Adalberto Costa Júnior, who was speaking at a press conference in Luanda, warned of the acts of violence led by party members in less than two months, including an attack on a caravan of deputies in Cuando Cubango, shootings in Malanje and, more recently, in Huambo, a skirmish at a lecture where he should have participated.
According to the leader of UNITA – who was replaced at the time by the party's vice-president due to an overlapping agenda – there was a confrontation between security elements and people who were preparing to enter the place, because they were armed with knives.
He highlighted that it is "with surprise" that the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) sees this type of practices, which "have not been common".
"It is still worthy of concern, a warning for all of us", stated Adalberto Costa Júnior, admitting that he would be "the announced author of the lecture", that is, he himself, the target of the attack.
"This is new, the fact that they occur in sequence and no visible process of seeking accountability formally emerges", he reinforced, considering that the National Police's public statements are an incentive to impunity.
In the case of Malanje, in which a vehicle in which a UNITA deputy was traveling was shot, the National Police dismissed in a statement the theory of an attack, but that it was an attempted robbery aimed at a merchant who was nearby.
"We are living in a time that is new, it is not normal in a country that considers itself a democratic state based on the rule of law that we begin to have protected islands where plurality is not possible, where other political parties, other than the regime party, cannot can be active", criticized the leader, adding: "This threatens everyone's lives".
Asked whether he got in touch with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), he said that "UNITA, as an institution, got in touch with the other institutions", without getting answers "on a practical level, because they are also responsible for the institutions that "they are not fulfilling their role".
The president of UNITA, who this Wednesday presented testimonies from deputies who were the target of the alleged attacks, also wanted to do an "radiography on the state of security" in Angola, focusing on crime and insecurity.
He pointed out the increase in robberies, violence against women and children and homicides and criticized the justice crisis, also showing concern about witchcraft and other beliefs encouraged by some religious sects that often result in murders that go unpunished.
"Our poverty is unfortunately rampant and has not received combat programs from those who govern", stressed the UNITA leader, citing measures taken "without any social dialogue" such as the removal of fuel subsidies or the recent ban on street vending of various products.
"This encourages crime because where there are no jobs, where there are no policies to protect citizens or youth, the consequence is despair that has set in", highlighted the politician.
Although he admits that UNITA is not against the measures, Adalberto da Costa Júnior defended that the moment of "extreme poverty and unemployment" is the "worst" for them to be applied because "those who govern do not safeguard the interests of their own people".
"There is no institutional dialogue", he lamented, highlighting that "proudly alone has prevailed".
For Adalberto Costa Júnior, whoever is in power "is bringing to Angola a state of intolerance" and undemocratic. "Take off the ties to the country, lose your fear, let's make local power", he appealed.
