Luanda, Sept. 11, 2024 (Lusa) - The leader of UNITA said on Wednesday that Angola has not finalised its reconciliation and that it is mistreating its historical memory of 50 years of independence, lamenting the deaths from hunger, exclusion and state repression.
Adalberto Costa Júnior considered that it makes no sense for Angola to reach 50 years of independence, to be celebrated on 11 November 2025, and for everyone to applaud in unison the "champion of peace" - in an allusion to the Angolan president, João Lourenço, distinguished as "Champion of Peace and Reconciliation in Africa" in May 2022 - when there are "deep problems to be solved".
"We don't want hypocrisy and we are here precisely to contribute and correct this deviant, exclusive, partisan view of a country that on its way to its 50th anniversary has not concluded national reconciliation," he said today at a press conference in Luanda.
The leader also considered that Angola does not treat former combatants well, "it doesn't even treat heroes well, it treats their memory badly, it has no historical memory, it treats its historical memory badly," emphasising that the country "is not reconciled with itself".
"We're going to go on sprees, spending sprees, conferences, that's what we've been observing, in a country that has deep problems to solve, and we want to be positive contributors to making Angola better," he told Lusa.
On the other hand, he argued that Angola's 50 years of independence should, above all, be celebrated "without deaths from hunger, with inclusion, without a repressive state, but in freedom".
"It doesn't make sense for Angola to be celebrating 50 years and for some living testimonies of independence fighters to be witnessing young people imprisoned in jail for crimes of opinion, because they criticised the country's president, because the majority party is passing laws that repress freedoms," he criticised.
In August, the Angolan president said that "there are many reasons to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country's independence in a big way", after several decades of war, emphasising that the country has achieved peace and is "building a homeland of reconciled brothers who have been able to forgive each other".
In his speech, Costa Júnior lamented the "constant violations" of citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms in Angola, noting that the right to life is violated "as normal" when censorship in the media and the systematic violation of the freedom to assemble and demonstrate persist.
"If the Constitution forbids the death penalty, the ease of using the trigger [by defence and security officials] against the public is also forbidden. The right to life is inviolable and we must put an end to these violations," he pointed out, citing reports of "constant killings" of young people and citizens, allegedly by the forces of law and order.
He criticised what he called the "state of abandonment" to which thousands of former combatants have been consigned in Angola's 18 provinces, saying that the state "continues to manage this process in a partisan manner, which contributes to their despair and deaths".
For the UNITA leader, the current "overspending of public accounts, with direct contract awards of millions of dollars by the country's president, is worrying", pointing out that the country is in extreme poverty because of "undemocratic leaders who violate the laws and regulations".
The president of UNITA said, on the other hand, that his party does not engage in "jackboot" politics, maintaining that it makes interventions with positive approaches for a better Angola.
"Without dialogue you get nowhere, alone you get nowhere, a state that doesn't respect freedoms has no development," he said.
He also assured that the country's president's rumoured third term - the Angolan Constitution only determines two terms - will not happen because UNITA "will not give any endorsement to the violation of the Constitution".
DYAS/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
