The Angolan rebel leader Savimbi was buried as part of an offer of reconciliation

LUANDA – In what is touted as a rare moment of national unity, the historic leader of the rebel Unita movement in Angola, Jonas Savimbi, will attend public funeral Saturday, 17 years after his death in a shootout with government soldiers late in a long civil war.

"We have been waiting for 17 years," said Isaias Samakuva, the current leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), pbaded a force US-backed army to the formation of the main opposition political party.

Alcides Sakala Simoes, spokesperson for Unita, said the funeral would be "an important moment … in building national reconciliation".

The former Portuguese colony became a Cold War battlefield after independence in 1975, once the Marxist-Leninist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) took over. control.

The United States stood behind Savimbi's Unita and the Soviet Union and its allies supported the MPLA. Cuba has deployed a large military force to counter the troops of South Africa and Zaire.

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.

BLANGED DEATH

In early 2002, a contingent of soldiers sued Savimbi, 67, in the vast 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 buried in the main cemetery, with an iron cross on the mound of red earth and the name "SAVIMBI Jonas" etched into the trunk of an acacia tree.

Many Angolans were reluctant to believe that the charismatic and controversial "Black Cockerel" was really dead after many false reports, but the TV photos were convincing.

The rival parties progressed rapidly towards a ceasefire in a 27-year conflict.

FUNERAL WORDS

This year, after lengthy discussions, the government agreed with Unita and the Savimbi family to hold a funeral this Saturday in the village of Lopitanga, in central Angola, where Savimbi's father is buried .

DNA tests confirmed the identity of the remains, dispelling rumors that the body was exchanged or destroyed.

The agreement was unblocked after President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Savimbi's arch-enemy, resigned in 2017 and was replaced by his defense minister, Joao Lourenco – an estate that resulted in a mood of change.

Alleluia Savimbi, one of the 30 children of Savimbi, particularly praised the "political gesture" of Lourenço by allowing the funeral to be held.

"It's a step closer to reconciliation and it was big delay," Alex Vines, of London-based think-tank Chatham House, told AFP.

"Despite all his shortcomings, Jonas Savimbi has been supported by a significant portion of the Angolan population and his party, Unita, is still a major political force in Angola today.

"Seventeen years later, it was time to heal the aftermath of the past conflict and under the new head of state, Joao Lourenco, it is easier to allow this to happen."

But the harmony was shaken by the confusion surrounding the handover of his remains to the family, scheduled for Tuesday.

The government said that the family and the delegation of Unita did not show up in Luena. But the family delegation was waiting in Kuito, about 400 kilometers away, where she said the handover had been made.

Unita accused the government of "attempting to humiliate" him while the government retaliated, warning Unita to "make political use of the situation".

The dispute shows that Savimbi, the son of a preacher, remains a contested figure all these years later.

MURDER THE INSTINCT

Dressed in a typical green combat uniform, with a cane in his hand and a revolver on his hip, he led an army of more than 30,000 men.

Supported for many years by South African apartheid, his forces were accused of atrocities and he himself was executed. He reportedly carried out summary executions and burned in public the women who refused his badual advances.

"He was a very intelligent, very charismatic man," said Fred Bridgland, a former British journalist who met Savimbi and wrote a biography of him.

"He had a paranoid murder instinct soon enough, on a small scale, but over time, and he murdered one person after another, he had to start murdering on a large scale.

"Many UNITA leaders in Luanda regard him as a hero, but there are also so many people who have lost their loved ones who hate this man.There will be a lot of people very very angry."