Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Savimbi was the leader of the UNITA rebels during the Angolan civil war.

With support from the governments of the United States, South Africa, Israel, several African leaders including Félix Houphouët-Boigny of the Ivory Coast and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire(Mobutu denied helping UNITA). Savimbi spent much of his life battling Angola's Marxist-inspired government, which was supported by weapons and military advisers from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua Sandinistas. The war ultimately became one of the most prominent Third World conflicts of the Cold War. Sean Cleary was a political advisor to Savimbi.

2002: Killed in combat

After surviving more than a dozen assassination attempts, Savimbi was killed on February 22, 2002, in a battle with Angolan government troops - and, reportedly, South African mercenaries and Israeli special forces - along riverbanks in the province of Moxico, his birthplace. In the firefight, Savimbi sustained 15 machine gun bullets to his head, throat, upper body and legs. While Savimbi returned gun fire, the blows proved immediately fatal.

The Cold War and the Heritage Foundation

Savimbi's war against Angola's Marxist government became a sub-plot to the Cold War, with both Moscow and Washington viewing the conflict as important to the global balance of power. In 1985, with the backing of the Ronald Reagan administration, Jack Abramoff and other U.S. conservatives organized the Democratic International in Savimbi's base in Jamba, Cuando, in Cuando Cubango Province in southeastern Angola. The meeting included most of the anti-communist guerrilla leaders of the Third World, including Savimbi, Nicaraguan contras leader Adolfo Calero, and Abdul Rahim Wardak, then leader of Afghanistan's mujahideen who went on to become Afghanistan's Defense Minister.

Equally important, Savimbi also was strongly supported by the influential, conservative Heritage Foundation. Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Michael Johns and other conservatives visited regularly with Savimbi in his clandestine camps in Jamba and provided the rebel leader with ongoing political and military guidance in his war against the Angolan government. Savimbi's U.S.-based supporters ultimately proved successful in convincing the CIA to channel covert weapons and recruit guerrillas for Savimbi's war against Angola's Marxist government, which greatly intensified and prolonged the conflict.

During a visit to Washington in 1986, Reagan invited Savimbi to meet with him at the White House. Following the meeting, Reagan spoke of UNITA winning "a victory that electrifies the world."

Two years later, with the Angolan Civil War intensifying, Savimbi returned to Washington, where he was filled with gratitude and praise for the Heritage Foundation's work on UNITA's behalf. "When we come to the Heritage Foundation", Savimbi said during a June 30, 1988 speech at the foundation, "it is like coming back home. We know that our success here in Washington in repealing the Clark Amendment and obtaining American assistance for our cause is very much associated with your efforts. This foundation has been a source of great support. The UNITA leadership knows this, and it is also known in Angola.".

Affiliations

UNITA | Heritage Foundation

Resources

• Siler, Michael J. Strategic Security Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography, 2004. Page 311.
• Bridgland, Fred. Jonas Savimbi: A Key to Africa. Hodder & Stoughton General Division. ISBN 0340422181
• Christine Messiant, "Les Eglises et la dernière guerre en Angola. Les voies difficiles de l'engagement pour une paix juste", LFM. Social sciences & missions, No.13, Oct. 2003, pp.75-117
• "The Coming Winds of Democracy in Angola", Jonas Savimbi speech to the Heritage Foundation, October 5, 1989.