"Regarding the actions of the national police, there is no doubt that excessive force was used, resulting in the murder of even defenseless people. The authorities need to understand that legitimate expressions of public outrage should not be used as an excuse for the police to murder defenseless people," Guilherme Neves, president of the Mãos Livres Association, said this Friday.
In statements to Lusa, the leader of Mãos Livres, an Angolan non-governmental organization that promotes human rights, said that what happened between Monday and Wednesday in Luanda and other provinces was a "serious violation of the right to life."
"It is the State's obligation to respect and protect human life, which is a supreme and inviolable asset, protected under the Angolan Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he said.
At least 30 people died and 277 were injured in the riots that took place in Luanda, Benguela, Icolo e Bengo, Bengo, Huíla, Malanje, Huambo, and Lunda Norte between Monday and Wednesday, following a strike called by taxi drivers, police authorities announced.
The General Commander of the National Police, Francisco da Silva, confirmed on Thursday that the woman who was fleeing with her son during the riots in the CAOP B neighborhood, Viana municipality, Luanda, was killed by the authorities, claiming it was necessary to ensure the physical safety of the officers.
Francisco Silva emphasized that the woman, Silvi Mubiala, was allegedly an illegal immigrant and participated in the looting, emphasizing that the police used proportionate measures to ensure the physical safety of the officers, "in the first instance, and to restore order" in the country.
For legal scholar Hermenegildo Teotónio, a member of KUTAKESA – the Movement of Human Rights Defenders in Angola – the police commander's statements about the woman killed in Viana only prove "how evil" the Angolan police have been.
"A justification like this only proves how evil our police have been, that they are not there to maintain order, not there to guarantee citizens' freedom, not there to guarantee the right to life and integrity of citizens," said the lawyer, noting that Silvi Mubiala was shot in the back.
Teotónio lamented and condemned episodes of vandalism, looting, and exploitation during the taxi drivers' strike, noting, however, that the police acted excessively, having allegedly received orders to shoot at the population.
"And this information needs to be passed on. The truth is that the national police are using excessive force; officers were given orders to shoot to kill the population. Therefore, any citizen who was near a store was given the order to shoot," he added.
Speaking to Lusa, the also a defender of the activist Serrote José Oliveira "General Nila", who was "arbitrarily detained and shot in the leg by the police" for his alleged involvement in the vandalism, called for "criminal accountability" of the police for the deaths and other damage caused to defenseless citizens.
Rafael Morais, president of the UYELE Civic Association, also condemned the "disproportionate actions" of the police during the protests: "Of course, [the police's] behavior was not good, because it was disproportionate, since they were confronting unarmed people who posed no threat."
The police "shouldn't use live ammunition to scare people away. What happened was precisely the result of the authorities' own silence, given the famine facing the Angolan people, especially the youth," he noted.
The UYELE leader also considered that the police chief's arguments about the use of proportionate means "are not accepted," when, he noted, citizens, like the woman shot in Viana, "were unarmed and posed no danger."
"Civil society has been warning the government for a long time; many articles have been written classifying Luanda or Angola as a powder keg that could explode, given the social situation the people are experiencing," concluded Rafael Morais.
Guilherme Neves also said that combating social instability "is not done through the use of force of arms," but rather through "strengthening social protection, guaranteeing and protecting jobs and a minimum income, as well as food security, because hunger doesn't wait."
