Luanda — The Commission for the Implementation of the Reconciliation Plan in Memory of the Victims of Political Conflicts (CIVICOP) recently worked in Jamba village, Cuando Cubango province, to locate the remains of former UNITA military officers, including Brigadier Tito Chingunji and Colonel Wilson dos Santos.
Tito Chingunji was murdered in Jamba in 1991 at the age of 35, while Wilson dos Santos suffered the same fate at the age of 39 in the same locality, both on the orders of the historic leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, according to witnesses.
During the mission, CIVICOP's technical group, coordinated by the head of the State Intelligence and Security Service (SINSE), Fernando Garcia Miala, also searched for the remains of family members of Savimbi's two former collaborators.
They are Tito Chingunji's wife, Raquel Matos (29 years old), and the couple's three children: Estevão Calai (4 years old), the twins Eduardo and Matos (2 years old), as well as Wilson dos Santos' wife, Helena Jamba Chingunji dos Santos (35 years old), their sons David Elokelo (12 years old), Esmeraldo José (09 years old), Wilson dos Santos Júnior (5 years old) and Changuedila (11 months), also died in 1991.
According to Angolan Public Television (TPA), it was not possible, during the day, to locate the bones of the two former leaders of that political force, due to the lack of traces in the locality where they were buried.
According to a witness who spoke anonymously to TPA, claiming to have participated in the execution of the two historical figures of UNITA and their respective families, Tito Chingunji and Wilson dos Santos were beaten to death.
The source said that, after the execution, the former president of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, would have 'ordered the bodies to be dug up, crushed and charred, for four days', in order to 'definitively erase' any traces of the murders.
In the meantime, the work has allowed the location of four children's bones, which are presumed to be from some of the children of Tito Chingunji and Wilson dos Santos, information that needs to be confirmed in specialized laboratories.
Two bodies of adults were also located, the first, supposedly, of a civilian, and the second of a soldier of the extinct FALA, the armed wing of UNITA.
CIVICOP also worked to locate the bones of a priest known as 'Camilo', who died in 1982 in the Delta region, allegedly at the behest of Savimbi.
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According to the spokesperson for CIVICOP, Israel Nambi, it was possible to obtain the bones of four minors, as well as to issue guidelines to continue the work in other points, in order to respond to the requests made by the families of the victims of armed conflicts registered in Angola between 1975 and 2002.
As part of its work, CIVICOP has already located and handed over to their families the remains of Jonas Savimbi, killed in combat in February 2002, the former secretary general of UNITA, Adolosi Mango Alicerces, and the head of the party's delegation to the Joint Commission, Elias Salupeto Pena.
In this regard, the commission has already handed over the bones of Nito Alves, Monstro Imortal, Sanouk and Ilídio Ramalhete, all former leaders of the MPLA, also victims of political conflicts, in the period from November 11, 1975 to April 4, 2002.
Created by Presidential Decree, in April 2019, CIVICOP's mission is to draw up a general plan to pay homage to the victims of the political conflicts that occurred during this period, being an initiative of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, within the scope of the reconciliation process between Angolans. ANM/ELJ/DOJ
