After the October 24 and November 11 protests in Luanda, which were marked by police violence against demonstrators, leaving one dead and several injured, the President of the Republic of Angola went out in person with a fire extinguisher.
We Cabindans, both inside and in the diaspora, have learned a lot from this dialogue that His Excellency João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço had with the young people of Luanda :
1 – We must absolutely salute the President’s initiative to calm the spirits, at a time when all Angolans were grumbling for the resentment suffered by the demonstrators due to the brutal action of public order agents on demonstrations peaceful. Going out dressed as a firefighter with a fire extinguisher in hand, embodied in dialogue, was the act of a rule proving wisdom and empathy. Isn’t that why you are the Father of the Nation ? Or will a good father have a more correct way of acting, other than that !
2 – The civic class administered by the president was quite educational. The young people present not only heard what they already knew, but this time, with the most authoritative voice in the country: “the demonstration is a right enjoyed by citizens, protected by the Constitution itself. What is prohibited, due to the measures imposed by the state of emergency, are public gatherings. If the demonstration amounts to a rally, it cannot take place”, he stressed. A very successful interference, quite acceptable.
In light of this statement, the President was attempting to justify the use of violence by the police. In other words, the police behaved in this way only because the citizens violated the state of emergency; not because there were demonstrations. On this specific aspect and even if I do not agree to see the police allowing themselves to mistreat peaceful citizens for any reason whatsoever, I have to agree with them, since we have followed gigantic demonstrations from afar in Angola last year, without being suppressed by the public order police. But in Cabinda, all demonstrations are repressed. This differentiation in treatment has never deserved any explanation from the leaders.
3 – The President would not be mistaken if he also brought to Cabinda this wise way of expressing, very well explained in his own words and which he promised to bring elsewhere in the country, to bring personally and on the spot some clarification due to the application in this territory of the rule of two weights, two measures. It is a right of the population of this territory to know why no demonstration can take place in Cabinda, without police violence and unjustified detentions, regardless of whether it is the period before the pandemic or during the pandemic.
4th – The dialogue promoted by President JL, whom we have chosen to designate as a fire extinguisher in the hands of the firefighter, basically aims to extinguish the fire that was about to consume the house. We also do not hesitate to congratulate the good initiative, because it is the duty of those who see themselves as the father of the nation.
However, the Cabinda house has been under constant fire for 45 years. These are not just demonstrations by young people, but because of the political conflict that people have with the Angolan government, a conflict well known to all Angolans and admitted by Angolan institutions.
Can the President dress in PLUMBERS, using the same extinguisher (dialogue) to put an end to this fire which consumes and suffocates everything and everyone in this territory ?
The High Council of Cabinda (HCC), through the voice of its spokesperson, requests that the same formula of inclusive DIALOGUE, which tends to be applied to resolve the problems of the Angolan people in Angola, also be extended to the problem of Cabinda. Likewise, the HCC calls on the top Angolan executive official to order the unconditional release of all activists who have been detained and imprisoned in Cabinda for exercising only their constitutional right to protest. If you do, you will fight for justice for all, regardless of the cost.
The people of Cabinda and around the world will have recorded this effort in the annals of history.
Well there is peace
Well, there is justice.
Pastor Afonso Justino Waco
Political, Organization Officer and Spokesperson Commission Coordinator of The High Council of Cabinda (HCC)
