Africa-Press – Angola. Eight of the 60 young people arrested on Saturday during a march in defense of education and public schools in Luanda will be summarily tried on Monday, the president of the Angolan Students Movement (MEA) told Lusa. Francisco Teixeira said that the MEA leaders remain in custody, while the remaining young people are already free.
In addition to the students, four Angolan journalists were also detained or intimidated by the police while covering the demonstration, complaining that they had been forced to hand over their cell phones for inspection.
In total, around 150 students were picked up in police vans, of which 60 were taken to the operational unit and the rest abandoned in locations on the outskirts of the city, said the MEA leader, who “had been warned” and avoided arrest by not joining the first groups of protesters, who were detained near the Church of São Paulo. The MEA leader stressed that the march had very specific demands. “We are only asking for the basics.
We are not asking for anything extraordinary. What we are asking for is what the government has in schools, in the schools of their children […]: Books, desks, chalk, snacks, teachers.
This is what we need. And we will continue to fight for it,” he said, promising new protests and accusing the minister of a lack of dialogue. According to Francisco Teixeira, the police stopped the march on the grounds that it had not been authorized by the Provincial Government of Luanda, and the students will therefore be held accountable for crimes of disobedience.
The president of the MEA, however, pointed out that Angolan law does not require authorizations, and that only prior information should be provided to the authorities.
“The police acted on political advice. It was the politicians who instructed the police to use the necessary force,” he accused, guaranteeing that all legal requirements for the march to take place were met.
Francisco Teixeira regretted that the minister in charge, Luísa Grilo, remained silent, after several letters were sent without response, stressing that they were never received by the government official.
“The minister is not communicative, she reflects a certain arrogance, a certain disrespect,” he criticized, adding that she only once delegated the mission of receiving students to her Secretary of State. “She contradicted herself when she said in that interview that we should not immigrate, because she likes to be criticized even here at home. But that is not true.
She doesn’t respond to letters and doesn’t sit down with people to discuss the deep problems linked to education”, he highlighted, recognizing a more dialogic stance among the provincial Education delegates.
Last week, Minister Luísa Grilo stated that young people who leave Angola due to the lack of social and economic conditions “are not needed” and that “good young people really do stay here” and “criticizes” the government to improve its work, statements that displeased many youth organizations and members of civil society.
“As long as the State doesn’t tell me when it’s going to put the desks, when it’s going to put the books, we have to keep fighting,” insisted Francisco Teixeira. Lusa contacted the Angolan National Police, but has not received any clarification on the arrests of the students and journalists so far.
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