his followers waged guerilla war in Angola, taking aid in the form of weapons and money from the United States and even South Africa. Only in 1991 did Savimbi agree to hold to a cease-fire that would allow the war-torn nation time to prepare for its first democratic election in 1992. As head of UNITA, the charismatic Savimbi ran for the presidency, promising a free market economy, regular elections, and constitutional reforms.

Several American presidents have given Savimbi support in the form of covert aid, state-of-the-art weaponry, and millions of dollars in hard currency. As reported in the Washington Post, President Ronald Reagan praised Savimbi as a "freedom fighter" who was seeking to expel Soviet and Cuban mercenaries from Angola and overthrow a dictatorial Marxist regime. Savimbi found many friends on the American right wing who considered him a noble soldier trying to save his nation from communist-inspired ruin. "UNITA says it aspires to nothing less than making Angola the first democratic, free-market country on the [African] continent," wrote Radek Sikorski in the National Review. "Savimbi has been feted in Washington as Africa's premier freedom-fighter--the pictures of his meeting with Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George Shultz in January 1986 adorn every hut in Unitaland. It is largely thanks to [the] U.S. ... that UNITA is such a formidable force."

Messianic Image Challenged

Other observers have strongly condemned Savimbi's motives and methods. Rakiya Omaar--executive director of Africa Watch, an organization that monitors human rights abuses--detailed offenses by UNITA forces in a piece for Africa Report. Omaar noted: "Africa Watch found that UNITA's objective is to intimidate civilians into supporting it or to punish them for assisting government forces. In eastern Angola, many of UNITA's tactics are designed to starve civilians.... In spite of its efforts to portray itself as a movement committed to winning the hearts and minds of civilians, it has in fact shown a callous disregard for their welfare." Even Sikorski admitted that Savimbi "has ended up by believing his own propaganda and accepting the cult he has nurtured as a confirmation of his messianic mission.... Ideology is something Savimbi can choose like the fashion of his soldiers' uniforms--patterned to please whoever provides the cloth."

Angola is located on the southern Atlantic coast of Africa and is slightly larger than the American states of Texas and California combined. Its rich reserves of oil, diamonds, and iron ore--as well as its strategic location--have brought it great attention from powerful nations elsewhere. In 1483 Portuguese explorers reached Angola and began a five-hundred-year domination of the country. The slave trade flourished from Angolan port cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and even in modern times much of Angola's petroleum and diamond wealth went straight into Portuguese hands. Savimbi was born during this Portuguese colonization, in 1934. He was a member of the Ovimbundu tribe, an ethnic group that comprises about one-third of the nation's population. His father, who was an important Ovimbundu chief, worked as a stationmaster on the Benguela railway and also preached Christianity to his people. At the time when Savimbi was a youngster, it was very difficult for blacks to acquire much education in Angola. Fortunately for Savimbi, he was befriended by Portuguese missionaries who helped him to enter an all-white high school. He graduated first in his class in 1958 and earned a scholarship to study medicine in Portugal.

Called to Lead the Fight to Free Angola

Savimbi spent two years in college in Lisbon, but his passionate views on his country's plight sparked a change in career plans. He became an activist on behalf of Angolan independence and soon had to flee Portugal for Switzerland. There he studied at the University of Fribourg and the University of Lausanne, promoting himself as a potential leader for a free Angola. For some time in the mid-1960s, Savimbi aligned himself with Holden Roberto, a rebel leader fighting the Portuguese from neighboring Zaire. A rivalry grew between the two men, however, because Savimbi wanted to stage the fight from within Angola rather than from beyond its borders.

In 1965 Savimbi decided to form his own movement and seek support for it. That support came from the People's Republic of China, which invited Savimbi and some of his lieutenants to a nine-month course in guerilla warfare. In Peking, Savimbi met Mao Tse-tung and other military and political leaders of the Chinese revolution. He also learned the tactics that he would use so effectively in Angola. Later, when he sought help from Western nations, Savimbi downplayed his stay in China. He told Reader's Digest: "From Mao and the Communists I learned how to fight and win a guerilla war. But I also learned how not to run an economy or a nation. The wealth of a nation is created by the initiative of individuals."

