"Our concern (...) is for the Angolan Government to recognize the rights of the people of Cabinda to self-determination in the same way that it recognizes those of Western Sahara (...), thus allowing a ceasefire between the Government and the Liberation Forces of Cabinda", can be read in a letter dated Monday and to which Lusa had access this Tuesday.
The province of Cabinda, where most of the country's oil reserves are concentrated, is not adjacent to the rest of the territory and for years local movements have defended its independence.
The Front for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda - Armed Forces of Cabinda (FLEC-FAC) fights for the independence of that province, alleging that the enclave was a Portuguese protectorate, as established in the Treaty of Simulambuco, signed in 1885, and not part of part of the Angolan territory.
However, the Government refuses to recognize a situation of instability in that province, always stressing the unity of the territory.
In the letter addressed to the President, João Lourenço, the "Political Organizations of Cabinda, in the Interior" protest against "the armed conflict and social degradation of the Cabinda Territory, which has lasted for more than 46 years".
The organizations say that since 1975 and until today, the people of Cabinda "exacerbated discrimination, a climate of military repression, social, economic and political degradation, persecution, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and convictions, torture and murder, without any rights and investments, characteristics of an authentic colonization".
And they accuse the Luanda authorities of persisting in "repression, with military and political imposition, violating all the conventional principles and methods of the United Nations, European Union and African Union leading to the pacification" of the territory.
Considering it "essential and irreversible to open the doors to Political Organizations in Cabinda", the five associations want to take advantage of the "sovereign opportunity" to resolve the conflict peacefully, avoiding the "political violence" that they say has already caused the death of "thousands of citizens of Cabinda and Angola".
They therefore appeal to João Lourenço and his Government to "undertake the political-international dynamic", in compliance with the "international resolutions and conventions established by the United Nations, the African Union and the Security Council for the resolution of the Cabinda problem".
The subscribing organizations are the Consensual Front of Cabinda (FCC), Movement for the Reunification of the People of Cabinda for its Sovereignty (MRPCS), Union of Cabindans for Independence (UCI), Democratic Movement of Cabinda (MDC) and The Liberal Democrats of Cabinda (DLC).
