Short of Everything but Spirit

TIME Correspondent Barry Hillenbrand last week flew into the central Angolan town of Silva Porto, military headquarters for Jonas Savimbi's beleaguered UNITA forces. His report:

DEUS NO CEU, SAVIMBI EM ANGOLA (God is in heaven, Savimbi is in Angola), reads the graffito on the front wall of the former Governor's Palace in Silva Porto. Slogans extolling the virtues of UNITA and its leader are scrawled on walls throughout this small, colonial town in the Angolan highlands. Most of the Portuguese who once lived in the neat concrete houses with red tile roofs have long since fled the country. Squatters who carefully maintain the lawns and flower beds now live in many of these homes. The Portuguese left Silva Porto taking all the city maps, plans for the city water system and, of course, 400 years of experience. Nonetheless, the place seems to run amazingly well. Street sweepers are out daily, and the hedge outside the Governor's Palace is clipped regularly, despite the fact that the only residents of the quaint building are seven foreign journalists.

For the moment, at least, the war seems far away in Silva Porto, but the enthusiasm for UNITA and Savimbi is everywhere. Last Monday night he appeared at a workers' meeting in Silva Porto's Cine Teatro. Sitting behind a table, dressed in his customary fatigues and beret, he delivered a dazzling two-hour address to the more than 1,000 people who jammed the simple theater.

Savimbi charmed the audience as he preached to it. Sometimes his resonant Portuguese grew serious, as he made pleas for hard work and long hours: "In Europe and America, they work as much as possible. We too must work hard to build Angola." At other times he had the crowd laughing at his jokes about, for example, the problems of being married and fighting a war at the same time. The crowd broke into chants and cheers: "Viva Savimbi! Viva UNITA! Down with Neto! Down with the Russians! Down with the Cubans!"

After Savimbi finished speaking at midnight, several other ministers and UNITA leaders spoke, although none had his style. Then, until four in the morning, the meeting turned into a self-criticism session; members of the audience made complaints and suggestions to the assembled leaders. Some mentioned corruption. Others complained about incompetency and neglect. Savimbi promised that if the charges were backed up by evidence, commanders and administrators would lose their jobs.

In open fields some 60 km. south of Silva Porto, Savimbi's troops are training. They are a young, green lot, dressed in ragged, tattered civilian clothing supplemented by an equally tattered assortment of military jackets and pants.

The recruits have only two weeks to master the tools of modern warfare--106-mm. recoilless rifles, .50-cal. machine guns and 120-mm. mortars. One group practice-firing their NATO FN rifles bumbled a great deal putting in the clips. They aimed in the general direction of the target; not many bullets seemed to hit it. Nonetheless, their morale and motivation seemed high. They sang and chanted with vigor and deep African sonority. Indeed, UNITA seems short of nearly everything but spirit and dedication. "We've asked the Americans for aid and they turned their backs on us. Now we will try to ask the Chinese for help," said one official. And then he added with a laugh, "If the Chinese do help, then the Americans will say we are Communists."

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