Dear President Tajani,

Since we are going to listen today in the Plenary to the new President of Angola, Mr. João Lourenço, and there will be no opportunity for any MEP to ask him any question or to discuss any matter with him, and since he is in the leadership of a country with abundant natural resources but serious and entrenched problems of human rights, lack of justice and accountability, lack of development and rampant corruption and kleptocracy, I would like to bring to your attention a recent letter that I received from Father Pio Wacussanga illustrating grave problems of governance persisting and dramatically affecting the basic survival of the population in the south of Angola. (See below transcription in Portuguese and English).

As I appreciate significant changes President Lourenço has introduced to open up the media space and to clean up rampant corruption and collusion under his predecessor, I note as well that very serious old and new questions remain to be addressed. I trust you will use your conversation with President João Lourenço to ask him answers for the following questions and would be keen to be informed of his answers:

1. Is Angola committed to ensure the trial of former Vice President Manuel Vicente, for the accusation of having corrupted a Portuguese Magistrate (now under trial) for closing a money laundering investigation against him, while he was president of the national oil company Sonangol? (Angola under President Lourenço demanded the file would be handed to Luanda, which was agreed by a Portuguese Appeal Court considering bilateral judiciary agreements).

2. Why is the current Prosecutor of Angola now persecuting in court Rafael Marques, the brave and internationally acclaimed journalist and human rights campaigner and blogger of  "Maka Angola", for having exposed  the former and totally corrupt General Prosecutor General João Maria de Sousa for grave  crimes, corruption and abuses he committed while in office? The sentence is to be read in a few days, the 6 of July. And is General João Maria de Sousa ever going to be tried for the crimes exposed?

3. Is Angola going to bring to trial the well known big sharks of corruption, including  former President dos Santos and his family, namely his children Isabel dos Santos and José Filomeno dos Santos, their partners, such as Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, but also Generals Kopelipa, Dino do Nascimento, and former ex-Vice President Manuel Vicente?

3. Is the new Angolan government trying to investigate or allow an international investigation and account for the victims and those responsible for the massacre of Mount Sume (Huambo) in April 2015, where the killed are said to be at least 13 policemen and around 1300 civilians of Kalupeteca sect followers? 

4. Is the new government taking measures against death squads operating in Luanda within the security forces, such as the one which last June was filmed executing a young man already wounded and agonizing in plain street? Or to bring to trial the perpetrators of extortion and persecution against workers in diamond mines, such as the grave case of José Manuel dos Santos from Kakunfu, recently exposed by Rafael Marques?

5. Is the new government finally granting legal status for human rights, justice and development national and international NGOs to be able to operate in Angola and abolish the NGO law which was passed to deter civil society activists?

6. Is the new Angolan Government going to exercise Angolan rights in a case now under trial in Gand/ Belgium, opened by Belgian Tax Authorities,  and try to recover billions stolen from Angolan State coffers in blood diamonds trafficking operated by Omega Diamonds and ASCORP, for the profit of Mrs. Isabel dos Santos, the richest woman billionaire in Africa?

Furthermore, I would appreciate that, for the sake of the necessary transparency and credibility of the EP, you would let us know how the idea to have President João Lourenço invited to address the EP came about. Was it a proposal made by the Angolan  Embassy or by any lobbying organization? Was there any lobbying company involved, somehow, in the preparation of this visit to the EP, and if so, which one and which conditions, if any, were set?

Best regards,

Ana Gomes

_________________

Prezados amigos,
Desde 28 de Abril que deixei a vila do Chiange (Sede do Município dos Gambos) e vim morar aqui na Missão de Santo António dos Gambos, onde existe uma fonte de água e onde queremos avançar com projectos de resiliências contra a fome e a pobreza, ligados sobretudo às alterações climáticas, à crise social e à falta de um plano robusto para desenvolvimento rural multifacetado.

