Angola displays body of dead rebel leader
The Angolan government has today displayed the body of Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the UNITA rebels who was killed in a gunfight with army soldiers on Friday.
Footage of Savimbi’s body was broadcast on state-owned Televisao Popular de Angola and the government urged his followers to surrender and bring and end to the country’s 20-year civil war.
Savimbi had led the UNITA forces for more than 30 years and his death has raised hopes for peace in the war-torn south-west African nation.
Civil war first broke out in Angola after it achieved independence from Portugal in 1975. Savimbi had hoped to lead the country, but Marxist politician Jose Eduardo dos Santos was appointed head of the Government in 1979. This caused Savimbi to lead his UNITA forces into war with dos Santos’s MPLA.
During the Cold War, the US and Britain backed Savimbi simply because his opponent was a Marxist, but this support waned as reports of the rebel leader’s brutality increased.
Around 500,000 people are believed to have died during the war, with about four million more driven from their homes by the fighting.
