Global Policy Forum

By Casimiro Siona

The UNITA rebel group is fighting back after a series of heavy battlefield defeats but is ready to reopen talks with the government to end Angola's protracted civil war, rebel leader Jonas Savimbi said. ''UNITA's armed forces are now clawing their way back,'' Savimbi said in a telephone interview with the Voice of America radio late Thursday.

The army dislodged UNITA from its central highland strongholds 15 months ago and retook control of all the country's major cities, some of which were under rebel siege.

Savimbi, who has led UNITA for more than 30 years, said his army has broken up into highly-mobile guerrilla units that are staging hit-and-run attacks against army positions. Consequently, ''the (government) army can't find its target,'' he said.

Even so, Savimbi said he was prepared to restart negotiations with the government, using the collapsed 1994 peace accord as a starting point. ''We are in favor of dialogue,'' he said. Savimbi called the Portuguese-language service of Voice of America in Luanda on a satellite telephone to make his first public comments in 18 months. He declined to say where he was.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment. Previously, the government has ruled out new talks with Savimbi and has vowed to hunt him down.

The government and the United Nations have blamed UNITA for the breakdown of the 1994 peace deal. The U.N. spent dlrs 1.5 billion between 1994 and 1998 implementing the accord and has placed international sanctions on the group, including a fuel and arms embargo. However, illegal diamond sales have enabled Savimbi to keep fighting. The war has driven an estimated 3.8 million people about one-third of the population from their homes, causing a humanitarian crisis.

At the 1998 restart of the civil war UNITA was believed to have about 60,000 troops compared with the government's 100,000 soldiers. UNITA's current military capacity is not known. The foes have engaged in a propaganda war over the past year with each side claiming military victories. Most of the country is inaccessible due to attacks by rebels and bandits and new fields of landmines.

In August 1999, 10 Angolan radio journalists were detained for broadcasting an interview with Savimbi. An international press watchdog group, the Paris-based Reporters Without Frontiers, said the Angolan authorities want to curb coverage of the civil war and silence independent reporting. The authorities took no immediate action against VoA radio for the Savimbi interview.