"From our data we have counted 23 dead, 11 wounded evacuated to Dundo, 10 wounded who are being assisted in Cafunfo, including a child, and 10 people are missing so far," said this Tuesday the president and deputy of the Social Renewal Party (PRS), Benedito Daniel.
Speaking Tuesday at a joint press conference with the presidents of the parliamentary groups of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Liberty Chiyaka, and the Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola-Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE), Alexandre André, the PRS MP expressed "deep sorrow and repudiation" for the deaths.
According to the leader of PRS, a political party with a strong presence in the east of the country, the scene of the January 30 incidents, "there was no attempt to storm a police station" in Cafunfo, Lunda Norte province.
The police said that some 300 people linked to the Movement of the Portuguese Protectorate Lunda Tchokwe (MPPLT), which has for years advocated autonomy in this region rich in mineral resources, attempted on January 30 to storm a police station, and in defense the forces of order and security fatally shot six people.
The police version is contradicted by the leaders of the MPPLT, political parties in the opposition and local civil society that speak of about 20 dead.
"This action (assault on the police station) never existed," said Benedito Daniel, considering that it was "a theoretical fact that was skillfully created."
According to the PRS politician, the citizens of Cafunfo "were only trying to hold a peaceful demonstration, previously communicated to the authorities," but the authorities, on the spot, "did not allow it to take place," because "days before they had already threatened that they would shoot anyone who came out into the street.
Benedito Daniel reported that days before the announced demonstration, on January 20, a battalion of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) disembarked in Cafunfo and then the rapid intervention police from the provinces of Malange, Lunda Sul, Lunda Norte and Moxico appeared.
"This police and FAA force began to search for those responsible for the demonstration, many of them were captured, among them a former National Police officer who suffered from mental disorders and was eventually killed," he explained.
"And days before the announced demonstration, a 'patrolman' (police patrol car) circulated in Cafunfo, informing that whoever participated in the demonstration would be shot," added the deputy.
The president of PRS also said that the demonstration "wasn't even held", because on the day marked the "demonstrators, crowds to start the march, were surprised by police and FAA personnel who came and started shooting indiscriminately".
Before, "there had already been kidnappings, the death of demonstration leaders, and some corpses were thrown into the Cuango River and into ravines," he continued, noting that many of the relatives did not claim for their loved ones for "fear of reprisals.
"There has never been an armed rebellion, the weapons are obsolete, collected in citizens' homes. We regret the situation because the killing of citizens is indiscriminate and so far the deaths continue," he lamented.
The president of the CASA-CE parliamentary group regretted the deaths of citizens, calling for accountability and considering this to be "a drama" that stains the democratic state and the rule of law, and the Constitution that prohibits the death penalty.
"We are facing an immeasurable contradiction," said Sebastião André, also deploring the detention of UNITA deputies at the entrance of Cafunfo, because he believes that parliamentarians carry out their activities throughout the country.
The president of the UNITA parliamentary group recalled that Angola is one and indivisible, but stressed that "the majority of Angolans live in indigence," considering that "those who propose to govern assume the commitment to serve the citizen.
For Liberty Chiyaka, when a government is unable to honor its commitments, it must be guided by self-demission, urging citizens to continue to demand the satisfaction of their needs and the fulfillment of electoral promises.
"For demonstrators, whatever the circumstances, do not allow them to be manipulated against your interests," he urged.
The MPPLT is fighting for autonomy in the Lundas region, in East-North Angola.
