The issue at hand is a visit made on Monday by five deputies from the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), to the Central Morgue of Luanda, attached to the Josina Machel Hospital.
In a statement, UNITA indicated that the visit was carried out following several complaints and petitions from citizens, which relate "to the subhuman and extremely degraded conditions, as well as the care in what has been the largest cadaver treatment unit in Luanda, with the deputies having, in fact, confirmed this reality".
The deputies stated that during the visit they were confronted by members of the National Police who had been sent to the site to prevent them from "carrying out their work, in violation of the Constitution and the Law, as deputies enjoy the right to free movement, understood as free movement in public places with restricted access".
The note also highlights that the deputies, after visiting the morgue, went to the Ministry of Health to present to the head of the department "the list of concerns that affect the normal functioning of the Luanda Central Morgue, as well as to suggest measures for its improvement".
Given the absence of the Minister of Health, the delegation was advised over the phone by the governor herself to contact the Provincial Government of Luanda, which oversees the Luanda Central Morgue, and the deputies asked for explanations about "the reasons for the degraded state of the morgue and its services, having appealed for institutional collaboration for advocacy with those responsible with a view to resolving the problems that the morgue faces".
"The UNITA parliamentary group categorically repudiates the inhumane way in which corpses and their families are treated at the Luanda Central Morgue and clarifies that the statement from the National Assembly is inappropriate and distorts the truth and reality of the facts, showing a lack of knowledge of the rules that regulate parliamentary activity, mainly, insensitivity to the problems that affect the citizens that the deputies represent", the note highlights.
Videos, shared on social media, reported the various moments of the visit to the site, with statements from family members, the intervention of the police, as well as members of the morgue's board.
In a statement on the matter, the National Assembly said it had become aware "through social media of the dissemination of outrageous images, which also disrespect people's rights, fundamentally the respect that the deceased deserve".
In the statement, the National Assembly accuses UNITA deputies of taking advantage of "the distress of the families" to film and disseminate "images that violate civility and the rules governing the exercise of the parliamentary function, which must be guided by rules and principles in light of the internal instruments of the National Assembly, with undisclosed purposes".
"This behavior with undeclared purposes violates the principle of institutional cooperation that must exist between institutions," the statement emphasizes.
"In view of the recurring reprehensible behavior from an ethical and moral point of view, the competent committee of the AN in charge of matters of Ethics and Parliamentary Decorum has already been instructed to investigate the reasons that motivate such behavior", it was added.
