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The former leader of the Angolan UNITA rebel movement, Jonas Savimbi, will be reentered Saturday, 17 years after his death in a shootout with government soldiers who sounded the death knell of the long war in the country.
Angola, a former Portuguese colony, became a Cold War battlefield after independence, in 1975, when the Marxist-Leninist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) took control of it.
The United States lined up behind the rebels of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) of Savimbi and the Soviet Union and its allies supported the MPLA.
"The remains were returned to UNITA and to the family," AFTA spokesman Alcides Sakala Simoes told AFP on Friday.
"There was a lot of emotion.It's been 17 years since the government was not invited to give us the body.It is an important step for national reconciliation."
"We are moved and relieved, we will be able to mourn," said Cheya Savimbi, his eldest son, following the delivery of the remains during a ceremony in Andulo, about thirty kilometers from the village of Lopitanga where the funeral will be held.
At least half a million people have died in the conflict for the benefit of this vast oil-rich country of southern Africa, which has played for over a quarter of a century.
In early 2002, soldiers sued Savimbi, 67, in the province of Moxico, in east-central Angola.
On February 22, his pursuers caught up with him. He fought back but, riddled with more than a dozen bullets, soon died.
His body was transported to the capital of the province, Luena, and was hastily buried in a cemetery, carrying an iron cross on the mound of red earth and the name "SAVIMBI Jonas" engraved in the water – strong in the trunk of an acacia tree.
Cease-fire fast
After his death, rival parties quickly turned to a ceasefire in a 27-year conflict.
This year, after lengthy discussions, the MPLA government agreed with UNITA and the Savimbi family to hold a funeral Saturday in Lopitanga, in central Angola, where Savimbi's father is buried.
The agreement was unblocked after the resignation in 2017 of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Savimbi's arch-enemy, and his replacement by his defense minister, Joao Lourenco.
"Seventeen years later, it was time to heal the aftermath of the past conflict and under the leadership of the new head of state, Joao Lourenco, it's easier than that to happen," said to the AFP Alex Vines, London based think tank, Chatham House.
Usually dressed in a green combat uniform, with a cane in his hand and a revolver in his hip, Savimbi led an army of over 30,000 men.
Supported for many years by apartheid in South Africa, his forces were accused of atrocities and he himself was accused of carrying out summary executions.
His remains were handed over following a dispute that took place this week between government authorities and UNITA over the course of the proceedings.
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