Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-11-Speech-4-174"
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"en.20020411.9.4-174"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, by awarding the Sakharov Prize recently to the Angolan archbishop, Zacarias Kamuenho, the European Parliament wished to support the struggle of all those who were working for peace in Angola, against the implacable logic of violence and war. We could scarcely have imagined at that time that events would move on at such a pace that, today, great expectations for peace and reconciliation have appeared in that long-suffering country. The award of that Prize certainly helped to strengthen the spirit of peace and the demands for peace to be achieved that were made to everyone following the death of Unita’s leader.
Angola is now emerging from that tragic category of countries that have come to be known as ‘war-torn countries’, and is embarking on a period of building a lasting peace. All humanity must welcome this, particularly those who love Angola and who feel infinite pity for the indescribable suffering of its people, who, for decades, have been the victims of a bloody conflict between the two factions fighting for power. All of those who make up the anonymous population of Angola are, quite simply, heroes and martyrs! This extraordinary people now has the right to peace, to freedom, to democracy and to progress. It has the right to bread and freedom; it has the right to the future. Only in this way will the enormous hopes raised by decolonisation and by independence finally be fulfilled. The international community must, now more than ever, demonstrate moral and material solidarity with the Angolan people. There are thousands and thousands of children abandoned and missing. On this point we must also demand the truth about the young lives of two Portuguese citizens who were killed recently in a brutal ambush, an event that is shrouded in mystery. Angola has thousands and thousands of mutilated people and millions of displaced people. They are all hoping for a solution to their tragedy. The return of peace and the reconstruction of Angola will have to address this situation, which is a genuine human disaster. Peace and democracy will only truly be achieved in Angola when the monopoly of power is brought to an end and the diversity of political opinion can be expressed without hesitation or fear, when power is made truly democratic and when there is a fair and equitable distribution of resources. We must be at once optimistic and prudent. We must be optimistic because Angola is now heading in the right direction; prudent and vigilant in order to ensure that there is no change of mind or backsliding. We are surprised, in particular, that the voices of prestigious independent intellectual, religious and political figures should have been so discreet. In fact, unless civil society comes fully to the fore in Angola, everything could become more fragile, limited and uncertain. In any event, it is time to say: long live Angola!"@en1
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