(Rapaport…August 27, 2001) Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos says he will not run for president in next year’s elections. The 58-year-old, who made the announcement on August 22, has been president since 1979.
“I have accomplished my mission,” he said. The next candidate, he added, “will not be called Jose Eduardo dos Santos.”
A former guerilla fighter accused by various human rights groups of amassing a private fortune by skimming funds from the nation’s diamond industry, Dos Santos has been credited with turning Angola into a regional power broker