Angola Displays Savimbi's Body, Calls for Peace

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Angola Displays Savimbi's Body, Calls for Peace

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The Angolan government on Saturday displayed the body of Jonas Savimbi, the leader of Angola's UNITA rebels who was killed in a gun battle with the army. Then it appealed to his followers to give up their two-decade struggle for power.

The government said it hoped for an end to the civil war that has devastated this southwest African nation now that the rebel movement has lost the man who led it without question since its founding. Savimbi was blamed for wrecking peace efforts three times in the 1990s.

Footage of the body of Savimbi, filmed in a remote village near where the Angolan army killed him on Friday, was broadcast on state-owned Televisao Popular de Angola.

The body -- in combat fatigues apparently stained by blood, eyes half open-- was clearly recognizable as that of the 67-year-old Savimbi. It was placed on a makeshift table beneath a tree as soldiers looked on.

What appeared to be a gunshot wound was visible on Savimbi's neck. Otherwise his face was undamaged, contrary to earlier reports that the body was ridden with 15 bullet wounds and unrecognizable

UNITA officials, who are hidden in the bush of this nation twice the size of Texas, were not available for comment on Savimbi's death or the government's call on rebels to surrender.

Savimbi has led UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, since he founded it 30 years ago. Since Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975, he has battled to take power.

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