In a public denunciation, to which Lusa had access, the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) said that the deputies were prevented by the police from receiving the supplies that were promptly sent to them from the municipality of Cuango.
According to the note, the deputies and activists were starving for hours because they were held five kilometers from the entrance of the mining town of Cafunfo, where they travelled in order to observe the incident that occurred on 30 January in that region, which resulted in six deaths, five injured and 16 arrested, according to the police, following a demonstration, which the government classified as armed rebellion, for attacking a police station.
The police on the scene said that because of alleged "superior orders" they could not allow the delivery of supplies, the note stressed.
"The parliamentary group is hereby denouncing this further gross violation by the authorities of the Constitution in a true revelation of authoritarianism and lack of humanism, of who should be the guardian of the law and promoter of citizens' rights and guarantees," reads the document.
The international community and the Angolans, the UNITA parliamentary group, urged the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, to ask "to what level of intolerance the country wants to take, violating its electoral promises to improve the posture of its predecessor, when it disrespects and humiliates members of a sovereign body, whose only guilt is to verify the circumstances of an act that decimated dozens of Angolan citizens".
The group of MPs and activists is being held up at the entrance of Cafunfo for not having been allowed to pass, according to Alberto Ngalanela, the first secretary of the parliamentary group in Luanda, told Lusa.
Alberto Nagalanela said that in police control they claim they are not allowed to enter because they have not received any communication from the municipal administration and that they would have to have an authorization from the National Assembly.
"They said that there is a crowd of people in the UNITA committee in Cafunfo and that the moment, as it is sensitive, does not recommend the presence of deputies," Ngalanela said, explaining that this is a mission of the parliamentary group and therefore does not require authorization from the National Assembly.
The Minister of the Interior, Eugénio Laborinho, criticized the presence of opposition MPs, without naming names, in Cafunfo, a region rich in mineral resources, specifically diamonds, questioning the reason for their presence there.
According to Eugénio Laborinho, a political party with a parliamentary seat to leave must be authorized by the president of the National Assembly.
"And mention the reason why they move to this particular position, municipality, commune, village, to leave illegally in search of what? Confusion? If someone left, they left illegally," he said.
The police report that about 300 people linked to the Portuguese Protectorate Movement Lunda Tchokwe (MPPLT), which for years has defended the autonomy of that region, tried to invade a police station on Saturday and in defense the forces of order and security killed six people.
The police version is contradicted by MPPLT leaders, political parties in the opposition and local civil society, who speak of more than a dozen dead.