Returning to Angola, Savimbi began to mobilize the Ovimbundu people, as well as other alienated factions. The Portuguese government found itself besieged within Angola and ostracized internationally for its continued hold on the nation. On November 10, 1975, Portugal formally renounced its control of Angola. A quick and bitter power struggle ensued, and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA; a Marxist-Leninist "worker's" party), declared itself the new government. When Savimbi and his UNITA party protested, the MPLA called in Cuban troops and used Soviet-manufactured weapons to maintain power. Soon Savimbi was on the run, pushed into the bush country with only a few dozen followers.

Clashed With MPLA Government

But Savimbi was not so easily beaten. He attracted--and conscripted--a new army, pointing out to his followers that Angola had only traded domination by the Portuguese for domination by the Soviet Union. His arguments found fertile ground in Angola and elsewhere--especially South Africa, where the minority-run white government feared Soviet incursions into Africa. With the help of South African weapons, soldiers, and training, Savimbi was able to organize a powerful and effective guerilla force. Time after time, the Angolan government, with its Cuban reinforcements and Soviet war machinery, tried to annihilate Savimbi's army. By the mid-1980s, Savimbi's UNITA forces held vast stretches of territory, from which they harassed government installations, railroads, and supply lines.

Savimbi lobbied the United States for aid many times. His most effective mission came in 1986, when he visited President Reagan and appeared on numerous television programs, including Sixty Minutes and Nightline. For American conservatives, the bearded and burly Savimbi emerged as a hero, a fatigue-clad rebel who was trying to offset the Communist government in his homeland. Some influential politicians felt uncomfortable supporting Savimbi, noting that the South African government was supplying UNITA while occupying the neighboring nation of Namibia. Nevertheless, the Reagan administration gave Savimbi more than $15 million in aid as well as the weapons he needed to counter Soviet aircraft and missiles.

Peter Worthington explained the American right wing's position on Savimbi in the National Review: "Savimbi may not be perfect, may not even be a guarantee of a better future [for Angola]. But what we know suggests he is several cuts above the typical African leader and that he understands, or is coming to understand, genuine democratic principles. Given that his enemies are willing Soviet clients, at the mercy of Cuban troops, that makes him a reasonable bet."

Savimbi's Motives Questioned

At first Savimbi seemed to be running a campaign aimed at winning the support of his Angolan countrymen. By 1989, however, suggestions of human rights abuses by UNITA forces began to surface. Without question, the ruling MPLA party had committed numerous violations of human rights, torturing and killing suspected UNITA supporters without benefit of a trial. But several commentators, including Sikorski, began to wonder if Savimbi might be resorting to some drastic tactics himself. "Traveling with UNITA is like touring a showpiece Soviet collective farm," the reporter observed. "Everything is perfect, if the guides are to be believed, but if one tries to find out for oneself, going beyond the established program, armed guards will physically stop one 'for protection,' even when the enemy is five hundred miles away."

Africa Watch made a more thorough investigation in the spring of 1989. According to Omaar, UNITA "has systematically committed gross abuses of human rights that no conception of military necessity could possibly justify." Omaar told Africa Report that UNITA forces had laid land mines in fields to deter peasants from planting their crops, had conducted forced marches for whole villages to remote sections of Angola, and had in some cases deliberately attacked and killed civilians.

In the meantime, Savimbi was blamed for a breakdown in a cease-fire to the civil war negotiated by President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. The fighting continued in its sporadic fashion even though the United States was able to negotiate for the removal of both Cuban and South African assistance. By the end of 1989, Angola's economy was shattered, some two hundred thousand of its citizens had been killed, and many times that number had been uprooted from their homes, some fleeing to neighboring nations. Many citizens faced severe food shortages, and the fighting slowed international relief efforts.

By 1990 most of the Cuban troops had left Angola, and the Soviet Union's own domestic problems made further assistance to the Angolan government difficult. At that point, the United States stepped up its assistance to UNITA, and Savimbi shifted his base of operations from Angola's southern reaches to its north, where U.S. military supplies could easily be run across the border.

