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Key dates of the life of the Angolan rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, killed in a fight with the government forces in 2002 and which must be reentered Saturday:
August 3, 1934: Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was born in a village in the province of Moxico, in eastern Angola, son of a stationmaster and a preacher.
1958: travels to Portugal to continue his studies, then to Switzerland to study medicine. However, his concern for the Angolan state under the colonial regime led him to change course and obtain a degree in political science from the University of Lausanne in 1965.
1966: After having contributed to the fusion of two Angolan liberation movements and to a political and military formation in China, Savimbi founds the national union for the total independence of Angola (UNITA) in order to fight against the Portuguese regime.
1975: At the independence of Portugal, the Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist-Leninist group, seizes power and UNITA launches a war of guerrilla. Apartheid in South Africa sends troops to support UNITA against the MPLA, which enjoys military support from Cuba.
1986: Savimbi is welcomed to the White House by President Ronald Reagan and receives all the honors of a Head of State. The United States is providing crucial funding to UNITA during the Cold War years, with the Soviet Union supporting the MPLA.
1991: UNITA and the MPLA sign a peace agreement. The elections of the following year are won by the MPLA. Savimbi refuses to accept defeat and the war resumes.
1994: Another peace agreement creates a union government comprising UNITA members, although Savimbi stays away from the signing ceremony.
1998: UNITA becomes a political party but the main members separate from Savimbi. The war resumes.
February 22, 2002: Savimbi is killed in a shootout with government forces in Moxico. In August, UNITA officially disbanded its army and laid down its arms.
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