Word: neto
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Unorthodox Encounter. At Obasanjo's urging, Young met with Angola's left-wing President Agostinho Neto, whose government the U.S. does not recognize. It was the first meeting between a high-level American official and the Angolan head of state since the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, headed by Neto, defeated the forces backed by the U.S. in the Angolan civil war. Given that background, Young seemed remarkably casual about the unorthodox encounter. The meeting itself was fairly cordial, but the two men disagreed on the subject that had preoccupied Young during most of his trip...
...armed struggle is being carried on by survivors of liberation movements that fought Neto's M.P.L.A. in the bloody, mammoth civil war: Holden Roberto's National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.), Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and FLEC, a Zaire-supported front that seeks independence from Angola for the oil-rich northern enclave of Cabinda. Despite the continuing presence in Angola of at least 13,000 elite Cuban troops, which supplement his own Soviet-supplied army of 20,000, Neto concedes that "the defense of the country...
...Neto faces his biggest threat in the south, where Savimbi commands an effective force of 5,000 men. Still a hero to the area's dominant Ovimbundu people, the bearded, beret-wearing UNITA leader completed a 500-mile trek through the south-on foot-urging his tribal brothers to resist the Luanda government. Rallying to his cause, the Ovimbundu have set up underground cells throughout southern Angola...
Savimbi insists that he is not fighting to overthrow Neto's government. He says, "The real enemy is Cuban colonialism. The Cubans have taken over the country, but sooner or later they will suffer their own Viet Nam in Angola. We are perfectly willing to have a dialogue with the M.P.L.A. and form a national unity government of Angolans. But the Cubans must leave first. Then we will build true African socialism...
...call it, are all women and small children; they say that in the border region all males over ten, considered potential military age in Angola, are being summarily shot, lest they become UNITA recruits. The atrocities may be strengthening support for UNITA. Says one refugee cattle herder: "After what Neto and the northerners have done to us, we will fight forever for Savimbi. When the call comes to help him drive the devil Cubans out of our country, we will return...