ABSTRACT Angola’s president João Lourenço is on an official visit to Germany from 22nd to 23rd August 2018. Since it is factual that Angola’s ruling MPLA-regime is but a proxy server of a few Western nations accountable for the belligerent occupation of the territory of Cabinda since 1975; for the misappropriation of the Cabinda people’s own means of subsistence; and for the consequent genocide of the native Cabindans at home and abroad; the Presidential College of CNM (Cabindan National Movement) cannot help referring once more the legal-political difference between Cabinda and Angola to both the German people’s and government’s sense of justice and of international responsibility. Ever since the mid-1990s, CNM has tirelessly demonstrated, also to the German “Auswärtiges Amt,” the fact that Western instigated illicit occupation of Cabinda by Angola is the major contributing factor to the political instability and insecurity in Central and Southern Africa, inasmuch as it cannot help frustrating the free functioning of democratic institutions in Cabinda’s neighboring countries. The harmful consequences of the occupation are such that life expectancy at birth has dropped from 75 years in Portuguese colonial era to 48 years nowadays; and child and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world. Cabinda, whose nationals do not exceed two million, is rich in oil, uranium, manganese, phosphates, iron, diamonds, gold, hardwood, and so forth. In oil alone, Cabinda is being CABINDA AND robbed of over 35 Billion US dollars per year. Accordingly, the goal of president Lourenço’s visit is to dissuade Germany from siding with the oppressed people of Cabinda, in our legitimate struggle to regain political and economic sovereignty, by offering lucrative business opportunities to German entrepreneurs and GERMANY bankers interested in. But if Chancellor Angela Merkel ends up yielding to the pressures of economic interests, we will then have Cabinda’s Petition to German People and Government a repeat of the fatal strategic mistake made by Bismarck in 1884. Bartolomeu Capita (Mr.) Presidential College, Cabindan National Movement Berne - Switzerland, July 22nd, 2018 Cabindan National Movement • Facebook/Bartolomeu_Capita • Twitter/@BCapita • LinkedIn/Cabinda_Independent Cabindan National Movement Bartolomeu Capita Refugee under UNHCR mandate C/o Christkatholische Pfarramt Kramgasse 10 / CH-3011 Bern Tel.: +41 (0) 765 178 321 [email protected] Berne, 22nd July 2018 To Her Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Bundeskanzleramt Willy-Brandt-Strasse 1 10557 Berlin / Deutschland GERMANY Issue : Cabinda and the First Official Visit of Angola’s President João Lourenço to Germany. Dear Madam Chancellor, Angola’s president João Lourenço is scheduled to be on his first official visit to Germany on August 22nd-23rd, 2018. As you certainly know, the belligerent occupation of Cabinda by Angola was conceived by France and the United States of America; made viable by the latter’s stage-managed men, i.e. Dr. Mário Soares (Portugal), Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaïre, now DRC), and Henriques Tiago Nzita (“Cabinda”?); and made a reality by Angola’s ruling MPLA-regime with the financing of the West, and the military backing of both Castro’s Cuba and the Soviet Union.1 Therefore, on the occasion of such a visit, it is my task and duty to petition the German people and government for an irreversible end to the Western genocide by proxy in my native country, i.e. Cabinda. I spare you the catalogue of the facts that legitimize the struggle of the oppressed people of Cabinda to recover political sovereignty, and all at once our own means of subsistence, for I have been acquainting the German Foreign Ministry with the ins and outs of the legal-political difference between Cabinda and “Angola” ever since the mid-1990s. In the afternoon of August 21st, 2002, I did have a personal interview with Mr. Stefan Delfs, a high-ranking German government official, in Berlin, i.e. Auswärtiges Amt. During this consultation, which lasted one and a half hour, I demonstrated, among other things, the resolute fact that Cabinda’s attainment and maintenance of self-determination, self-esteem, and self-defense constitute the sine qua non for a long-lasting political stability and security in Central and Southern Africa. 1 Bartolomeu Capita, Cabinda: Petition to European Christian Churches, Switzerland: May 25, 2018. https://cabindacitizenship.