Angola Seeks to Charge Rebel Leader

Calling the massacre of hundreds of refugees “a heinous act of terror,” Angola has urged the United Nations to prosecute rebel leader Jonas Savimbi for war crimes.

About 10,000 people marched Saturday through Luanda, the capital, in a government-organized demonstration to protest the ambush of a refugee train in northwestern Angola on Aug. 10. More than 250 people were killed.

The train was packed with more than 500 refugees who were fleeing fighting between the government and UNITA rebels. The train hit two mines, derailed and burst into flames before rebels sprayed it with gunfire.

In a message to the United Nations, the government denounced the massacre and accused Savimbi of “indiscriminate attacks on civilians and crimes against humanity.”

The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the “terrorist attack” Thursday and reiterated its call for the rebels to engage seriously in peace efforts. Council members pledged continued support for sanctions against UNITA.

In a letter to the Security Council a day later, Angola’s ambassador to the U.N., Ismael Martins, called on the international community to redouble efforts to isolate “those who choose to wage war.”

Nearly 4 million people have been made homeless by fighting between government forces and UNITA--a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola--since the country’s 1975 independence from Portugal.