Angola:
UNITA's days are numbered

by Rob Gowland

The head of Angola's armed forces, General Joao de Matos, said on November 
15 that the days of the UNITA rebels are numbered. According to General De 
Matos, Angolan forces are closing in on UNITA's leader, the notorious 
witch-burning Jonas Savimbi.

"We know where Savimbi is", he told Angolan state television. "We are 
tracking him, we are bombarding him every day and we are going to keep 
going until we capture him or kill him."

UNITA was originally an anti-communist guerrilla force set up to rival the 
Marxist-led national liberation forces in Angola fighting for independence 
from Portugal.

After independence in 1975 UNITA was aided by the apartheid regime in South 
Africa and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency to undertake the 
overthrow of the new socialist-oriented government.

The long civil war that the Angolan Government has had to fight against 
this well-armed and well financed US surrogate has depleted the country's 
coffers and ruined its fledgling infrastructure.

In recent years two UN-sponsored peace deals (in 1992 and 1994) with 
Savimbi and elections in 1992 (which Savimbi resoundingly lost) have 
ultimately failed to bring peace due to treachery and greed on Savimbi's 
part and no doubt renewed aid from his remaining major sponsor, the US.

Savimbi, whose forces still number some 70,000, has long been in control of 
Angola's principal diamond-mining areas, routing the gems out through 
neighbouring Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

When Zaire's dictator Mobutu was overthrown and the new government of 
Laurent Kabila moved to block Savimbi's diamond smuggling, the Angolan 
"rebel" leader intervened in the civil war unleashed in the DR Congo by 
Uganda and Rwanda (with US backing).

Angola promptly intervened on the side of the new DR Congo Government.

With a cease-fire now in place in the DR Congo, the Angolan army has been 
able to turn its attention once again to finishing off Savimbi, now 
isolated from his former bases of support.

Last month, UNITA's stronghold in the central highlands collapsed, and its 
troops are reported to have fled in disarray into the bush. The DR Congo 
military say thousands of UNITA troops recently poured into their country.

One of the longest-running and most destructive wars originated by 
imperialism may soon be over.