Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.twt.news
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Angola edges closer to total resumption of war with UNITA
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 15:33:28 EST
Message-ID: <news94.1992Oct30.153328@AmeriCast.com>

\SE A;WORLD
\SS (WS)
\HD Angola edges closer to total resumption of war with UNITA
\BY Jorge Amado
\CR ASSOCIATED PRESS
\DT LUANDA, Angola

LUANDA, Angola - Heavy fighting raged yesterday in the central city of
Huambo between police and the former rebel movement UNITA, with many
casualties, Angolan state news media said.  Fears increased of a new civil
war.

"The war in Angola has practically already started," government
spokesman Aldemiro Conceicao told Portugal's TSF radio.  "It's all on a
razor's edge."

Huambo provincial Gov.  Manual Baltazar said on state TV that UNITA
troops were trying to capture his residence and other public buildings in
the city.

"There are many casualties on both sides," Gov.  Baltazar said.  He
gave no numbers.

It was not immediately possible to verify the reports independently.
But a senior U.N.  observer on Wednesday confirmed government claims of
UNITA troop movements in the central highlands.

If combat reports are confirmed, the fighting would be the worst since
peace accords last year ended a 16-year civil war between UNITA and the
once-Marxist government.  The war broke out on the eve of Angola's
independence from Portugal and killed at least 350,000 people.

Risk of war had mounted after UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi denounced last
month's multiparty elections as fraudulent and threatened to renew warfare.

Mr.  Savimbi had turned Huambo into his stronghold since flying there
from the capital after results from the Sept.  29-30 vote showed UNITA -
the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola - losing.

Angolan state radio said UNITA was using heavy arms to attack
government positions in Huambo, Angola's second city, 310 miles southeast
of the capital Luanda.

State radio and television in Huambo stopped broadcasting and much of
the city of about 500,000 was without electricity, Luanda radio reported.

State radio said the state airline TAAG canceled flights out of Huambo,
stranding hundreds of residents trying to flee the city.

It reported that UNITA was bombarding Caala, 12 1/2 miles west of
Huambo city, with mortars.  Official news media reported many more
takeovers of towns and villages by UNITA troops.

Gov.  Baltazar said UNITA soldiers were looting suburban homes of
supporters of the governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola,
or MPLA.

He said in Luanda that he fled Huambo after fighting began about 3 p.m.
He said U.N.  observers failed in efforts to secure a cease-fire in the
city.

UNITA spokesman Felisiano Mesquita told TSF that Mr.  Savimbi was in
Huambo trying to calm the situation.

Mesquita denied that UNITA troops were involved in the fighting.

U.N.  monitor Gen.  Edward Unimna said Wednesday evening that UNITA had
occupied seven towns in the central provinces of Huambo, Bie and Benguela.


This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to
other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American 
Cybercasting Corporation.  For more information, send-email to 
usa@AmeriCast.COM