Angola: UNITA leadership captured

The Angolan Armed Forces ambushed the column in the eastern province of Moxico last Sunday morning. 5 top UNITA generals and the Secretary-General of the rebel movement, Paulo Lucamba Gato, were captured.

The ambush took place at dawn after the Angolan secret services pinpointed the whereabouts of the UNITA leadership. Jonas Savimbi, the historic resistance leader, who has been fighting a civil war against the government faction MPLA for 25 years, is reported to have been in the column but escaped.

The secretary for External Affairs of UNITA, Alcides Sakala, was killed in the ambush. The incident has neither been confirmed nor denied by the MPLA government by Pravda.Ru contacts in the Angolan Armed Forces declare that the prisoners will be paraded in public in the city of Luema, capital of Moxico, in the coming days.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has called on UNITA to return to the negotiating table to implement the Protocol of Lusaka.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru LISBON PORTUGAL