1991 Peace Accord

Through the spring of 1991 Savimbi's troops harassed the capital city of Luanda by cutting power lines and intercepting supplies. Eventually the MPLA was forced to admit that its policies had indeed contributed to Angola's shattering $20 billion debt and its almost total lack of productivity. MPLA president Jose Eduardo dos Santos agreed to peace talks with Savimbi and UNITA, as well as a package of reforms aimed at shoring up the sagging economy. Peace accords were signed on May 31, 1991, and the fighting stopped soon thereafter.

Savimbi then began conducting a presidential campaign throughout Angola, supported by his enthusiastic followers. He still promised that a UNITA-run Angola would provide a free market economy, regular free elections, and private ownership of land and business. During a rally in the capital city in September of 1991, Savimbi told the crowd: "UNITA's strength is not just measured in terms of its arms but in terms of its political presence."

In an Africa Report feature story, Anita Coulson expressed an eerily prophetic doubt about lasting peace in Angola. Noting that the country had been in a state of war for more than thirty years--including the period of insurgency against the Portuguese--Coulson stated that the citizens of Luanda are at least "still highly fearful of violent times ahead." The reporter added: "With all the 'dirty laundry' (including MPLA incompetence and corruption and UNITA human rights abuses) to be aired, the election campaign promises to be heated.... A popular graffiti slogan in Angola's urban centers reads: 'MPLA gatunos, UNITA asessinos' (MPLA are thieves, UNITA are murderers). Unless a strong third force arises out of the proliferation of emergent political parties, that will be the choice facing a politically unsophisticated Angolan electorate in 1992."

The results of the 1992 found Savimbi on the losing side, and instead of admitting defeat, he claimed that the elections were rigged. UN monitors who had been keeping close tabs on the election declared them nearly flawless with over 90% of the country turning out to vote. Savimbi refused to accept this explanation and plunged Angola back into civil war. The country continued to fight until the United Nations forced a second peace accord on the country in late 1994. In May of 1995 Savimbi met with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to begin the slow process of reuniting Angola, but the integration of the MPLA and UNITA was to prove harder than expected. Talks began to break down in 1996 when the government offered Savimbi the post of vice president, a position of title with no power. UNITA thought this to be an insult to their leader as well as their cause and once again the country found itself in the middle of a war.

The Final Days of UNITA

Angola continued to be wrought by the warring factions of the government and rebel powers, but as time went on, UNITA began to lose funding. By 1996 UNITA had lost all outside resources and found that they had to supply their continuing need for weapons and ammunition with a small horde of diamonds that Savimbi had secured. Over the next four years, UNITA would continue to fight, but the organization would continue to grow weaker as well as less popular in the eyes of the world. In 2000 Britain called for the removal of Savimbi from any position of power in any movement, which seemed to depart from Britain's long-standing commitment to fight against communism. Yet other countries quickly followed Britain's call for action, for it had been determined that the problem in Angola was no longer the threat of communism, but the on-going slaughter of thousands of Angolan citizens daily in a war that seemed to have no resolution in sight. The United States had already demanded the shutdown of all UNITA operations in North America, and refused to send any more funding to Angola until the conflict in government could be resolved. Yet Savimbi continued to fight for what he considered a "free Angola" and publicly refused to stop the bloodshed until UNITA demands became reality.

Finally, on February 22, 2002, Savimbi was shot and killed by government troops. With Savimbi's passing, Angola hopes to finally see the end of the thirty year civil war that has constantly ravaged its country. The Economist, stated, "Making peace will not be easy; past attempts have always failed. Fortunately, most of UNITA's troops are sick of fighting, and now that they have no leader to rally them on, they might be willing to look toward peace." Even though most people will fondly remember Jonas Savimbi as a fighter for freedom from communism, it will be difficult to forget the amount of strife and damage he brought to Angola in his physical agenda to topple its government.

