500 gunmen reportedly kill 30
diamond prospectors in Angola
By Associated Press, 3/7/2000 13:49
LUANDA, Angola (AP) Some 500 gunmen charged into a
remote mining town in Angola and killed 30 diamond
prospectors, state radio said Tuesday.
The attack, which witnesses blamed on UNITA rebels, took
place over the weekend in Chivungo, some 450 miles east of
the Angolan capital of Luanda, state radio RNA said.
Chivungo residents, who arrived Tuesday in Luanda, claimed
the attackers chopped off the ears of 12 prospectors and
forced the prospectors to eat them, according to the radio.
Independent verification of the claims was not immediately
possible as most of the Southwest African country is
inaccessible due to fighting between the government and
UNITA, a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola.
The rebels were not immediately available for comment.
Chivungo, located in the province of Lunda Norte, has a
population of 1,000 people, mainly made up of illegal diamond
diggers, known as 'garimpeiros.'
UNITA runs diamond operations, mostly in the northeast of the
country, using 'garimpeiros.' The diamonds are smuggled out
of the country before being sold on the international market.
In 1998, the United Nations imposed a ban on UNITA's
diamond trade in an effort to choke a revenue source that has
fueled a civil war for more than two decades.
Human rights groups estimate the rebels have earned at least
$3 billion over the past eight years from diamond sales and
investments funded by the profits.
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