UNITA welcomes resumption of Savimbi's exhumation process

Luanda, ANGOLA, August 14 - UNITA’s spokesperson, Alcides Sakala Simões, on Tuesday welcomed the initiative to resume the process of exhumation and burial of the remains of the party's founder, Jonas Savimbi.,

The remains of Jonas Savimbi, who died on  February 22, 2002, were buried the next day at the municipal cemetery in Luena, Moxico province.

The politician who spoke to Jornal de Angola in reaction to a statement from the Angolan Interior Ministry released Tuesday in response to statements by UNITA President, Isaias Samakuva accused the executive of preventing the holding of a funeral of Jonas Savimbi.

Isaiah Samakuva, was speaking last Friday at the ceremony marking the birthday of Jonas Savimbi, accused the Angolan state of keeping Savimbi imprisoned, even after his death.

In reaction, the Ministry of the Interior recalled that the leader of UNITA wrote on December 11, 2014, a letter to the then President of the Republic, José Eduardo dos Santos, to request an interlocutor from the Government in the process of exhumation and burial of the remains of Savimbi.

According to the statement, the then Head of State had indicated the Ministry of Interior to represent the Government in the process, while UNITA would be represented by then its vice president, Ernesto Mulato, in his capacity as coordinator of the funeral committee of the founder of UNITA.

The note states that the Minister of the Interior met in May 2015 with UNITA Vice-President Ernesto Mulato, accompanied by members of the commission, including one of the children of Jonas Savimbi, Rafael Savimbi.

"At the meeting, the UNITA delegation presented a notebook on the funeral of Dr. Jonas Savimbi, with activities planned until for first quarter of 2016, and specifying  that steps should be taken to locate the site where the general was buried (António) Dembo, as well as presenting the citizen who said he knew the place, "the statement said.

The Interior Ministry said in its communiqué that this had not happened, "although there have been other meetings with President Samakuva, Vice President Raul Danda and the President of the UNITA Parliamentary Group, Adalberto Costa Júnior, among others, to address specific issues."

In the statement, the Ministry of Interior reiterates its willingness to continue to address the matter, in terms of the political orientation of the Executive and the results of the meetings held with the UNITA leadership.

In this context, the Interior Ministry wrote on Tuesday to the UNITA president to report on its readiness to take up the case.

However,  the Interior Ministry said that the UNITA board had not sent the documents relating to the case, which did not address the matter in the mechanism of the set up commission and that probably the then Vice-President of UNITA, Ernesto Mulato, did not transferred the case to the current vice president, Raul Danda.

To the Jornal de Angola, Alcides Sakala Simões confirmed that the commission, on the UNITA side, continues to be coordinated by Ernesto Mulato. "We will take new initiatives," he promised.

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