Works

Selected writings

• The Angolan Road to National Recovery, privately printed.

Further Reading

Books

• Africa South of the Sahara, 1991, Europa, 1990.

• Africa Report, March-April 1988; May-June 1989; May-June 1990; September-October 1990; July-August, 1991; September-October 1991.
• Economist, January 30, 1993; March 2, 2002.
• Insight On The News, March 20, 2000.
• National Review, May 9, 1986; August 18, 1989; Sept 30, 1996.
• Newsweek, March 31, 1986; October 16, 1989.
• New York Times, September 21, 1985; December 27, 1985; December 30, 1985; January 26, 1986.
• Philadelphia Inquirer, September 30, 1991.
• Reader's Digest, May 1987.
• Time, February 10, 1986; July 3, 1989.
• Washington Post, January 26, 1986; February 2, 1986; February 9, 1986; November 11, 1997.

— Anne Janette Johnson and Ralph Zerbonia

Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Malheiro Savimbi (August 3, 1934 – February 22, 2002) led UNITA, an anti-Communist rebel group that fought against the MPLA in the Angolan Civil War until his death in a clash with Government troops in 2002.

With support from the governments of the United States, the People's Republic of China, South Africa, Israel,^[1] several African leaders (Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d'Ivoire, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire,^[2] King Hassan II of Morocco and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia), and foreign mercenaries from Portugal, Israel, South Africa, and France,^[1] Savimbi spent much of his life battling Angola's Marxist-inspired government, which was supported by weapons and military advisers from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua (under the Sandinistas).^[3] The war ultimately became one of the most prominent Third World conflicts of the Cold War.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Savimbi's Washington allies 3 Savimbi's military success 4 2002: Killed in combat 5 UNITA after Savimbi 6 Quotes 7 Books 8 Further reading 9 References 10 External links

Early years

Jonas Savimbi was born on August 3, 1934 in Munhango, a small town on the Benguela Railway and raised in Angola's central province of Bié, which together with Huambo later served as his power base during the civil war. Savimbi's father, Lote, was a stationmaster on Angola's Benguela railway line and a Protestant preacher. Both of his parents were members of the Ovimbundu tribe, which later served as Savimbi's major political base.^[4]

Savimbi was an unusually bright student and was accepted to a Portuguese high school, where he graduated at the top of his class. In 1958, he was accepted to medical school in Lisbon. In Lisbon, Savimbi began his political involvement, calling for an end to Portuguese colonialism in Angola. His opposition drew the ire of the Portuguese secret police, which tried to get Savimbi to reveal the names of those in Angola who shared his view. Under this pressure, Savimbi fled Portugal for Lausanne, Switzerland. In Lausanne, Savimbi abandoned the study of medicine for that of politics, ultimately obtaining his doctorate in 1965 from the University of Lausanne, where his courses were taught in French.^[4]

Following Angola's independence in 1975, Savimbi gradually drew the intrigue of powerful Chinese and, ultimately, American policymakers and intellectuals. Trained in China during the 1960s, Savimbi was a highly successful guerrilla fighter schooled in classic Maoist approaches to warfare, including baiting his enemies with multiple military fronts, some of which attacked and some of which consciously retreated. Like the Chinese Red Army of Mao Zedong, Savimbi mobilized large segments of the rural peasantry as part of his military tactics. From a military strategy standpoint, he is generally considered one of the most effective guerrilla leaders of the 20th century.

While Savimbi originally sought a leadership position in the Marxist MPLA, he later denounced Marxism and joined forces with the FNLA in 1964. The same year he conceived UNITA with Antonio da Costa Fernandes. Savimbi went to China for help and was promised arms and military training. Upon returning to Angola in 1966 he formally launched UNITA and began his career as an anti-Portuguese guerrilla fighter, but also fought the FNLA and MPLA, as the three resistance movements tried to position themselves to lead a post-colonial Angola. Portugal would later release PIDE archives revealing that Savimbi in fact signed a collaboration pact with Portuguese colonial authorities to fight the MPLA.^{[5] [6]}

Complementing his military skills, Savimbi also impressed many with his intellectual qualities. He fluently spoke seven languages, including four European languages and three African languages. In visits with foreign diplomats and in speeches before American audiences, he often cited classical Western political and social philosophy, ultimately becoming one of the most vocal anti-communists of the Third World.

