Amnesty International Report 1994 - Equatorial Guinea

Hundreds of suspected government opponents were detained, including at least 40 prisoners of conscience, and held without charge or trial, for periods ranging from a few days to several months. Fourteen other people sentenced to prison terms in two unfair trials were also prisoners of conscience. Torture was routinely used and three political prisoners reportedly died as a result. Two people were extrajudicially executed by the security forces. One person was sentenced to death and publicly executed. In January an electoral law was passed which, like the 1992 laws governing political activity (see Amnesty International Report 1993), severely restricted civil and political rights. It required all parties except the ruling Partido Democrático de Guinea Ecuatorial (PDGE), Equatorial Guinea Democratic Party, to obtain official permission for any political gathering, a process which, in practice, took months, and to seek government approval for campaign speeches and party propaganda. In March the government and representatives of opposition parties signed a National Pact, according to which the government undertook to allow the free exercise of civil and political rights, to punish all arbitrary acts by public officials and to release political prisoners. A joint commission was established to monitor implementation of the National Pact. However, although some prisoners were released, the other reforms had not been implemented when, in July, President Obiang Nguema scheduled legislative elections for September. In August negotiations between the government and opposition broke down and the opposition said it would boycott the elections. These were then rescheduled for November, when six opposition parties participated. The elections were won by the ruling PDGE. Moroccan troops, which had been seconded to Equatorial Guinea under a bilateral agreement with the Kingdom of Morocco in 1979, were withdrawn in mid-August following international pressure. In previous years they had been implicated, together with Equatorial Guinean security personnel, in human rights violations (see Amnesty International Report 1990). They were replaced by a new paramilitary group, commonly known as Antorchas (Torches), drawn from the ranks of the youth movement of the PDGE, which was armed and had powers of arrest. Hundreds of political activists and suspected government opponents were arrested. Small groups were detained between January and July and at least 130 were detained from August onwards. Most were held without charge or trial; some were restricted to their villages; and a few were charged and brought to trial. Many of those held were released after a few weeks or months but dozens apparently remained detained or restricted to their villages at the end of the year. There were two amnesties leading to releases of political prisoners: one in March after the signing of the National Pact, and one in October to mark the 25th anniversary of the country's independence (see below). Several leading members of opposition parties were arrested in January and briefly detained in Bata, the capital of the mainland province of Río Muni, when they were meeting to discuss the electoral law. In February, two members of the Partido del Progreso de Guinea Ecuatorial (PPGE), Equatorial Guinea Progress Party, were reportedly detained briefly for listening to a tape-recording of party propaganda. Political repression increased sharply in August after opposition parties said they would boycott the elections, and as Moroccan troops were being withdrawn. Dozens of soldiers and former soldiers were arrested in August in Malabo, the capital on Bioko island, apparently on suspicion of plotting against the government. Some were confined to their villages in Río Muni. On Annobon island, 670 kilometres southwest of Bioko, over 20 people were arrested in August following an argument between a group of people and two government officials. The detainees were accused of rebellion and imprisoned in Bata. In the past the authorities had severely punished anyone who accused the government of neglecting the interests of the island's inhabitants or called for independence for Annobon. In late August, Francisco Engomo Micué and his cousin, José Ramón Obama, were arrested in Bata by police who were looking for the former's son, Father José Luis Engomo. A Roman Catholic priest, Father Engomo had gone into hiding two days earlier after criticizing the government in a sermon. Father Engomo came out of hiding after the authorities indicated that he would not be arrested and four days later his father and cousin were released. There were two political trials, both of which failed to satisfy international standards for fair trial. Both took place before military courts using summary procedures, which curtail the right to adequate defence and deny any right of appeal. In September over 20 people who had been arrested on Annobon island in August were tried in Bata. Eight were convicted of secession and an attempt against the security of the state, but the others were acquitted and released. Orlando Cartagena and Francisco Medina were both sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment; the other six received 20-year prison terms. However, all eight, who were prisoners of conscience, were released in the October amnesty. The second trial took place in October when six of the soldiers and former soldiers arrested in August in Malabo were tried in secret. One was acquitted but the five others were convicted of conspiracy, incitement to rebellion and slander. Sergeant Jacinto Nculu was sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment; the other four were each sentenced to prison terms of three years and one day, although these sentences were reduced by half at the time of the October amnesty. Jacinto Nculu's sentence was reduced to eight years. He and the four others were prisoners of conscience. Amnesty International believed the charges against them were false. Seven soldiers, all possible prisoners of conscience who had been accused of belonging to the PPGE and detained without trial since September 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993), were reported to have been freed in the March amnesty. Those released in the October amnesty included Paulino On Obiang, local organizer of the Convergencia para la Democracia Social (CPDS), Convergence for Social Democracy, in Akurenam, in the south of Río Muni, who had reportedly been detained in August for telling people not to attend celebrations to mark President Obiang Nguema's accession to power. Most of those detained during the year were reportedly tortured or ill-treated by being beaten on the soles of their feet with truncheons or having the bones in their hands broken. Three members of the opposition Unión Popular (UP), Popular Union, who were among five people arrested in Nsok Nsomo, Río Muni, in June following a dispute over the siting of a health centre, were tortured by having their arms broken in detention. One of the five, Gaspar Oyono Mba, died in hospital in July reportedly as a result of torture. The other four continued to be ill-treated in detention until they were released, untried, in October. Former Lieutenant Tobías Obiang Nguema was arrested in August in Malabo and severely tortured before being restricted to his village in Río Muni. He was rearrested in early September and taken to Malabo where he was forced under torture to sign a statement implicating himself in a plot to overthrow the government. He was tried in October and acquitted. Two other members of the UP died in detention, reportedly as a result of torture. D maso Abaga Nve died in Ebebiyín police station in late March. He had been arrested two days earlier for allegedly insulting the PDGE. The commission set up to monitor the National Pact began an investigation into his death, but it had not concluded its work when negotiations between the government and opposition parties broke down in August. Former Lieutenant Pedro Motú Mamiaga, who had been a prisoner of conscience from December 1990 to January 1992, died in custody in August. He had been arrested a day earlier after visiting the leader of the UP who had just returned from exile. He was said to have been severely tortured at a military camp in Malabo. The authorities announced that he had committed suicide and accused him of plotting to overthrow the government. In August two people were reported to have been extrajudicially executed on Annobon island by the security forces who had been called to the scene of an argument (see above). Soldiers fired indiscriminately and then pursued people who fled. Manuel Villarrubia, who was wounded while attempting to escape, was pursued into the sea by a soldier who was said to have shot him at close range. Simplicio Llorente was reportedly deliberately killed outside his house by the same soldier. There was no official investigation into the killings and no one was brought to justice. One person, Romualdo Rafael Nsogo, was sentenced to death for murder and executed: he was convicted of murdering a youth in a brawl. Although he was a civilian he was tried before a military court and had no right of appeal against his conviction or sentence. He was publicly executed the day after his trial on a beach outside Bata. Amnesty International repeatedly appealed for the release of prisoners of conscience and for the introduction of effective safeguards against torture and ill-treatment of prisoners. It urged the government to set up a full and impartial inquiry into all reports of extrajudicial executions and deaths in custody and to abolish the death penalty. In January the organization published a report, Equatorial Guinea: Political reform without human rights, which described the human rights violations which had occurred at the same time as the introduction of a multi-party political system. In February the UN Commission on Human Rights discussed Equatorial Guinea and decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate the human rights situation in the country.