Jonas Savimbi: Rebel Warlord or Man of God?

Savimbi, the founder and president of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), was murdered by government forces in Moxico, Angola, 480 miles southeast of Luanda last Friday. Savimbi was shot at least 15 times.

In a statement, the Angolan government said Savimbi led armed groups "responsible for the destruction of national property and the death of countless innocent civilians throughout the country."

A 1999 BBC report stated: "Savimbi's enemies argue he was a Portuguese stooge, informing on rival movements. Once-admiring biographies have retracted parts of their work, conceding they were duped by his charisma into overlooking serious character flaws. "

The BBC report goes on to quote a former backer in Washington who said of Savimbi: "He is probably the most brilliant man I've ever met, but he's also dangerous, even psychotic."

Yet, the BBC also noted that former President Ronald Reagan embraced Savimbi as an "anti-communist freedom fighter, deserving of American support, welcoming him to the White House and providing substantial military assistance, channeled through Zaire."

What is the real story?

Phillips says he knew Savimbi well. "I have been following closely events in Angola since 1979 and have personally known Dr. Savimbi and other members of the UNITA leadership for about two decades, traveling to UNITA liberated areas beginning in 1985. In September and October 1992, I was present in Angola as an officially credited National Electoral Council observer and traveled extensively with Savimbi and the late Vice President Jeremias Chitunda visiting more than 12 cities in eight of Angola's provinces."

According to Phillips, Savimbi was the son of a railway stationmaster who was also an evangelical Protestant lay minister while Angola was under Portuguese rule. During that period, evangelical Protestants were not "encouraged" by the establishment, so he regularly moved from one location to another as he planted churches. Savimbi's father ended up planting Protestant churches across the length and breadth of Angola.

"That was part of the base of support that his son Jonas built upon, in putting together the UNITA freedom fighters," Phillips says.

Savimbi first took up arms against Angola's Portuguese colonial rulers. According to a report in the Washington Post, after Angola gained independence in 1975, Angolan society was left divided between "mixed-race mestizos who dominate cities and political life and impoverished villagers who feel forgotten."

Following independence, war quickly erupted between the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union, and UNITA, supported by the United States and South Africa's white-minority regime. The MPLA established itself in the capital as the government, with UNITA fighting it in rural areas.

According to Phillips, some 60,000 Cuban troops in Angola were defeated by Savimbi's rebel army with the help of stinger missiles provided by the Reagan administration. When Reagan left office, George Bush Sr.'s administration encouraged Savimbi to lay down his weapons and engage in democracy.

A Questionable Election

Over the decade that followed, reported CNS, "Savimbi refused to accept defeat in elections that were largely considered free and fair. He twice declined conciliatory gestures by President Eduardo dos Santos and rejected offers to share power. Instead he chose (in 1992 and again in 1998) to return to the bush and resume his fight against the government."

Phillips counters that claim: "One of the oft-repeated lies in the press has been the false claim that Savimbi rejected the results of the '92 elections and plunged the country into war. On the contrary, there was massive evidence of fraud and irregularities substantial to alter the results of the elections, which were acknowledged by Margaret Anstee and others in internal UN documents."

According to Phillips, there were 10 million ballots printed but only 4 million people registered to vote. "The election was robbed," he notes. Yet Savimbi publicly accepted the election results and sent his close friend and colleague UNITA Vice President Jerry Chitunda to negotiate with the MPLA.

"As the negotiators were talking about terms, they were under a flag of truce and given guarantees for their safety and security by our State Department," explains Phillips. But somehow, Chitunda, as well as Alicerces Mango and Salupeto Pena, were ambushed and killed in Luanda in late October 1992.

Mass Murder

According to Catholic Church sources and other monitors present in Angola during the weeks following the fraudulent election, more than 50,000 Angolans - mostly Christian -- were killed in the streets of Luanda and the other coastal cities in the government sponsored post-election "limpeza" -- or cleansing - initiated by Dos Santos's forces.

"They were murdered because of their race, their tribe, their culture and their religion," Phillips adds.

The country has been at war since the elections fell apart in 1992.

Phillip says President Clinton reversed the Reagan doctrine when he came into office in 1992. "He put sanctions on former allies that we were supporting under President Reagan - sanctions that put Savimbi and UNITA in the same category as Osama bin Laden. But, in fact, Savimbi and UNITA were providing a safe haven for Christians and for other people that were being persecuted by the Marxist government.

"It was no small coincidence that Savimbi's death occurred only days before Jose Eduardo Dos Santos was scheduled visit to the White House (Feb. 26)," says Phillips. "It has always been the strategy of the Marxist regime in Luanda to totally consolidate power by systematically exterminating those it could not co-opt."

An Impoverished Nation

Now, says Phillips, freedom of worship, association, speech "and all the freedoms we hold dear have been denied by the unelected regime of Jose Eduardo Dos Santos." More than one million people have been killed in fighting since the resumption of war in November 1992 and 4 million people have been displaced.

The Washington Post noted that Angola ranks among the world's poorest and most war-damaged countries, ruled by an MPLA that, according to diplomats and relief organizations, "has stolen billions of dollars through secret arms deals and cloaked accounting."

Reuters has reported that the Angolan government earned more than $3.5 billion in oil revenues during 2001, while a sum approaching $1.5 billion remains missing from the treasury."

According to the BBC, although Angola is a growing oil producer - at times the eighth-largest supplier to the United States - it is one of the world's poorest countries and its life expectancy is among the lowest on the continent.

One of every three children dies before age 5, Phillips adds.

Concern for the People

Savimbi had a genuine concern for the development of the people of Angola, says Phillips. He had many opportunities over his lifetime -- offers from dignitaries and foreign governments who were sympathetic to his cause -- to come and live in luxury outside his own country, and he always said, "No. I need to stay with my own people."

"Despite being marginalized, despite being demonized by the press, Savimbi was a Christian man," Phillips continues. "He was a great leader and had a following among the people of Angola because he represented the most marginalized, the most down trodden people in Angolan society."

According to Martin James who teaches international studies at Henderson State University in Arkansas, "Savimbi was the victim of one of the most massive 'dezinformatsiya' campaigns in history, exactly because of his tremendous popularity and charisma."

James, an accredited Angolan election observer in 1992, says it was Savimbi's anti-communist, nationalist message that made him such a threat to the pro-Soviet dictatorships throughout Africa. "Ad hominen attacks on Savimbi and outrageous propaganda became the norm, ignoring the well-documented and flagrant human rights abuses, including the '92 pogrom, committed by the MPLA."

In Angola, like Sudan, there are two categories of people, Phillips explains. "In Sudan, you have the policy of Arabization and Islamization. In Angola, the policy is known as assimilation. The 'White House' of Angola - the seat of power - is dominated by the Portuguese/Creole/and mixed race assimilated Africans. They view the non- assimilated, indigenous Africans - which make up the majority of Angolans - as subhuman. "

The Portuguese treated indigenous Angolans as slaves for 500 years, says Phillips. When the Portuguese transferred power to the Marxists, the native people were still treated as second and third class citizens. "That's why Savimbi had a following, that's why the war continues."

Savimbi's murder, Phillips concludes, "is a great blow against freedom of worship. He died valiantly and gallantly defending his people. Africa has lost one of its best Christian leaders and America has lost one of its most faithful Cold War allies."

Read: "Savimbi to become a powerful martyr"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20020228-51156468.htm

PHOTO by AP/Wide World Photos -- Angolan UNITA leader Dr. Jonas Savimbi is shown in Umtata, South Africa in this Jan. 7, 1997 shot (AP Photo/Sasa Kralj).