The position was presented by the president of the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Liberty Chiyaka, at the launch of the party's 12th Parliamentary Conference, which will take place between 26 and 30 March in Cabinda.
According to the politician, the province of Cabinda, an enclave in northern Angola, has specific political issues to resolve and, 50 years after the colonial era, the situation in that territory "is as sad" as that experienced in the other provinces of Angola.
"The situation [in Cabinda] is further aggravated by the existence of a guerrilla movement led by FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda – which fights for the autonomy of that region)", Liberty Chiyaka recalled at a press conference.
The people of Cabinda, he argued, need a new approach to achieve their "legitimate aspirations for peace, freedom and prosperity, having failed to reach several expectations of understanding with several dignitaries from Cabinda".
"We have concrete proposals for this new approach. We believe that the National Assembly, within the scope of its political and representative powers, should take the political initiative and schedule a specific discussion of proposals that will lead to democratic peace in Cabinda", he stressed.
He argued that the people of Cabinda "do not only need peace", but also "freedom, democracy, local autonomy, fair redistribution of national wealth and prosperity".
He also added that UNITA deputies will go to Cabinda to talk to local leaders and to consult civil society on the Bill for Supramunicipal Local Authorities in Cabinda.
A supramunicipal local authority should contribute to the fight against hunger and poverty, achieve the national objective of eliminating asymmetries through a more equitable distribution of public resources between the State and local authorities, and ensure the provision of local and other public services, explained Liberty Chiyaka.
The FLEC/FAC (Armed Forces of Cabinda) has been demanding independence for several years for the territory of Cabinda, the province from which much of the country's oil comes, invoking the Treaty of Simulambuco of 1885, which designated that part of the territory as a Portuguese protectorate.
In a recent interview with the magazine Jeune Afrique, President João Lourenço stated that the security situation in the oil-producing province of Cabinda is stable and that the FLEC-FAC does not pose any threat to Angolan territory.
