Word: savimbi
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...trekked beside the sandy roads. Their destination: a clearing in the jungle known only by the code name Chipundo. There, among the camouflaged grass huts of a hastily erected "instant village," a burly, bearded man with skin the color of oiled ebony embraced each new arrival. He was Jonas Savimbi, 44, who had convened the annual congress of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to prove a point: far from being wiped out, as Savimbi's foes in the Soviet-and Cuban-supported government in Luanda have claimed, UNITA was still carrying on its struggle...
...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...
...masse three years ago, they took with them, among other things, 28,000 of Angola's 30,000 trucks, thus crippling the food distribution system. Much of the richest agricultural land in Angola is under the sporadic control of UNITA, the South Africa-backed guerrilla force of Jonas Savimbi, who contested and lost control of the capital in 1976. Much of Angola's produce rots before it can reach Luanda...
...refugees' return is a bitter blow to UNITA, which continues to harass Neto's forces from guerrilla bases in southern Angola. Savimbi, reasonably enough, fears that the returnees' technical and management skills will bolster the Neto regime. Declared a UNITA representative in Lisbon last week: "The Portuguese know the country, and through them Neto could recuperate; UNITA does not want them to go." Claiming that four people who went back to Angola had already been taken prisoner by UNITA forces, he warned that any mass exodus would put the returnees "in grave danger." That seemed...