Is it not time The Gambian people follow Angolans to demonstrate for a better life.
Down to Yahya jammeh and his criminals.


Fye  Niamorkono.



Angola marchers press for poll

By Zoe Eisenstein
BBC correspondent in Luanda


More than 1,000 Angolans have taken to the streets of the capital, Luanda, 
in the country's first authorised anti-government demonstration since the 
civil war ended 18 months ago.


The Unita movement has now laid down its arms
The protest was called by a coalition of 87 small opposition parties who are 
demanding a date for elections. They want a vote in 2004.

Men, women and youths danced and sang down the streets of Luanda in the 
country's biggest show of discontent since the peace accord ending a 27-year 
civil war was signed in April last year.

They chanted slogans like "down with dictatorship," and "out with the ruling 
MPLA".

But the core reason for their protest came down to the demand for the 
government to set a date for all-party elections, the first in more than a 
decade.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said it would take two years to 
prepare the country for a ballot, but still has not set a date.

Symbolic

The former rebel movement and now largest opposition party, Unita, says it 
wants the elections to be held in 2005 but today's demonstrators said they 
want the ballot to be held sooner.

Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer, after Nigeria, 
but critics say little of the oil wealth trickles down to its 13 million 
people.

The International Monetary Fund says corruption and bad management are a 
serious drag to the country's economy, which is almost entirely dependent on 
oil.

The protestors said they felt the march was symbolically important because 
it was the first time they had been authorised to express their anger.

But most of them said they did not believe the government would listen to, 
or act on, their message.




Bro. Germaine G. Verdier
Chairman
http://www.vhi-sweden.org

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