Some dismiss this intellectualism as nothing more than careful handling by his politically savvy American supporters, who sought to present Savimbi as a clear alternative to Angola's regime. But others saw it as genuine and a product of the guerrilla leader's raw intelligence. Savimbi's biography describes him as "...an incredible linguist. He spoke four European languages, including English although he had never lived in an English-speaking country. He was extremely well read. He was an extremely fine conversationalist and a very good listener."^[7]

These contrasting images of Savimbi would play out throughout his life, with his enemies calling him a power-hungry warmonger, and his American and other allies calling him a critical figure in the West's bid to win the Cold War.

Savimbi's Washington allies

Savimbi's war against Angola's Marxist government became a sub-plot to the Cold War, with both Moscow and Washington viewing the conflict as important to the global balance of power. In 1985, with the backing of the Reagan administration, Jack Abramoff and other U.S. conservatives organized the Democratic International in Savimbi's base in Jamba, in Cuando Cubango Province in southeastern Angola.^[8] The meeting included most of the anti-communist guerrilla leaders of the Third World, including Savimbi, Nicaraguan contra leader Adolfo Calero, and Abdul Rahim Wardak, then leader of Afghanistan's mujahideen who now serves as Afghanistan's Defense Minister.

Equally important, Savimbi also was strongly supported by the influential, conservative Heritage Foundation. Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Michael Johns and other conservatives visited regularly with Savimbi in his clandestine camps in Jamba and provided the rebel leader with ongoing political and military guidance in his war against the Angolan government. Savimbi's U.S.-based supporters ultimately proved successful in convincing the Central Intelligence Agency to channel covert weapons and recruit guerrillas for Savimbi's war against Angola's Marxist government, which greatly intensified and prolonged the conflict.

During a visit to Washington, D.C. in 1986, Reagan invited Savimbi to meet with him at the White House. Following the meeting, Reagan spoke of UNITA winning "a victory that electrifies the world."

Two years later, with the Angolan Civil War intensifying, Savimbi returned to Washington, where he was filled with gratitude and praise for the Heritage Foundation's work on UNITA's behalf. "When we come to the Heritage Foundation", Savimbi said during a June 30, 1988 speech at the foundation, "it is like coming back home. We know that our success here in Washington in repealing the Clark Amendment and obtaining American assistance for our cause is very much associated with your efforts. This foundation has been a source of great support. The UNITA leadership knows this, and it is also known in Angola."^[9]

Savimbi's military success

As U.S. support began to flow liberally and leading U.S. conservatives championed his cause, Savimbi won major strategic battles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Moscow and Havana began to reevaluate their engagement in Angola, as Soviet and Cuban fatalities mounted and Savimbi's ground control increased. At the height of his military success, Savimbi controlled nearly half the country and was beginning, in 1989 and 1990, to launch attacks on government and military targets in and around the country's capital, Luanda. Observers felt that the strategic balance in Angola had shifted and that Savimbi was positioning UNITA for a possible military victory.^[10]

Signaling the concern that the former Soviet Union was placing on Savimbi's advance in Angola, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev raised the Angolan war with Reagan during numerous U.S.-Soviet summits. In addition to meeting with Reagan, Savimbi also met with Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, who promised Savimbi "all appropriate and effective assistance."^[11]

In January 1990 and again in February 1990, Savimbi was wounded in armed conflict with Angolan government troops. But the injuries did not prevent him from again returning to Washington, D.C., where he met with his American supporters and President George H. W. Bush in an effort to further increase U.S. military assistance to UNITA.^[12] Savimbi's supporters warned that continued Soviet support for the MPLA was threatening broader global collaboration between Gorbachev and the U.S.^[13]

