Mr President, my fellow Members of Parliament, representatives of the Commission, I too approve of the draft resolution on Angola, which has resulted from a compromise and in my view is a moderate and well balanced draft. Basically it is an appeal for peace, which at this time, as has been stressed by José Ribeiro e Castro and just now by Carlos Coelho, needs to be supported by the international community and especially our Parliament. The situation of Angola is a tragic situation. Angola is a devastated country, which has experienced twenty-six long years of civil war without a break. That is, since independence on 11 November 1975 there has been a civil war in Angola, and it is still going on. As has just been pointed out, this civil war does not have a military solution; and the theory that it is possible to reach a solution by crushing the enemy, even if the assassination or death of Savimbi were to occur, would not be a solution because the war would carry on. The war can only end through negotiation among those that wage it and through pressure from Angolan civil society, which is at last emerging. There are independent voices of civil society that are appealing for peace, especially those supported by the Angolan Catholic Church, which has played an extremely important role in this, and by all the other churches, which are exerting great pressure for peace, that is, for negotiations for peace. This is the pressure that we must support, both the European Union as a whole and this part of it which is the European Parliament. Mention has been made of a proposal by some of our -wing friends – the and the Communist Party – who would like us to make a special condemnation of the Cachito massacre. We do not agree and we have proposed an oral amendment which might be a compromise. This oral amendment would condemn all massacres from whatever source, because there is not just the Cachito massacre but also the massacres that have happened recently, for example, in Cabinda. Therefore if we only mention one kind of massacre we shall be turning a blind eye to a reality which, as has been said, is a complex reality, and therefore what is an apparently humanitarian act is essentially a political act with which we cannot agree. For that reason we are going to vote on this proposal for a resolution as it has been drawn up and not with the amendments that have been suggested. By doing this we think we can contribute to peace in Angola, and I should like to second José Ribeiro e Castro’s proposal for Parliament to listen to independent voices from Angola who are today courageously fighting for peace, such as the journalist Rafael Marques, such as Archbishop Zacarias Kamuenho, such as the former Prime Minister of Angola Marcolino Moco, and many other Angolans who are able and have the courage to come to this Parliament and say truthfully that it is necessary to get rid of the warlords. Because while it is true that there are warlords on both sides and that both should be condemned, whether on the side of the MPLA or on the side of UNITA (and we must condemn them both), the truth is that there are interested parties that gain with the war, and those that gain with the war are the oil and diamond interests. What we need to do is help civil society and the churches to emerge so that this ravaged people may finally achieve peace.

Political group: PSE