Savimbi wanted - dead or alive

Resisting civil society pressure to negotiate with UNITA rebels, the Angolan government remains intent on capturing the movement’s leader, Jonas Savimbi, diplomatic sources told IRIN. Savimbi, who the government declares a war criminal, is believed to be based in the border area between the central highlands province of Bie and the remote eastern Moxico region. In recent months the Angolan army FAA has concentrated its attention on the Camacupa area of Bie, and newly created special units trained and equipped to fight a counter-insurgency operation have been deployed. But although the government has all but won the conventional war, it has been unable to stem UNITA’s hit-and-run raids that condemns Angola’s interior to continued insecurity. The government’s calculation is that only the capture of the veteran guerrilla leader would end the 26-year-old conflict. In the meantime, UNITA’s high-profile attacks on Benguela airport in the south in December, and the shelling of the northern town of Uige in January and February have been dismissed by the authorities as temporary setbacks. Defence Minister Kundi Paihama told state radio on Friday that “Mr Savimbi is kicking his legs, he is at death’s door.” The state media regularly reports UNITA defections. According to the government news agency ANGOP, 600 UNITA rebels have surrendered to the authorities in central Huambo - a former key rebel bastion - since an amnesty law was passed in November designed to attract UNITA combatants out of the bush. Luanda’s confidence over its military upper hand is also reflected in its gearing up for elections in 2002. However, diplomats warn that short of Savimbi’s capture, the war is destined to grind on. Already 2.6 million Angolans have been displaced by the fighting, and that figure is set to rise in 2001. The government’s refusal to dialogue with Savimbi - held responsible for the collapse of two previous peace agreements - means that a mooted international initiative for a conference on Peace, Reconciliation, Demobilisation and Development may not win Luanda’s warm embrace, the diplomats said. But, according to Ben Jackson of the London-based Angola Peace Monitor, the government is beginning to look at a post-war scenario for Angola. That would involve national reconciliation, and a role for other political actors, thereby winning international support. He denied that Savimbi was the only credible interlocutor in such a process. “I don’t think they’d want to annihilate UNITA to every last soldier, but undermine Savimbi to the point where he is not a political player and others can emerge,” he told IRIN.