Amnesty International Report 1995 - Guinea-Bissau

Members and supporters of opposition parties were arrested and beaten. Two prisoners of conscience were acquitted of complicity in an alleged coup attempt and released. Their trial, at which 14 other defendants were convicted and one acquitted, was unfair. The ruling Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné-Bissau e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, won Guinea-Bissau's first multi-party elections in July. The head of state, President João Bernardo Vieira, narrowly won the presidential election after a run-off ballot in August. Members of opposition parties complained, both before and after the elections, of intimidation by government supporters and security personnel. Two prisoners of conscience were briefly detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Luis Nancassa, president of the Sindicato Nacional dos Professores, National Teachers' Union, was arrested in February during a strike and demonstration against low pay and poor working conditions. He was accused of trying to prevent other teachers from working. He denied this but admitted using his legal right to call on teachers to join the strike. He was released uncharged after three days. António Nhaga, a journalist, was arrested in Cacheu, northeast of the capital, Bissau, in July. Police held him for two hours and questioned him about a recording he had made of one of President Vieira's campaign speeches. There were reports of suspected government opponents being arrested and sometimes assaulted. On the day of the teachers' strike, according to eye-witnesses and the local press, the Minister of Education stopped his car as he passed some teachers on their way to join the demonstration, fired his pistol into the air, grabbed one of the fleeing teachers and punched him. The minister reportedly apologized later. In the months following the elections several people were arrested and beaten, apparently because they had supported opposition political parties. They included Ussumane Embalo and a woman, Kodi Djata Djalo, who were briefly detained and assaulted by police in Gabú, in the east of Guinea-Bissau, in August. Opposition parties protested and the number of reported incidents declined. Two prisoners of conscience, João da Costa and Tagmé Na Waié, both prominent members of opposition parties, were acquitted in January of complicity in an alleged coup attempt and released. They had been detained following a mutiny by soldiers in March 1993 in which a senior military officer was killed and which the authorities claimed was part of an attempt to overthrow the government (see Amnesty International Report 1994). The trial of João da Costa, Tagmé Na Waié and 15 soldiers (not 14 as stated in Amnesty International Report 1994) was unfair. Many of the defendants said that senior military and security officials, whom they named, had forced them to sign statements implicating themselves and others in the alleged conspiracy. These statements constituted an important part of the evidence for the prosecution. The soldiers said that they had been demonstrating for better pay and conditions in the army. One soldier was acquitted and the others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 15 years. Details of torture and ill-treatment which took place in 1993 emerged at the trial. Amadú Mané, a soldier accused of the murder of the military officer in the mutiny, was reportedly stripped naked and held secretly for three days in a cell so small he was unable to lie down. Other defendants said they were threatened with death if they did not confess to complicity in the alleged coup. In June 1994 a se-nior security official reportedly assaulted Amadú Mané during a visit to the prison where he and those convicted with him were held. An Amnesty International representative observed part of the trial in January. The organization called on the government to establish a full and independ-ent judicial inquiry into claims by the defendants that they had been forced to make incriminating statements. Amnesty International called for the officials responsible to be brought to justice. It also expressed concern about reports that law enforcement personnel had arbitrarily arrested and beaten suspected members of opposition parties.