UNITA general defects

A senior UNITA general has defected to the Angolan government marking a major setback for Jonas Savimbi’s rebel movements, analysts told IRIN. Western diplomats, who confirmed to IRIN on Thursday the surrender to government forces earlier this month of General Jacinto Bandua, described him as one of Savimbi’s closest aides. The general, in charge of UNITA’s logistics, told Angolan journalists that he had had enough of the “dictatorial manner” of Savimbi. “There is no doubt that UNITA has suffered substantial logistical, territorial and morale defeats during the government offensive in recent weeks,” said a Western diplomat with access to a wide range of intelligence and political reporting on Angola. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said monitoring of the fighting in Angola by the United States, and the other troika observer nations, Portugal and Russia, had also shown that government forces had captured “considerable amounts of war materiel” from the rebels. “Another factor we have noticed since the fall to government forces of the strategic central towns of Bailundo and Andulo, is a considerable drop in radio communications among UNITA units. They are almost silent now, and this is an indication both of a crisis in the leadership as well as the loss of communications equipment,” he said. The diplomat said reports by the government of a mass grave containing the remains of some UNITA generals were “credible”: “We are getting reports that Savimbi is really furious, that he is on a drunken binge again. This behaviour lends further credibility to the interpretation we have that he has suffered a major defeat. Another factor is that UNITA’s propaganda machine has been silent of late. The government is now going for the kill.” He said Savimbi had shown an erratic pattern of behaviour every time he had run into a deadlock during the quarter century of civil war in Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975. “This time he is reacting true to form. We do not at present know his whereabouts.” But, despite the government’s successes on the battlefield, he said the fighting was expected to last for several more months. “There will be mopping up operations, sabotage attempts by the rebels, and much plain banditry. You must remember that large tracts of Angola are not under formal administration and that there are many heavily armed people around.”