Amnesty International Report 1999 - Angola

ANGOLA

Suspected government critics and supporters of armed groups were detained for varying periods. Some suspected armed government opponents "disappeared". There were scores of reported extrajudicial executions by government security forces. The União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, abducted and deliberately and arbitrarily killed unarmed civilians. An armed opposition group held hostages.

Tension mounted as completion of the 1994 peace agreement between the government of President José Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA, led by Jonas Savimbi, increasingly gave way to armed confrontation.

Under pressure from the UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), unita announced in March that it had demobilized all its forces. As a result, UNITA was legalized as a political party, although 70 UNITA deputies had already taken seats in the National Assembly in April 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998). UNITA appointees took up posts in provincial government and as ambassadors.

UNITA continued to hold territory. It retained an estimated 30,000 troops and continued to receive supplies by air. In July, after UNITA failed to allow the extension of government authority to key areas, including its strongholds in Andulo and Bailundo, the UN imposed further sanctions (see Amnesty International Report 1998). The government demanded that UNITA disarm its troops and hand over the remaining territory by September. When UNITA failed to comply, the government and parliament suspended UNITA representatives from their posts. All but two officials and parliamentary deputies were reinstated after some suspended officials renounced the leadership of Jonas Savimbi and formed the UNITA Renewal Committee. In November most of the UNITA deputies declared they were committed to peace and formed a separate Platform of Understanding.

The government recognized the Renewal Committee as its counterpart in the peace agreement. It was supported in this action by southern African governments. Contact between the government and Jonas Savimbi ceased and the government refused security clearance to allow the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola to meet Jonas Savimbi at his headquarters. The Special Representative had replaced the former head of monua, who was killed in an air crash in June.

Armed attacks increased from March. Some appeared to be acts of banditry, but many appeared to be politically motivated. Clashes between government and UNITA forces intensified, particularly in the north, the diamond mining areas in the northeast and the central highlands. They resulted in the deaths of hundreds and displacement of thousands of civilians. An attack on the Bula diamond mine in July left about 100 dead; the government and UNITA blamed each other for the attack. Several UN staff and members of international aid organizations were killed or injured, mostly by unidentified groups, although some attacks were attributed to UNITA. In December a UN aircraft carrying 14 people was shot down near Huambo. The same month fighting escalated and was particularly intense in the provinces of Bié, Malange and Huambo. Government aircraft attacked UNITA's headquarters in the central highlands, and heavily armed UNITA forces surrounded and shelled Kuito in Bié province and Malange city in Malange province. Hundreds of civilians were killed, many in indiscriminate shelling, and more than 200,000 were displaced.

Events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continued to affect Angola and several hundred Angolan troops remained in the Republic of the Congo (see Amnesty International Report 1998). After conflict broke out in the DRC in August, the government sent an estimated 7,000 troops to assist DRC President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Some of these troops were withdrawn late in the year. The authorities also aimed to prevent UNITA and separatist rebels in Cabinda, an Angolan enclave between the DRC and the Republic of the Congo, from using the DRC and the Republic of the Congo as rear bases. Troops were deployed throughout Cabinda where government forces faced armed factions of the Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC), Cabinda Enclave Liberation Front. UNITA allegedly cooperated with opposition groups fighting the DRC government.

Both the government and UNITA forcibly conscripted civilians. In November the National Assembly approved a resolution for the enrolment of young men approaching military age (20 years). However, there were frequent reports of illegal conscription drives in which young men, including minors, were rounded up. Some were believed to have been incorporated into illegal civil defence units. The authorities failed to complete the disarming of civilians as required under the peace agreement.

The deteriorating security situation and economic difficulties affected most Angolans. By the end of the year the number of internally displaced persons had reached an estimated 1.4 million. The level of violent crime remained high. Little progress was made in equipping the judiciary and training the police to protect and enforce human rights (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

The monua Human Rights Division (see Amnesty International Report 1998) recruited new staff. Its officers and UN Civilian Police investigated human rights abuses, visited prisons and promoted awareness of human rights. monua repeatedly stressed the need for police to receive training in human rights standards for law enforcement officials.

Hundreds of people were reportedly arrested for political reasons. Most were suspected UNITA supporters, demobilized soldiers or members of UNITA local committees detained in areas recently returned to state administration. Many were reportedly beaten at the time of arrest. It was usually impossible to obtain further details about those detained.

Afonso Justino Waco, a Protestant cleric and a non-violent advocate of Cabinda's independence, was detained in Cabinda city in August. In a radio interview he had spoken of troop movements towards the border with the DRC and was accused of defaming the government. He was released five days later, the day after the government first confirmed that it had sent troops to the DRC.

There were frequent reports of people "disappearing" in custody in areas formerly held by UNITA. Police arrested nine demobilized UNITA soldiers, including former Colonel Jose Maria Kapinala, in Mumbué, Bié province, in late December 1997 or early January and said that they were taking them to Menongue, Kuando Kubango province. UN officials subsequently made inquiries but found no trace of the nine men. Two other UNITA supporters, Luis Chiponde and Joaquim Chimbali, were arrested in Kawewe in June and taken to Chitembo, Kuando Kubango province, where they apparently "disappeared".

Pedro Zacarias Lelo and Vicente Armando were arrested in September in the vicinity of Cabinda city, apparently on suspicion that they were members of a flec faction. They were said to have been initially taken to a military police centre. In November witnesses stated that their vehicle was parked in a military camp and that a body, with clothing similar to that last worn by Pedro Zacarias Lelo, was seen in a nearby area sewn with landmines.