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/petition-to-european-christian-churches1.pdf 1 On July 13th, 2005, the then Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Italy, namely His Excellency Mr. Michael H. Gerdts, gave me the opportunity to speak to Dr. Feeke Meents, then head of the political section, about the harmful consequences of the criminal occupation of Cabinda by particular Western nations through Angola’s ruling MPLA-regime. At this conference, I outlined my understanding of the prevailing situation, specifically the roles played by the principal parties, and the elements needed for a constructive resolution of the problem. I also clarified issues related to the historical development of this very question and the place of my organization (CNM) within it. In conclusion, I insisted that the German people and government, in partnership with Portugal, is the Western entity better placed to help solve the Cabinda issue, and to help the entire Africa make the type of progress that time demands. On December 15th, 2005, the German Prof. Dr. Benedikt Steinschulte, then head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, gave me the occasion to visit the Vatican City and, at the same time, to speak to him on the subject of the overlooked refugees from Cabinda, who are scattered from place to place in the bordering countries. After that, precisely on January 25th, 2006, I was given the opportunity to shake hands with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican City. However short my interview with the German-born Pope was, I could acquaint Him with the unjust and cruel treatment being inflicted by specific Western Christians on the segregated Christians of Cabinda. By the end of 2006, I went back to Berlin. Here, I acquainted the main political parties and related Foundations with the malicious occupation of my native country (Cabinda) and the resulting arrogation of our own means of subsistence by a bunch of Western “democracies” through Angola’s MPLA-regime, to which president João Lourenço belongs as well. Among the countless German public figures who I met and spoke to about the obligation to stop Angola’s political repression, economic exploitation, and social degradation in Cabinda, I mention Mr. Klemens Moemkes, then Head of the International Office (CDU); Mrs. Annette Schwarzbauer M.A., then Head of the Team Africa and Middle East at Konrad-Adenauer- Stiftung e.V.; and the then global Leader of the “Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker” (GfbV). On November 25th, 2007, at Saint Hedwig Cathedral of Berlin, I was given the chance to familiarize His Eminence Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky, His Excellency Archbishop Dr. Jean-Claude Perisset, Apostolic Nuncio to Germany at that time, and His Grace Archbishop Wolfgang Weider with the Cabinda issue. On November 29th, 2007, by way of the aforementioned Apostolic Nuncio to Germany, I exhorted once again His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to overtly side with the ill-treated people of Cabinda in our lawful quest for justice and peace, in pursuance of the UN Charter and relevant UN GA Resolutions. On January 7th, 2008, at some point in His wonderful Address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See for the Traditional Exchange of New Year Greetings, Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern over African regions in the grip of conflicts, injustice, and violence as follows: “The Catholic Church is not indifferent to the cries of pain that rise up from these regions. She makes her own the pleas for help made by refugees and displaced persons, and she pledges herself to foster reconciliation, justice and peace.” Enthusiastically demonized, mainly in the West, by those who want an Africa merely regarded as a “vile body”2 on which an assembly of politic birds of prey freely sit down and make a comfortable meal, the Pope resigned, with Him the pleas for help made by the refugees and displaced persons that Cabindans also happen to be. The fact remains that a comfortable workplace in the middle of Berlin, precisely at the heart of the Palais am Festungsgraben - Am Festungsgraben 1 - 10117 Berlin, was charitably put at my disposal. This was a palpable diplomatic support from the caring people of Germany out of solidarity with the oppressed people of Cabinda, inasmuch as the office was actually my meeting place with a number of diplomats and businessmen positioned in Berlin. This was/is a tangible illustration of German people’s and government’s 2 Dr. Elfi Bendikat, Imperialistische Interessenpolitik und Konfliktregelung 1884/85, Wissenschaftlicher Autoren-Verlag (WAV), Berlin: 1985, pp. 77-80. Or see: “The Scotsman” of October 16th, 1884. 2 great sense of responsibility. Although deprived of the prerogatives enjoyed by the permanent members of the UN SC, Germany is everywhere prepared to take responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. My diplomatic approaches, while making use of my fortunate office within the Palais am Festungsgraben, comprise a set of applications to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, i.e. Your Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel. Throughout the German European Union Presidency 2007, I had the privilege of imploring you to carry out a multilateral diplomacy consistent with the provisions of Article 35 of the Charter of the United Nations, inasmuch as the legal-political dispute between Cabinda and Angola is of the nature referred to in Article 34 of the very same UN Charter.