New NGO seeks to raise awareness

A group of South African-based Angolan exiles on Tuesday said it would campaign to raise public awareness of a crisis the world had all but “forgotten”. Joao Rocha, 31, coordinator of the newly formed NGO, Angola 2000, said in an interview with IRIN that there were over 10,000 Angolan exiles in South Africa alone, and more in neighbouring countries, who had no voice and “no-one to whom they can turn”. “As young Angolans, we are stuck with the stigma of war, and we feel that ordinary Angolans have no voice, that they are suffering silently inside their hearts,” said Rocha, who is planning a public launch for the organisation next week at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in the South African capital, Pretoria. Rocha, who said he had been brought out to South Africa as a child, said people of his generation since independence in 1975, had experienced nothing but war all their lives: “It has to stop. We want people in South Africa and the wider world, for example, to understand and be more aware of what is going on. When you tell someone you are Angolan, they look down, say they’re sorry and then wonder whether you’re on the government side or the UNITA rebel side. The point is that we are on neither side, and we are concerned that our compatriots have been indoctrinated by both sides for far too long.” Angola 2000 is also campaigning to promote democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and justice: “People at home and abroad need a voice, and this an issue Angolans themselves have to raise. We do not just want to criticise, we want to see how we can contribute to peace and reconstruction. Too many people are still dying every day, despite the wealth of the country and the welfare being pumped in.” He said the Angola 2000 had established ties with the Group for Reflection and Peace in the Angolan capital, Luanda, which was launched earlier this year on a manifesto calling for dialogue between the government and UNITA. Angola 2000 also planned to forge links with similar Angolan interest groups at home and abroad.