According to the program of Tribute to Victims of Political Conflicts, to which Lusa had access this Friday, are planned two moments on May 27, the first at the cemetery of Santa Ana and the second in Independence Square.
At the Santa Ana cemetery, a wreath will be laid, there will be a minute of silence and a memorial service for the victims, and the participants, dressed in white shirts and caps with the symbol "Embrace and Forgive", will proceed to the second moment of the ceremony.
In Independence Square, a wreath will be laid, a minute of silence will be held in memory of the victims of the political conflicts, the hymn of the Commission for the Implementation of the Reconciliation Plan in Memory of the Victims of the Political Conflicts (CIVICOP) will be sung, and two death certificates will be handed over to two orphans, who will then speak.
The program also foresees the interventions of a former member of the 27 of May Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA), the representative of the 27 of May Foundation and the CIVICOP coordinator, Francisco Queiroz, also Minister of Justice and Human Rights of Angola.
In statements to Lusa news agency, the president of the 27 of May Foundation, Silva Mateus, considered the act a sign of "reconciliation" between the parties.
"It is the reconciliation in memory of the victims," said Silva Mateus, stressing that the ceremony is expected to be attended by members of the government, political parties with parliamentary seats and civil society.
"For the first time in 44 years, the State party and the other party, we would say the 'Nitistas', will hold a joint public ceremony," added Silva Mateus.
On May 27, 1977, an alleged coup attempt, in an operation apparently led by Nito Alves - then former Minister of the Interior since the independence (November 11, 1975) until October 1976 - was violently repressed by Agostinho Neto's regime.
Six days earlier, on May 21, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) had expelled Nito Alves from the party, which led the former minister and several supporters to invade the Luanda prison to free other sympathizers, taking, in parallel, control of the national radio station, becoming known as "fractionists".
The troops loyal to Agostinho Neto, with support from Cuban military, eventually established order and arrested the insurgents, followed, then, what was known as "purge", with the elimination of factions, having been killed about 30,000 people, mostly without any connection to Nito Alves, as stated by Amnesty International in several reports on the subject.
In April 2019, the President, João Lourenço, ordered the creation of a commission (the CIVICOP) to draw up a general plan to honor the victims of the political conflicts that occurred in Angola between November 11, 1975 (independence day) and April 4, 2002 (end of the civil war).
The Plan of Reconciliation in Memory of the Victims of Political Conflicts foresees, among other issues, the issuing of death certificates, the construction of a single memorial for all victims of the political conflicts registered in the country.
In the decree, João Lourenço includes among the conflicts the "coup attempt of the '27 of May' or eventual crimes committed by movements or political parties in the framework of the armed conflict".
The head of state's decision came after, in November 2018, the Minister of Justice, Francisco Queiroz, announced the "Medium-term Executive Strategy for Human Rights 2018/2022", in which the Luanda government recognizes, for the first time, that after the 27 of May, there was a "procession of attacks on human rights", considering it "one of the most relevant" in the country's history.
In March of this year, the 27 of May Platform, which includes the 27 of May Association, the M-27 Association and the Group of Survivors of the 27 of May, suspended its participation in the work of CIVICOP, because the requests presented by the representatives of the victims were not answered.
In a statement, the group said that the government and the MPLA, which have a dominant position in CIVICOP, "far from seeking a path to true national reconciliation, have chosen to refuse the historical truth and to construct propaganda in their favor, to whitewash the image, not being interested in even appreciating the requests that were presented by the victims' representatives."
Among the requests were an impartial and swift investigation to identify those responsible for the crimes, the location of the victims' remains, their certification by DNA testing, the issuance of death certificates showing the date and cause of death, and their return to the families.
