US Says UNITA Will Succeed in Angola Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: jclancy@pop.pegasus.com.au Tue Apr 27 01:42:24 1999 The Guardian (england) International News / Unita rebels bid for total conquest of Angola By Lara Pawson in Luanda Unita rebels bid for total conquest of Angola byLara Pawson in Luanda ANGOLA'S Unita rebels have heavily bombarded the strategic central city of Malanje for the past week, stepping up pressure on the government in Luanda. Diplomats and military experts say Jonas Savimbi's movement may be trying to seize the city as a gateway to the diamond-rich Lunda region, the capital, Luanda, and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Analysts say Unita's military gains have now given it control of 60 per cent of Angola. The rebels were reported to have taken control of areas of Maquela do Zombo, a sector of the border with Congo along the northern Uige province. Other units of Unita, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola set up by Mr Savimbi in 1966, are maintaining their siege of the government-held cities of Huambo and Cuito, and hitting government supply lines. The United Nations World Food Programme tried to resume aid to Cuito last week, but halted operations because of Unita attacks. Save the Children UK, which is handing out food to half the estimated 60,000 displaced people in Cuito, says that more than 15 per cent of children in the city are malnourished, with many on the brink of starvation. Civil war broke out in the oil and diamond-rich southern African country before it gained independence from Portugal in 1975, and has gone on sporadically ever since. The latest conflict erupted last December, effectively demolishing a 1994 peace deal. According to residents of Malanje, 400km east of Luanda, government troops have done nothing to repel the attacks on the city of 250,000 people. Military analysts say the attacks on Malanje have the hallmarks of an imminent takeover because the rebels have spared the city's infrastructure, including the airport and oil supplies. Other analysts say Unita could soon threaten the northern oil enclave of Cabinda, striking a blow at the country's economic heartland. Cabinda, separated from mainland Angola by the mouth of the Congo river, is home to the American oil giant Chevron, which produces 500,000 barrels of crude a day from offshore rigs. Oil is Angola's dominant source of foreign exchange, contributing an estimated $4 billion to government coffers last year. -- Reuters The Guardian Weekly Volume 160 Issue 14 for week ending April 4, 99. (JC.. My contribution to this is that the US and particularly the Republicans have supported their appointed General Savimbi for 25 years. The country is rich in Oil and diamonds and in earlier times was the "bread Basket" for Africa. US methology to annexe the oil- fields for Mobil Chevron and gold for other corporations has led to the total destruction of the hospitals, schools and infrastructure -as in Iraq and recently in the whole of the Balkans.)" JC ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-05.01.99-13:32:27-1542