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He had personally cheated death countless times. This longevity was an astonishing achievement given that he survived the best efforts of Portuguese colonial forces in the 60s including the dreaded secret police of that era, International Police for the Defense of the State or PIDE , tens of thousands of Soviet-backed Cuban expeditionary forces in the 70s and 80s, and the rival Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola MPLA — which has governed the oil-rich southern African country since the Portuguese left in Long ignored were persistent and credible allegations directly implicating the rebel leader in severe human rights abuses within his National Union for the Total Independence of Angola UNITA movement.

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In subsequent years, Savimbi stubbornly refused to disappear from the international spotlight even after the Cold War ended. While other former rebel leaders had accepted new roles, leading the loyal opposition in parliaments, becoming cabinet ministers, or had gone into comfy retirement or exile abroad, Savimbi had soldiered on.

Even though he had spent many years moving through the corridors of power in civilian clothes, the UNITA leader never seamed at ease, his large brown eyes always scanning the room or darting, as if he were always looking for the exit. Government forces had delivered a series of military blows against his highly-disciplined Kwachas, driving both Savimbi and his followers from their redoubt in the densely-forested Central Highlands.

The rebel leader and his closest followers were forced out of their native Bie province, pressured steadily eastward by the Armed Forces of Angola FAA into the open, rolling savannahs of neighboring Moxico province. A new international regime on conflict diamonds, or blood diamonds, had drastically reduced UNITA profits, estimated by many sources at several million dollars annually, from smuggling gems it mined in the northern part of Angola.

And longtime allies, like Mobutu Sese Seko in what had been Zaire, had been driven from power, or died, cutting off logistical lifelines and rear bases that had helped sustain UNITA in the past.

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Bush had finally prevailed in the most highly-contested presidential election in U. Never the capitalist or Third World democrat his fawning admirers portrayed him to be, Savimbi was the consummate guerrilla; telling his sponsors whatever they wanted to hear. He had parlayed that into a quarter-billion dollars worth of covert arms from to from the CIA during the last years of the Cold War.

And increasingly strong diplomatic ties developed between Washington and Luanda — lubricated by the exploitation of Angolan oil reserves. He remained a superb battlefield tactician, resourceful and wise. Still a charismatic, if not dashing figure, Savimbi seemed forever clad in combat fatigues, a felt beret with four gold stars atop his head, a swagger stick in one hand and his trademark pearl-handled revolver ever-present at his hip.

There were subtle clues over the years, which came in the form of more frequent outbursts of anger, where he would severely punish an aide over a seemingly trivial transgression.