Ver Angola

Society

Angolan NGOs warn of “persecution of taxi drivers” and disapprove of “manipulation of public bodies”

Angolan civic organizations warn of the “environment of intimidation, persecution and aggression” allegedly carried out by the Angolan police against taxi drivers promoting the Monday strike and disapprove of acts of vandalism and the “partiality and manipulation” of public bodies.

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Taxi drivers paralyzed their services on Monday, January 10, in Luanda, to claim social and economic rights, but acts of vandalism took place, with the destruction of a public bus and the building of a committee of the MPLA, party in power, in the district of Benfica.

In a public note on the facts recorded on Monday, to which Lusa had access this Friday, four Angolan civil society organizations "condemn all types of illegal practices, whether by persons of private law or by authorities public".

The Justice, Peace and Democracy Association (AJPD), the Association Building Communities (ACC), the Ame Naame Omunu Association (ANO) and OMUNGA are the signatories of the document, dated Thursday.

The organizations "reprove the destruction of public and private goods, such as the partiality and manipulation of facts by the public media, as well as the omission of the duty to protect goods and people by the national police".

"Because they are all contrary to the law", they point out, considering that fundamental rights "must be exercised by their holders, and it is up to the authorities to create conditions for citizens to exercise them within the framework of the law".

These organizations also believe that the acts of 10 January "certainly have those responsible and they should be held accountable for their actions if they are proven to be responsible".

The AJPD, ACC, ANO and OMUNGA also "condemn" the "contextualization and treatment of facts disseminated by public bodies, recurring to the old practices of classifying all peaceful demonstrations against the Government as acts of pure rebellion against the established powers, in a inversion of the values ​​of a true democracy".

"All the orchestration displayed by the public media is part of an old authoritarian primer, such as the campaign that aimed to make believe that the FNLA [National Front for the Liberation of Angola] ate people", reads the note.

In the opinion of these non-governmental organizations, which "criticize the silent gaze" of the Angolan Media Regulatory Authority (ERCA), the aforementioned campaign aims to "discredit the promoters of the strike and create a situation of violence sufficient and necessary to justify an action to repression against the promoters of the strike".

Creating among citizens "the idea that the taxi drivers' strike pursued unconfessed ends and contrary to the ends the promoters had proposed" is also, for these associations, another purpose of the aforementioned "campaign of public communication agencies".

The civic organizations also draw the attention of the national and international community to what they consider an "environment of persecution, intimidation and aggression carried out by the national police against taxi drivers for having promoted the strike".

The AJPD, ACC, ANO and OMUNGA say they have become aware of complaints of "mistreatment" to which several citizens detained by the national police are subjected, following acts of vandalism, and "demand" the organs of justice, especially the courts , the "exercise of judicial power only in accordance with the law".

The acts of vandalism were condemned and repudiated by the taxi driver associations that called for the strike, the government, the MPLA and UNITA, the main opposition party, which the ruling party claimed was behind the incidents.

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