Word: savimbi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Neto had spent years in prison and exile. When Portugal granted independence to the 400-year-old colony in 1975, Neto's Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (M.P.L.A.), backed by Russia and Cuba, became involved in a three-way power struggle with the rival guerrilla forces of Jonas Savimbi and Holden Roberto, both of whom had Western support. After gaining the upper hand with the aid of some 2,000 Cuban troops, Neto embarked on a troubled presidency marred by continued civil war, serious economic difficulties and bitter dissension within his party...
...Savimbi claims that UNITA now has wrested effective control of much of south and central Angola from Marxist President Agostinho Neto and the 17,000 Cuban troops fighting on his behalf. Armed largely with captured Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles, Savimbi's 12,000 guerrillas freely roam the countryside, seizing towns and villages at will, disappearing when the Cubans or government troops appear. Savimbi's soldiers have shut down the vital Benguela railroad, which once carried ore from mines in Zaire and Zambia to the Atlantic Ocean port of Lobito. The disruption of rail service has given...
...Savimbi's forces have stayed intact by relying on well-tested guerrilla survival tactics. To travel safely on roads that may be mined, UNITA convoys follow herds of elephants or buffalo; if these animated mine detectors trigger an explosion, the guerrillas know not only that the way is clear, but also that they are going to eat well. Now that large areas of south Angola are coming under its control, UNITA is setting up schools and agricultural cooperatives. But for the most part, Savimbi's forces are constantly on the move, carrying their possessions on their backs...
Four years ago, after Portugal withdrew from its former colony, Neto's Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.) and 25,000 Cubans apparently had defeated UNITA and another liberation movement, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.). But Savimbi fought on. Since January, his guerrillas claim to have killed 350 government soldiers or Cubans, while suffering only 150 fatalities. Savimbi has recruited heavily among his fellow Ovimbundu (40% of the country's population) and other southern Angolan tribes, which have deep-rooted hostility toward Neto, a mixed-race assimilado, and the Cubans...
Traveling by a clandestine UNITA supply route, TIME'S Peter Hawthorne last week entered southern Angola for an exclusive interview with Savimbi. Dressed in characteristic fatigues and gun belt, the former political science student at Switzerland's Lausanne University spoke of the war, UNITA'S goals and the dangers of Soviet expansionism in Africa. "The battle we are fighting is not only for the independence of Angola," he said. "It is also for the independence of the West." Excerpts from the interview...