Word: unita
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...resettled in various parts of the country, Angolan President Agostinho Neto's Cuban-backed government has finally prevailed over two rival revolutionary groups: Hoiden Roberto's National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.) and Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Apparently willing to forgive and forget, Neto's government hopes that the returnees, many of whom are technicians, professionals and skilled workers, can help rebuild the devastated country. Says Luanda's ambassador to Lisbon, Adriano Sebastiao: "All skilled Angolan workers who want to return will have...
...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...
...eliminated its chances of playing a constructive mediating role among the various political factions to help bring Angola toward independence through a negotiated, democratic transition. Instead, the U.S. attempted to regain a political foothold in Angola through covert support of the poorly organized, politically suspect FLNA and UNITA forces...
...UNITA receives other weapons, ammunition, medicine and spare parts from abroad through Zaïre. According to In Search of Enemies, a newly published expose by former CIA Agent John Stockwell (TIME, May 22), the agency flew $25 million worth of arms to the F.N.L.A. and UNITA through Zaïre. After Congress cut off such assistance in 1975, Savimbi was temporarily in trouble. Lately, however, UNITA has been getting funds from other sources, including $18 million reportedly provided by a coalition of wealthy Angolan Portuguese living in Brazilian exile, along with French, Iranian and Arab sources interested in bringing down Neto...
...using both M.P.L.A. and Cuban troops. Despite the government's superior firepower the offensive has been going poorly. There is dissension between the two attacking groups: the Angolans sneeringly call the Cubans "town dwellers" who are afraid to go into the bush, particularly at night. Angolan prisoners captured by UNITA tell of M.P.L.A. mutinies and heavy casualties among the Cubans...