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Amnesty International Report 2002 - Angola

Covering events from January-December 2001

Republic of Angola
Head of state and government: José Eduardo dos Santos
Capital: Luanda
Population: 13.5 million
Official language: Portuguese
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes

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Civil war continued throughout the year. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were indiscriminately and deliberately killed by government forces and by forces of the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. UNITA forces mutilated civilians and abducted hundreds of children. In Cabinda, armed political groups continued to take Angolan and foreign nationals hostage. Thousands of people were displaced and faced severe hardship. Police used lethal force against demonstrators, killing two people and injuring at least nine others, and reportedly killed and tortured suspected criminals. The authorities detained people for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression.

Background

The civil war, which entered a guerrilla phase in 2000 after government forces expelled UNITA from its strongholds, continued to devastate the country. The government continued to control an estimated 90 per cent of the country. There were increased attacks by UNITA forces on villages and roads, killing thousands of unarmed civilians. UNITA also attacked towns close to Luanda. The provinces of Malanje, Uige and Kwanza Norte in the north and Huila in the south saw a greater number of UNITA attacks, which drove thousands of refugees into neighbouring countries. An increased number of civilians suffered death and injury from landmines laid by both sides.

Relations with neighbouring Namibia and Zambia became increasingly strained over the lack of security in border areas. Zambia repeatedly accused the Angolan armed forces of entering its territory in pursuit of UNITA troops. There were reports of Namibian troops fighting alongside the Angolan armed forces against UNITA.

The armed conflict and insecurity were responsible for the number of internally displaced people increasing by 300,000 during the year to an estimated total of four million and for a precarious humanitarian situation. Over half a million internally displaced people received humanitarian assistance. Of those, nearly 300,000 lived in camps.

The Catholic Church and a growing peace movement within civil society continued to press for dialogue and a negotiated peace settlement. Both sides to the conflict expressed willingness to enter talks but set preconditions deemed unacceptable by the other party. In the first half of 2001, thousands of prisoners, including those accused of crimes against the security of the state, were released under the terms of a November 2000 amnesty law.

In April and October the UN Security Council extended the mandates of the UN Office in Angola and the UN Monitoring Mechanism on Sanctions against UNITA, each time for six-month periods. The UN Monitoring Mechanism on Sanctions reported in March and October that sanctions against UNITA were effective despite violations by some countries.

In November the government announced that it would begin a gradual withdrawal of its troops – estimated at between 2,000 and 2,500 – from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This withdrawal had not started by the end of 2001.

Armed conflict

Killings of unarmed civilians

The killing of hundreds of unarmed civilians, as well as other abuses including mutilations and torture, continued in violation of humanitarian law. It remained difficult to obtain independent confirmation of many of these reports.

UNITA was responsible for most of the numerous attacks on civilians, including aid workers, and for the abduction of hundreds of people.

• In one incident in January, UNITA soldiers reportedly killed Katondo Hedila, cut off the arms of Simeon Nghishongwa and castrated a third man. The three were Angolans living in Namibia who had crossed the border looking for their cattle.
• In August, UNITA forces were alleged to have attacked a passenger train in Zenza Itombe, Kwanza Norte province, killing over 200 people. After derailing the train with an anti-tank mine, UNITA soldiers reportedly shot dead the surviving passengers.

Government forces killed and tortured civilians suspected of collaborating with UNITA.

• In April, Friquixi Chapassa, the traditional chief in Cuango, Lunda Norte province, was reportedly put on a fire and burned by soldiers and beaten with a red-hot cutlass. He was suspected of collaborating with UNITA following attacks by UNITA forces in the area.

Abduction of children

UNITA abducted hundreds of children throughout the year. The youngest were used as porters and the girls as sex slaves, while the older boys were forced to join UNITA's fighting forces. Children who escaped, including some who had been abducted in previous years, said they had been forced to carry heavy loads for UNITA fighters and to undergo military training. One boy, who had been abducted with dozens of others during an attack on Dombe Grande, Benguela province in May, said that UNITA combatants had stabbed three boys to death.

• In May, UNITA abducted at least 30 children during an attack on Caxito, a town 60 kilometres from Luanda, in which 100 people were reportedly killed. A further 60 children and two adults were abducted from an orphanage on the outskirts of Caxito immediately after the attack. The 60 children were released four weeks later, following a national and international outcry. They had been made to carry heavy loads for 12 hours a day for the UNITA forces. Three of the children abducted in Caxito town escaped in August. However, the others remained in captivity at the end of 2001.

There were reports throughout the year that the Angolan armed forces continued forced recruitment of youths into the army, including many children under 15 years of age. There were, however, fewer than in previous years.