Real or suspected opponents of the government received threats, including death threats. Journalists, a trade unionist and UNITA members who refused to join the Renewal Committee received threats by mail, telephone or in person. There was an apparent attempt in October on the life of a UNITA deputy, Abel Chivukuvuku, who had not joined the Renewal Committee. Two UNITA deputies were briefly arrested in connection with the incident, but no one had been brought to justice by the end of the year.

A Roman Catholic priest expressed concern in a sermon in September that some former flec members had pointed out suspected flec supporters to the authorities. The Provincial Delegate of the Interior Ministry wrote in a letter that the priest's attitude encouraged civil disobedience and declined any responsibility for what might happen if the priest did not change his behaviour.

There were allegations of extrajudicial executions of criminal suspects and of people who disobeyed police orders. Hundreds of suspected armed opponents, particularly UNITA members, were reported to have been extrajudicially executed, but in most cases it was impossible to clarify or corroborate the reports. In none of the following reported cases of torture and killings were those responsible known to have been brought to justice.

António Mavungo, a catering worker, was reportedly beaten to death by a police officer in Cacongo, Cabinda, in March after a dispute over a water container. When António Mavungo stooped to pick up the container the officer reportedly hit him on the back of the head with the butt of his gun. The officer and a colleague subsequently fled in a stolen car. The Cacongo police commander promptly ordered the arrest of the two officers, but there was no report of anyone being detained or charged in connection with the killing. In November a 12-year-old girl was reportedly raped by two police officers in Quibala district, Kwanza Sul province, in daylight in view of other children.

There was apparently no investigation into the deaths of at least six people in raids which followed the shooting of a police officer in the Sambizanga suburb of Luanda in April. Local people said the perpetrators were police officers. Some said they had heard the perpetrators claim that they aimed to avenge the officer's death. Those killed included Domingos da Costa and Moisés Daniel. Moisés Daniel was arrested in his bedroom. The family later found his body, riddled with bullets, in a street.

At least three young men were reported to have been killed in a police operation in Cazenga suburb, Luanda, in July. Family members of two of the dead told journalists that they had witnessed the killings. The relatives of a third victim, Clementino Cardoso, said that after police led him away they heard the shots that killed him.

At least five people were reportedly extrajudicially executed during an operation by military police in Kikolo, Luanda province. Some witnesses suggested that the operation was one of several unauthorized conscription drives reported in July. Others claimed that the victims were UNITA supporters or suspected criminals.

A Protestant cleric, Manuel Milongo, was killed in what may have been an extrajudicial execution in Quibala district, Kwanza Sul province, in August. Several Protestant clerics had fled from villages in the area on hearing that local officials suspected that they were UNITA supporters. Manuel Milongo, who had not fled, was reportedly killed a few days later by a group of men carrying machetes and guns.

In late September and early October police and soldiers in Negage, Uige province, reportedly arrested several UNITA supporters or demobilized soldiers and killed at least two of them. The body of one, Monteiro Cambenge, was found in the street the day after the arrests.

Four youths, at least one of whom appeared to be a minor, died in a police post in Luanda in November. The cause of the deaths was reportedly registered as asphyxiation. According to reports, the youths had been held in a hot, overcrowded cell full of human excrement. An autopsy carried out on one of the bodies reportedly found a cranial fracture, broken ribs and arm, and marks on the back and legs indicating that he had been beaten severely. The police said they were conducting an inquiry, but did not publish the results before the end of the year. There were also reports that police interrogated members of non-governmental organizations working on the case with the apparent intention of dissuading them from criticizing the police.

Both UNITA and flec factions carried out human rights abuses. UNITA reportedly abducted hundreds of civilians, including children, and raped women. In March UNITA reportedly abducted 16 police officers in Kuando Kubango province, then disarmed and killed 14 of them. Traditional leaders suspected of supporting the government were also targeted. UNITA forces reportedly stabbed and beat six traditional leaders to death in June in Kissanga, Malange province. At least 60 people were killed in Luremo, Lunda Norte province, in August in an attack attributed to UNITA. Some of the victims appeared to have been deliberately killed. The body of a man had his arms tied behind his back and a woman had been stabbed and then shot. In October UNITA troops in Catabola, Bié province, reportedly murdered two traditional leaders who had refused to give them food. Several people were said to have died after being shut in a house which was then set alight in Kimbilimba, Kwanza Sul province, in August.

One of the flec factions held hostages. Nine Angolan and two Portuguese road workers were abducted in April. In June the Portuguese and one Angolan were released, but the fate of the other Angolans remained unclarified. A Malaysian forestry worker, Omar Bin Norola, who had been held since February 1997, was released. Marcelin Alime, a Philippine national arrested with him, reportedly died in custody of an illness. Supporters of another flec faction reportedly killed teacher Mateus Gomes at his school in June, then decapitated his body. Mateus Gomes had reportedly refused to teach their children.

Amnesty International expressed concern about extrajudicial executions and other politically motivated killings. It sought information about reports of death threats against perceived political opponents. In April Amnesty International published a report, Angola: Extrajudicial executions and torture in Cabinda. The Interior Ministry provided a copy of its report into the deaths in custody of 10 UNITA members in Malange in 1997 (see Amnesty International Report 1998), but did not address fully the organization's concerns about the lack of independence of the commission of inquiry or the omission of essential information such as the precise causes of death. The Ministry also responded to the organization's request for information about the arrest and alleged torture of Afonso Justino Waco, saying that Afonso Justino Waco had been legally detained and charged with defaming the government and that he had not been tortured.