Luanda - UNITA president Adalberto Costa Júnior has praised the initiative of the President João Lourenço to issue public apology to the victims of the political conflicts, occurred between 1975 and 2002.
The leader of the main opposition party in Angola was speaking at the opening ceremony of a seminar of the staff of this political organisation, held in Viana municipality in Luanda.
Adalberto Costa Júnior considered the speech delivered by the Head of State relevant, but regretted the fact that he had also invited UNITA to issue public apology to the Nation.
On Wednesday in Luanda, João Lourenço apologised to the Nation for development of the 27 May 1977 that led to the summary execution of indeterminate number of Angolans.
In his speech, the President said that the Angolan people have already given proof of forgiveness and now they deserves to hear, from those who have the responsibility to do so, a public apology and forgiveness.
João Lourenço alluded to UNITA militants, the staff as well as the other citizens also killed by the party at the time of the facts led by the then leader Jonas Malheiro Savimbi.
Various figures killed under Savimbi orders, including Tito Chingungi, Wilson dos Santos and their families, the brave women of the Jamba camp fires, the passengers on the Zenza-do-Itombe train, the martyrs of the cities of Cuito (Bié) and Huambo.
Reacting to the issue, Adalberto Costa Júnior said that his party "has already done so several times, through Jonas Savimbi (the party founder), in April 2001, at the 16th UNITA Conference, as well as through Savimbi’s aide, Lukamba Gato and Isaías Samakuva.
João Lourenço’s speech to the Nation on the victims of political conflicts put an end to a long period of State silence toward some of these events, with stress to the May 27, 1977, which led to the execution of indeterminate number of citizens.
Forty-four years on, Angolan President clarified that it was an attempted coup d'état, perpetrated by some militants of MPLA. The reaction of the authorities was disproportional and taken to the extreme, involving summary execution of an indeterminate number of Angolans, many of them innocent.