Under military pressure from UNITA, the Angolan government negotiated a cease-fire with Savimbi, and Savimbi ran for president in the national elections of 1992. Foreign monitors claimed the election to be fair. But because neither Savimbi nor Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos obtained the 50 percent necessary to prevail, a run-off election was scheduled.^[14]

In late October 1992, Savimbi dispatched UNITA Vice President Jeremias Chitunda and UNITA senior advisor Elias Salupeto Pena to Luanda to negotiate the details of the run-off election. But on November 2, 1992 in Luanda, Chitunda and Pena's convoy was attacked by government forces and they were both pulled from their car and shot dead. Their bodies were confiscated by government authorities and never seen again.^[15] The offensive against Chitunda, Pena and other UNITA officials has come to be known as the Halloween Massacre.

Alleging governmental electoral fraud and questioning the government's commitment to peace, Savimbi withdrew from the run-off election and resumed fighting, mostly with foreign funds. UNITA again quickly advanced militarily, encircling the nation's capital of Luanda.^[16]

One of Savimbi's largest sources of financial support was the De Beers Corporation, which bought between $500 and $800 million worth of illegally mined diamonds in 1992-1993. In 1994, UNITA signed a new peace accord, but Savimbi declined the vice-presidency that was offered to him and again renewed fighting in 1998.

Savimbi also purportedly purged some of those within UNITA who he may have seen as threats to his leadership or questioned his strategic course. Savimbi's foreign secretary, Tito Chingunji and his family, were executed in 1991 after Savimbi suspected that Chingunji had been in secret, unapproved negotiations with the Angolan government during Chingunji's various diplomatic assignments in Europe and the United States. Savimbi denied his involvement in the Chingunji killing and blamed it on two UNITA dissidents.^[17]

2002: Killed in combat

After surviving more than a dozen assassination attempts, Savimbi was killed on February 22, 2002, in a battle with Angolan government troops - and, reportedly, South African mercenaries and Israeli special forces^[18] - along riverbanks in the province of Moxico, his birthplace. In the firefight, Savimbi sustained 15 machine gun bullets to his head, throat, upper body and legs. While Savimbi returned gun fire, the blows proved immediately fatal.^[19]

Savimbi's somewhat mystical reputation for eluding the Angolan military and their Soviet and Cuban military advisors led many Angolans to question the validity of reports of his 2002 death. Not until pictures of his bloodied and bullet-ridden body appeared on Angolan state television, and the United States State Department subsequently confirmed it, did the reports of Savimbi's death in combat gain credence in the country.

Savimbi was interred in Luena, Moxico Province, in east central Angola. In January 2008, his gravesite was vandalized by MPLA party activists, two of whom were arrested.^[20]

UNITA after Savimbi

Savimbi was succeeded by António Dembo, who assumed UNITA's leadership on an interim basis in February 2002. But Dembo had sustained wounds in the same attack that killed Savimbi, and he ended up dying from them ten days later. Dembo was succeeded by Paulo Lukamba. In 2003, Lukamba was succeeded by Isaías Samakuva, who served as UNITA's ambassador to Europe under Savimbi and has headed UNITA ever since.

Six weeks following Savimbi's death, a ceasefire between UNITA and the MPLA was signed, but Angola remains deeply divided politically between MPLA and UNITA supporters. Parliamentary elections in September 2008 resulted in an overwhelming majority for the MPLA, but their legitimacy was questioned by international observers. Presidential elections are planned for 2009.

Quotes

Flag of UNITA.

• "I am not communist because it serves no purpose. Nor am I a capitalist. Socialism in this country is the only answer. Those who led the country to independence cannot become the exploiters of the people. We want a socialist system, but which? There is the orthodox one and the extremist one. We want the democratic one, social democracy." - Savimbi on his ideology^[21]
• "I am against nationalization; it is a disease which saps the strength of a national economy. The real question is the renegotiation of allowable profits. Foreign companies need their profits, they would not invest without them. But the people of Angola need their share. When Angola is independent the investors must know that the people will have a greater share."^[21]
• "We support completely the atmosphere of détente. There is a need to live together peacefully in this area, that is a must. That is why we back completely the initiatives of Presidents Kaunda, Nyerere and Seretse Khama. Prime Minister Vorster is an intelligent leader and he must know that the independence of Angola will have an effect on South Africa. I hope the future leader of this country will be realistic. We have a dam at Cunene. We have investments involving South Africa. Should we ostracize them? I hope that a leader here will be realistic enough to cooperate with any country despite differences in political systems."^[21]
• "Only elections — free elections — under OAU control can provide a final solution. But first there will have to be a short period of transitional government in which both sides would be represented. But in the end, the ballot must decide, not bullets."^[21]