Algumas razões:
1. Já fizemos muitas intervenções, mas alocamos os meios e as metodologias à distância, tendo colhido frutos magros;
2. Houve muitos investimentos em sementes, plantas (mandioca, batata-doce, moringa, por exemplo...) e a maior parte toda secou, por falta de acompanhamento;
3. A Fonte de Santo António tem sido motivo de alguns conflitos e cobiças, pelo que não dá para ficarmos longe dela;
4. A Missão de Santo António está a fazer um elaborado planeamento estratégico com o mapeamento das forças, fraquezas, oportunidades e constrangimentos, envolvendo mulheres, pastores e jovens ao nível local. Só assim, poderemos iniciar um verdadeiro processo de desenvolvimento;
5. O Plano de Desenvolvimento Nacional 2018-2022 do Governo da República de Angola, no geral, contempla em suas linhas gerais, os chamados Pólos de Desenvolvimento, Pólos de Equilíbrio, e Pólos de Equilíbrio a estudar, mas o resto, são denominados como ESPAÇOS PERIFÉRICOS (vide Figura 1: Estratégia de Desenvolvimento Territorial da ELP Angola 2025, p.72). Na realidade, quase nada contempla, em termos estruturantes, alguma opção estratégica para o desenvolvimento rural, o que é grave e preocupante;
6. De acordo com imagens de satélite, entre 2030 a 2039, prevê-se uma segunda vaga de alterações climáticas com aumento de temperaturas, o que vai resultar em estiagens prolongadas e chuvas torrenciais, o que vai agravar muito mais a vida do interior, na falta de planos de contingências reais e funcionais:
7. Penso que o desenvolvimento de Angola deveria primeiro ser equacionado a partir do Sector Primário (Agricultura, com relevância para a familiar, Pecuária, com relevância para o Sector Pastoril, Florestas, Pescas, Economia Rural diversificada...) e, tal como aconteceu no tempo colonial, este sector fez crescer os demais, e não o contrário;
8. Existe uma desorientação muito acentuada da juventude, sem nenhuma experiência profissional e sem esperança alguma no futuro do país. E eu como líder da Igreja e actor social estou sob enorme pressão dos jovens que lutam para conseguir empregos e não o conseguem;

Por todas estas razões, eu decidi viver no interior, desencadeando pequenas iniciativas e vê-las a crescer, apoia.las, facilitar seu surgimento, empoderá-las e ir capacitando os líderes, entre jovens, mulheres e outros líderes comunitários, a fim de iniciarmos a lutar em conjunto contra as ameaças da natureza e contra as fraquezas da própria sociedade angolana em geral.

Por esta razão, gostaria de pedir a todos os que estão interessados a nos ajudarem, não desanimeis, vamos recomeçar, como se fosse um computador, com força e coragem, mas de maneira nova, local, diferente, criativa e interactiva.

Agradeço desde já o apoio que me tendes prestado.

Dearest Friends,
Since the 28th of April, I have left the town of Chiange (the Head of gthe Gambos municipality) and have come and settled here at the Saint Anthony of Gambos MIssion, where there is a watersource and where we want to advance and experiment projects focusing resilinece against famine and widespread rural poverty, caused mainly by climate chante impacts, the social crisis and the absence of a robust and multifaceted rural development plan.

Some reasons:
1. We have conducted many interventions, means have been alocated and methodologies applied from distance, but the outcomes were too meagre;
2.There have been, for exemple, lots of investments and efforts in seeds, plants (cassava, sweet potato, moringa...)and the vast majority have dried away due to the lack of supervision;
3.The Saint Anthony community watersource has been na atractive source of conflicts and some greed, and it is not wise to stay away from it;
4. The Saint Anhony of Gambos Mission is gearing a stragegic plan by mapping the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints, involving local women, pastoralists and youths at local level, It is only then that we can start a real development process;
5. The National Development Plan 2018-2022 of the Government of the Republic of Angola, envisages, within its general lines, the so-called Development Poles, Balance Poles and to be Studied Poles, quite all of the located in the main urban areas, especially in the coastal lines, and the rest are called PERIPHERICAL SPACES (See Fig. 1: Strategy for Territorial Development of ELP Angola 2025, p.72). In reality, almost nothing envisages, in structural terms, some strategical option for rural development, what can be regarded as serious and worring;
6. According to satellite images, between 2030 and 2039, it has been expected to happen a second wave of climate change with the rise in temperatures with devastating impacts in prolonged droguhts and torrencial rains, and that will be an agravatting factor to the rural habitants, in conjuction with the absence of realistic and duable contingency plans;
7. In my view, the development of Angola should primarily focus on the Primary Sector (Agriculture, with relevance to the family-farming system, Livestock, with emphasis to the pastoral system, Forestry, Fishery, the Diversified Rural Economy...) and, like what happened during colonial times, the Primary Sector was responsible to the growth of all other sectors and not the opposite; ;
8. There is a sense of general disorientation among youhts, especially those without professional training and with no hope on the future of the country, let alone the prospects for a good employment. As a Church leader and social actor I'm under heavy pressure of young people who struggle to get some means of surviving and they cann't get them;

Give all of these arguments, I have decided to set up my tent in the coutryside,among local people, encouraging some small initiatives and to watch them grow, to support them, facilitating their emergence, by empowering them and by helping local leaders, maninly women, young peole and local leaders so that we can start walking together and stand against the menace of climate change and the social cyclical crises of the angolan society in general.

For this reason, I'Id like to ask everyone who is able in helping local communities, please do not give up, let us start again, as if it was the rebooting a computer, but with new strength and courage, with new vision, which is creative, local and interactive.

I'm deeply thankful to all of your unawavering support throughout these trying times. You are all invited to come and share the pure air and the simplicity of the rural life!
Thanks, once again!
Fr.Jacinto Pio Wacussanga