Cabinda

Fighting between government forces and the two armed factions of the Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC), Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave, intensified during the first half of the year as government forces launched an offensive to free hostages held by the two FLEC factions. All warring sides were responsible for human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian law. Government soldiers carried out attacks against civilians and reportedly burned villages and beat, raped and extrajudicially executed unarmed civilians suspected of supporting the FLEC.

• In May, government soldiers reportedly killed Abiniel Macaia, the chief of Seke-Mbanza village, his wife and children, and other villagers, before burning their homes and attacking other villages. In Sanda Massala village, soldiers allegedly killed the traditional chief, Alberto Kionga, and his family, and raped several women before killing them.

Both FLEC factions continued to take hostages to extort money, particularly from foreign companies. In February, FLEC-Forcas Armadas de Cabinda (FLEC-FAC), FLEC-Cabindan Armed Forces, ambushed the car in which doctor Bernardino Paulo Paim was travelling and took him hostage. He was released in May. In April and June FLEC-FAC released three Portuguese hostages it had taken in March 2000. In March, FLEC-Renovada, FLEC-Renewed, took one Angolan and five Portuguese workers hostage for two months.

Other human rights violations

Death in police custody

The police were reported to have tortured and killed suspected criminals.

• Gomes Dinis Ribeiro was feared to have been shot dead at the Cazenga police station in Luanda in January. He had been accused of theft, arrested and reportedly severely beaten in front of his wife. She said that the police asked for payment to release him. After she came back with the money, she said that she heard shooting inside the police station and was told by police that her husband had escaped with a gun. Two days later, his body was found in the morgue with a bullet in his head and marks on his body apparently consistent with a severe beating. The official autopsy report attributed the cause of death to "clinical reasons". No independent investigation had been carried out by the end of 2001.

Use of lethal force

On two successive weekends in July, the police, including the Rapid Intervention Police and the Angola National Police and supported by armed forces units, forcibly evicted residents of the Boavista neighbourhood of Luanda and demolished their homes. On both occasions police officers fired into the crowds that resisted the eviction, killing Emílio Rafael and Andrade Jungo Jaime and injuring at least nine others, including António Samuel. Other protesters were bitten by police dogs. Fifteen people were arrested and brought to court within a week on charges of possessing firearms and disobeying police orders to disperse. No prosecution evidence was presented and the defendants were released pending further police investigation. Among those arrested was the coordinator of the Boavista residents, José Rasgadinho, who was again detained for a few days in September on charges of incitement to violence. This trial was also suspended for lack of evidence. By the end of 2001 the trials had not resumed and there had been no independent inquiry into the use of lethal force against the protesters.

Restrictions on fundamental freedoms

Restrictions on freedom of assembly, association and expression continued. As in previous years, restrictions were greater in the provinces where political activists and journalists were often harassed and prevented from carrying out their activities. Some were detained for short periods.

The police beat and arrested peaceful demonstrators. The authorities banned several planned demonstrations in Luanda on the grounds that the organizers had not obtained required authorizations and on security grounds following a UNITA attack on a town near Luanda.

• In January, the police used force to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the Partido de Apoio Democrático e Progresso de Angola, Angolan Party for Democratic Support and Progress, and arrested its President, Carlos Alberto de Andrade Leitão, and five other members. The demonstrators were demanding the resignation of President dos Santos and clarification of an arms sale scandal involving former French government officials. Two days later, the six detainees were tried and acquitted on charges of holding a demonstration within 100 metres of government buildings and failing to obtain the necessary authorizations to hold a demonstration.

Journalists and others who criticized the government continued to face detention and threats of violence, and journalists were prevented from carrying out their work and travelling outside the country.

• João Zaba, a bank employee, was arrested in March after he published an article on the Internet critical of the government's actions in Cabinda. He was convicted in May of crimes against the security of the state and incitement to violence, and sentenced to nine months in prison. He was conditionally released in September after serving half the sentence.
• Gilberto Neto, a journalist with the independent newspaper Folha 8, was arrested in July at Malanje airport. Two police officers escorted him and a foreign journalist, who was researching the economic effects of the war, back to Luanda. They were not detained but were interrogated twice at the Department of Criminal Investigation and accused of visiting Malanje without authorization. The police confiscated their identity documents and other belongings, which were later returned. A month later, immigration police at Luanda airport stopped Gilberto Neto from leaving the country, ostensibly because he had criminal charges pending against him from 1999, although he had been allowed to travel abroad in January. They confiscated his passport and had not returned it by the end of 2001.