According to the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party, for Jonas Savimbi, who founded the party on March 13, 1966, the Angolan homeland was always in first place and without it nothing else made sense, having given his life for her.
Jonas Savimbi was killed in combat on February 22, 2002, in the region of Lukusse, Moxico province, where he was buried until 2019, until the bones were exhumed and buried, in the same year, in the region of Lopitanga, province of Bié, his homeland.
This Tuesday, in a declaration alluding to the 22nd of February, "Patriot's Day", UNITA recalls that 20 years ago "her founding leader, who with his thought and action wrote his name on the page most golden in the history of Angola".
His work "made him one of the most emblematic figures of Angolan patriotism and nationalism, from the last decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century".
"In fact, Dr. Savimbi participated as a vanguard fighter in the struggle for National independence achieved on November 11, 1975 and led the struggle of the Angolan people to conquer the democratic state of law and market economy, enshrined in the Constitution of Republic of Angola in 1992", reads the statement.
The standing committee of the UNITA Political Commission "on behalf of all UNITA members, sympathizers and friends, pays the simplest tribute to the patriot, the leader, the Pan-Africanist, the diplomat, the 'mwata' (father) of peace, freedom fighter and father of democracy in Angola, Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi".
UNITA recalls that Savimbi conceived the "Mwangai Project", which gave rise to the creation of UNITA, which is the "struggle instrument available to Angolans, for their material and spiritual dignification, both internally and in the concert of nations".
UNITA states that the struggle of its founding leader "never aimed at his personal accommodation, but at a dignified Angola, for all".
Therefore, he observes, "he denied, outright, the second vice-presidency of the Republic that had been proposed to him by the then President of the Republic of Angola, during 1995" and "never capitulated nor hid in the face of the difficult challenges that life placed him".
"It is a case of incorruptibility in these times. It is, indeed, a case study, an example. Remembering Jonas Malheiro Savimbi is to refresh our collective memory and seek the right inspiration of how a true patriot should serve Angola", highlights the UNITED
For Jonas Savimbi, they observe, the Angolan homeland "has always been in the first place and without it nothing else makes sense, having given his life for it".
Angola celebrates 20 years of peace and national reconciliation on 4 April and in August it holds the fifth general election in its history.
The 20th anniversary of Jonas Savimbi's death, UNITA recalls, coincides with the election year and "it is urgent, therefore, that every Angolan takes stock of these 20 years, and tells himself what has changed".
"Looking coldly at these last 20 years of effective peace, we see that we have a country that is regressing in all areas: both in terms of the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens, and in the consolidation of the democratic State and of law, as well as the condition of life for the majority of Angolans", considers UNITA.
The armed conflict "which lasted 27 years was the regime's justification for all the ills that the country was going through, imputing them with greater inclination to the founding president of UNITA".
UNITA, in its statement, also questioned "what the current regime has done to improve the lives of Angolans in 20 years of effective peace", committing to "form, with all patriotic forces, the United Patriotic Front, capable of guarantee the alternation of political power in Angola".
The central event of the celebrations took place in the municipality of Andulo, in the Angolan province of Bié, and was presided over by the current president of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior.
