Amnesty International Report 2000 - Angola

Head of state and government: José Eduardo dos Santos
Capital: Luanda
Population: 10.6 million
Official language: Portuguese
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
1999 treaty ratifications/signatures: African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child

A new round of large-scale human rights abuses were committed in the context of the return to full-scale armed conflict. The government restricted freedom of expression and launched an intimidatory campaign against journalists; many were threatened, others were assaulted and a few were detained. Five members of the National Assembly representing a non-violent faction of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA) , National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, were detained. There were reports that civilians were deliberately and arbitrarily killed, both by the government and by UNITA, but these reports were hard to confirm. UNITA abducted hundreds of civilians and an armed opposition group in Cabinda took several hostages.

Background

The peace process unravelled during 1998 as it became apparent that the UNITA armed opposition would not comply with the 1994 Lusaka Protocol requirements to relinquish control of its territory and demobilize its troops. Heavy fighting broke out between UNITA and government forces in December 1998 and all contact between the two warring parties ceased.

In 1999 the peace process collapsed completely and the Missão de Observação das Nações Unidas em Angola (MONUA), UN Observer Mission in Angola, withdrew when its mandate ended in February. The government declared UNITA's leader, Jonas Savimbi, a war criminal in February and issued a warrant for his arrest in July.

The UN maintained a reduced human rights presence after its February withdrawal. In August it announced plans to open a new office to explore measures aimed at restoring peace. A Security Council resolution passed in October established the United Nations Office in Angola (UNOA) with 30 staff members. By the end of the year the staff had not reached the projected total of 12 human rights officers.

Fighting raged throughout the year, and was particularly intense in the centre of the country where UNITA encircled and shelled the cities of Huambo, Kuito and Malange. In October government forces took the UNITA strongholds of Andulo and Bailundo in the central highlands. By the end of the year the government controlled all the provincial capitals, all oil installations and the largest diamond mines.

The government concluded negotiations with international oil companies which would generate hundreds of millions of US dollars in return for the rights to operate offshore oil blocks. The projected revenue was expected to boost expenditure on the military campaign.

In an effort to stem the supply of arms to UNITA and to prevent the sales of diamonds which finance its war, the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee established two expert panels in August to monitor the implementation of the sanctions imposed in 1997.

The war took a heavy toll on the civilian population. Scores of people died in indiscriminate shelling by UNITA. People in the besieged cities of Huambo, Kuito and Malange were reportedly eating seeds, roots, cats and dogs in order to survive. The UN estimated in August that 200 people were losing their lives every day from disease and starvation. Church representatives and humanitarian workers called for the opening of humanitarian corridors through areas of fighting to allow supplies to reach people affected by hunger and disease, but neither the government nor UNITA responded to these requests. Aid agencies were unable to obtain permission to enter areas under UNITA's control. By the end of the year more than one million people had fled their homes to escape the fighting, bringing the total of those internally displaced since 1998 to 3,700,000.

Civil society groups coordinated their appeals for an end to the fighting. In July the Grupo Angolano de Reflaxão para a Paz, Angolan Group for Reflecting on Peace, published a Manifesto for Peace in Angola calling for a national dialogue to create a lasting peace. It was endorsed by prominent intellectuals, professionals, journalists, members of trade unions and representatives of religious groups. In October, several peace groups formed the Fórum Nacional para a Paz, National Forum for Peace.

The government continued to support President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In December Namibia agreed to allow Angolan troops to launch attacks against UNITA from Namibian soil. UNITA allegedly supported rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and armed separatists in Caprivi, Namibia.

Freedom of expression

The rights to freedom of expression and association were restricted and the government resorted to legal procedures to stifle criticism. The government claimed that independent media reports relating to the war were endangering public order and security, while religious representatives complained that state media coverage did not accurately reflect the extent of suffering caused by the war.

Some 20 journalists, most of whom worked for privately owned radio stations and newspapers, were briefly held and questioned in connection with possible charges of defamation, slander and crimes against the security of the state. Another was detained for 41 days. Four were formally charged, and none was tried. No state of emergency was declared and no exceptional measures to restrict the right to freedom of expression were imposed in law. The use of legal procedures to summon, question and intimidate journalists contravened constitutional guarantees on freedom of expression, as well as international treaties to which Angola is party.

Journalists critical of the government continued to receive death threats and several were assaulted. Violence against journalists was seemingly condoned by the government's failure to initiate investigations and to bring those responsible to justice. It was also encouraged by statements, such as that made by the Minister of Social Communication in June, that some journalists were acting as propagandists on behalf of UNITA.

UNITA leaders exerted overwhelming and complete control over freedom of expression in areas under their control.

• Rafael Marques, a freelance journalist, was arrested in October after he wrote an article for the independent newspaper Agora which was critical of President José' Eduardo dos Santos. He was held incommunicado for 10 days at the Laboratório Central de Criminalística, Central Forensic Laboratory, where he went on hunger strike to protest against his detention.

