The Angolan government has displayed the dead body of CIA sponsored rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. Government officials say he was killed in a commando raid in the far eastern region of the country on Friday. Savimbi was head of the Washington-backed UNITA movement. He was touted as a key ally against communism by the US and was received as a headof state by President Reagan at the White House in 1986. In addition to the millions of dollars he received from Washington in covert aid, Savimbi and UNITA also had substantial backing from the white apartheid government in South Africa as well as the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.

Over the weekend, people throughout the Angolan capital celebrated his death. Film of Savimbi’s bloodied body wasshown on state TV. The body was surrounded by soldiers and swarms of flies. He was still clad in his olive fatiguesand had an apparent bullet hole in his neck.

Guest:

• Elombe Brath, the chair of the Patrice Lamumba Coalition and a producer at WBAI in New York.