From: vamg6792@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mbanane)
Subject: UPI: 1000 die in Angolan fighting
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 16:22:29 GMT



	JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (UPI) -- More than 1,000 people were
reported to have been killed in four days of artillery bombardment and
gun battles between Angolan troops and rebels, Angolan state radio
reported Monday.
	The South African Press Association (SAPA) quoted the radio station
as saying the deaths had occurred mainly in Angola's capital Luanda and
in the southern cities of Lobito, Benguela, Huambo and Lubango.
	By late Monday the situation in Luanda remained tense after
government troops launched a surprise dawn attack on rebel soldiers in
Luanda, five hours after a U.N.-brokered cease-fire was supposed to have
taken effect.
	``The situation (in Luanda) is very tense. There is sporadic
shooting, but it is better than earlier today,'' South Africa's military
attache to Angola, Johan Smith, told the South African Broadcasting
Corporation.
	Smith, speaking from aboard a ferry in Luanda's harbor, said troops
loyal to the ruling Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA) carried
out a ``surgical-type cleaning operation'' against National Union for
the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA) soldiers in Luanda shortly after
5 a.m. local time.
	SAPA carried unconfirmed reports from Luanda that UNITA's vice-
president, Jeremias Chitunda, and the movement's top military
representative in Luanda, Gen. Arlindo ``Ben-Ben'' Pena were killed as
they attempted to flee the attack.
	UNITA's foreign affairs director, Abel Chivukuvuku, was reported to
have been seriously wounded during the attack.
	By mid-morning Monday the fighting in Luanda had eased off and MPLA
troops were conducting house-to-house searches for UNITA soldiers and
followers who appeared to be on the run.
	The location of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi is unclear. Reports from
Angola said he was believed to be in Huambo, a UNITA stronghold 310
miles south of Luanda.
	But the Portuguese news agency Lusa said he may have traveled from
Huambo to South Africa.
	South African Foreign Affairs spokesman Awie Marais said in a
telephone interview that his department had no knowledge of plans by
Savimbi to travel to South Africa, and UNITA's representative in
Portugal, Adalberto Junior, told Portuguese state television RTP that
Savimbi was still in Huambo.
	The United States has ordered all non-essential staff out of Angola,
while Portugal, Brazil and South Africa have implemented plans to
evacuate their nationals. Britain has warned its citizens to leave the
country.
	Angolans were reported to be fleeing the violence and making their
way south to Angola's border with Namibia.
	Marais said it was unclear why the MPLA had launched its attack on
UNITA positions, after the rebel movement had requested the cease-fire
at the weekend.
	``(We are receiving) conflicting reports. One does not know what is
going on,'' Marais said.
	Angola has been sliding towards civil war since the results of the
country's first democratic elections, which gave victory to the MPLA,
were disputed by Savimbi.
	The United Nations has declared the Sept. 29 to 30. elections 
``generally free and fair'' and warned it would not recognize any
government installed by force.
	The elections were expected to provide Angolans with their first
taste of democracy after the country emerged last year from a 16-year
civil war between the U.S. and South African-supported UNITA rebels and
the Soviet and Cuban-backed MPLA government.
	Although the MPLA won a majority in the legislature, the election
results failed to produce an outright presidential winner and a second
round of elections for a president are expected later this year.
	However, negotiations between the MPLA and UNITA about conditions
necessary for a second round of elections were reported to have had made
little headway and broke off hours before fighting began in Luanda
Saturday.

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