In November he was formally charged with defamation of the President and released on bail. He appeared in court in December and requested that the case against him be dismissed. The request was submitted to the Supreme Court, but had not been decided by the end of 1999.

Rafael Marques was questioned for the first time in April together with William Tonet, the director of the biweekly newspaper Folha 8, after they published an article criticizing forcible recruitment and also draft evasion by young men with influential relatives.

• Josefa Lamberga, a correspondent for Voice of America, was slapped in the face twice and had her ear pulled by a soldier after she sought access to the military recruitment centre at the premises of the Transmissions Battalion in late April.

The assault appeared to be connected to an interview, broadcast five days earlier, in which interviewees alleged that white people and people of mixed race were exempt from the recruitment process.

Josefa Lamberga presented a complaint to the military court and attended an identity parade at the Transmissions Battalion, but the soldier who assaulted her was not present and the case remained unresolved at the end of the year.

UNITA officials

The five UNITA National Assembly deputies arrested in January were accused of crimes against state security; one was reported to be seriously ill. Their families and lawyers were not allowed to visit them for several months, and family members experienced difficulties in providing the detainees with food. One of the detainees was released in May and the remaining four were released in October, after a judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to prove their alleged complicity in UNITA attacks.

Government forces, the militia and, in some cases, the police were responsible for the harassment, assault and detention of officials and others suspected 0f sympathizing with UNITA.

Ill-treatment

Small steps were taken to increase protection for human rights in police stations and detention centres, such as placing prosecutors in police stations to ensure the rights of detainees were respected, but there appeared to be little real political will to end human rights violations. Police, soldiers and other custodial authorities routinely abused their power, and there were numerous reports of police beating suspected criminals. There were also reports of police beating or otherwise ill-treating people in the streets with the intention of forcing them to hand over the goods they were carrying or selling. Reports of human rights violations by the police were seldom investigated and those responsible rarely held to account.

• Father Leonardo Gaspar Chivanje was handcuffed and beaten on the head by a police officer in Humpata, Huila, after a minor traffic accident. The officer was subsequently reported to have been suspended from duty, but was not known to have been brought to justice.

Forcible recruitment

In addition to measures taken by the government to enforce the conscription laws between March and May, soldiers and police simultaneously conducted forcible recruitment. Men and boys were reportedly rounded up during raids by police and soldiers and sent to military bases throughout the country; many of those forcibly recruited were reportedly under 18 years of age. There were numerous reports that people were beaten in the course of the raids and some were reportedly killed.

UNITA also seized recruits, including some children. For instance, they reportedly abducted 80 children, aged between 12 and 18, from Mbanza Congo in January and February.

Violations of humanitarian law

Both parties to the conflict reported ambushes and attacks by their opponents in which civilians were killed; some may have amounted to wilful and indiscriminate killings. It was not always possible to confirm either the incidents or the identity of those responsible.

UNITA was responsible for most of the ambushes and attacks on civilians, as well as the majority of deliberate and arbitrary killings and incidents of indiscriminate shelling. More than 30 people were killed in Malange in January when UNITA forces shelled the city in broad daylight and more than 60 people reportedly died during an ambush on a clearly marked aid convoy in Uige in July.

UNITA abducted hundreds of civilians and UNITA soldiers reportedly raped women. Eight tribal chiefs were abducted from the villages of Quimozenguo and Quichiona in August allegedly because they had provided information to government forces and failed to recruit soldiers for UNITA. More than 300 people who escaped from UNITA captivity in August reported that they had been ill-treated while they were being held.

Government forces were implicated in scores of "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions, as well as indiscriminate attacks resulting in civilian deaths.

• In December, soldiers were reported to have extrajudicially executed 11 civilians near Calai in Cuando Cubango province.

Cabinda

The government continued to face opposition from the two armed factions of the Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC), Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave. The Cabinda enclave is separated from the rest of Angola by a strip of territory belonging to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Two French men, two Portuguese men and an Angolan woman were taken hostage in March by the FLEC-Renovda, FLEC-Renewed. The woman was released within 24 hours but the four men, all of whom worked for foreign companies affiliated to the oil industry, were held until their release was negotiated for a ransom in July.

Maria Luisa Teresa Cuabo, Marta Macaia, Maria Cândida Mazissa and Maria Pemba were arrested outside the provincial government building in Cabinda City in April. The four women were among a small group of mothers staging a peaceful demonstration to protest against the conscription and forcible recruitment of their sons into the Angolan armed forces. They were released two days later without charge, after other women protested at their detention.

AI country reports

• Angola: Human rights – the gateway to peace (AI Index: AFR 12/001/99)
• Angola: Freedom of expression under threat (AI Index: AFR 12/016/99)