Jonas Savimbi and Genocide
Jonas Savimbi is a man who practiced genocide. Born in Portugal, Angola on August 3rd, 1934. He was the founder and leader of UNITA who fought for the independence of Angola from Portugal in 1975, and eventually raised war against the Country. There are 3 main points which prove that he practiced genocide. First off, Savimbi committed crimes against humanity. Second, he was attacking a certain group of people, which in this case would be Angola. Finally, the shear number of people that died and suffered by his hand.
Jonas Savimbi practiced genocide by committing crimes against humanity. Every passing day, as the Angolan war continued, thousands upon thousands were being killed. As 1989 rolled around, it appeared…show more content… This certain group of people was Angola citizens. In the late 80's of the streets of Luanda, approximately 50,000 citizens were shot and killed for Savimbis troops. One man even said that, "They were murdered by their race, religion, culture" Now this was obviously a "mass murder" in some peoples eyes. But because of the intent to kill someone because of their beliefs, race etc, would be considered a genocide. Another example of this would be how he once again starved the citizens of Angola. That itself is a certain group of people because of the culture they live in. The reason for the killings Savimbi made was to once again bring fear into Angola's people to show that he was the one with the power. Also, as this war continued, the most casualties were from Angola own people due to many battles that happened in the area. As said before, that Savimbi places land mines in crop fields. Angola's is now the 3rd country to have the most land mines placed in a war. Toward the end of the war, once everything settled down. Angola was the country to suffer. Many towns, road, buildings were destroyed because of the fighting and thousands have lost their lives by Savimbi's hand. Therefore, Savimbi practiced genocide by killing/attacking certain…show more content… Throughout the course of the war, around 300,000 people have died because of it. Either from being caught in cross fire, starvation or by simply being attacked. The 300,000 people that died is nothing compared to the 3.3 million people that lived and suffered from this war. These people that survived because they had escaped to near by countries to avoid all of this. When the war was over, the 3.3 million had nothing to come back to. Everything was destroyed as mentioned before. But being a survivor came with a price. Many people have had to get certain parts of their bodies amputated such as; arms, hands, legs etc. This had to be done because they couldn't seek medical attention to treat the infections they contacted. As well from being caught in all the action, the people who tripped the land mines and were lucky enough to live, most likely lost a leg from the blast. Going back to the Luanda streets where nearly 50,000 people died. That played a massive impact on the overall amount of people that died. 1/6 people died on those streets that year and it was from the war. Therefore, Savimbi practiced genocide by number of people that got killed or that suffered by his