Books

• The War Against Soviet Colonialism: The Strategy and Tactics of Anti-Communist Resistance, Winter 1986. Policy Review, Volume 35.^[22]

Further reading

• Bridgland, Fred. Jonas Savimbi: A Key to Africa. Hodder & Stoughton General Division. ISBN 0340422181
• Christine Messiant, "Les Eglises et la dernière guerre en Angola. Les voies difficiles de l'engagement pour une paix juste", LFM. Social sciences & missions, No.13, Oct. 2003, pp.75-117

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Angola: A Country Study
2. ^ However, Mobutu has always personally denied this. See Blaine Harden, Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent, p. 51, and Sean Kelly, America's Tyrant: The CIA and Mobutu of Zaire, p. 4
3. ^ Nicaragua Betrayed, by Anastasio Somoza and Jack Cox, backflap
4. ^ ^{a b} "Jonas Savimbi, 67, Rebel of Charisma and Tenacity," The New York Times, February 23, 2003.
5. ^ Contested Power in Angola: 1840s to the Present | Journal of Third World Studies | Find Articles at BNET.com
6. ^ Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search
7. ^ "Angola: Don't Simplify History, Says Savimbi's Biographer," AllAfrica.com, Johannesburg, June 22, 2002.
8. ^ The tale of "Red Scorpion" - Salon.com
9. ^ The Coming Winds of Democracy in Angola
10. ^ "Angola says rebels are launching new attacks, jeopardizing accord," The New York Times, August 21, 1989.
11. ^ "Bush pledges Angola rebel aid," The New York Times, January 1989.
12. ^ Alao (1994). p. XX.
13. ^ "Angola: Testing Gorbachev's 'New Thinking', Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #259, by Michael Johns, February 5, 1990.
14. ^ "Runoff Now Expected in Angola as Leader Falls Short," The New York Times, October 16, 1992.
15. ^ "Rebels in Angola suffer a setback," The New York Times, November 4, 1992.
16. ^ "Luanda is encircled by former guerrillas," The New York Times, October 24, 1992.
17. ^ allAfrica.com: Angola: Don't Simplify History, Says Savimbi's Biographer (Page 1 of 4)
18. ^ 'Dogs of War' ban will rob British Army of vital frontline soldiers - Times Online
19. ^ "Savimbi 'died with gun in hand'", BBC News, February 25, 2002.
20. ^ "Jonas Savimbi's tomb vandalised, says UNITA", Mail and Guardian, January 23, 2008.
21. ^ ^{a b c d} Men at War: Angola's Liberation Leaders, December 12, 1975. Alicia Patterson Foundation.
22. ^ Siler, Michael J. Strategic Security Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography, 2004. Page 311.

External links

• Jonas Savimbi at the Notable Names Database.
• French interview of Jonas Savimbi, 1978.
• "White House Statement on the President's Meeting with Jonas Savimbi", June 30, 1988.
• "The Coming Winds of Democracy in Angola", Jonas Savimbi speech to the Heritage Foundation, October 5, 1989.
• Jonas Savimbi speaks in Angolan capital of Luanda, 1991.
• "Genocide of Christians in Angola, UN and the resistance of UNITA", Webarchive, 2000.
• "Angola Rebels Demand Death Probe", BBC News, February 28, 2002.

v • d • e Candidates in the 1992 Angolan presidential election José Eduardo dos Santos • Jonas Savimbi • Antonio Alberto Neto • Holden Roberto

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