Category: Human rights

The Magnificent Seven

Last Friday, September 20, I went to attend the trial of the eight protesters, and a passer-by politician who had been arrested around Largo da Independência (Independence Square), in Luanda, the previous day. I arrived at the Ingombotas Court, known as the Police Court, with the lawyers from the human rights law firm Associação Mãos Livres: Salvador Freire, Zola Bambi and Afonso Mbinda. I had my camera with me on a strap around my neck. The hearing was public and there was space for one more person, but the police sergeant prevented me from entering, claiming that only lawyers were allowed in. The court is located in a residential building. In the corridor, next to the courtroom entrance, were six or seven policemen. The air was stuffy, the odour of human bodies filled the air. A policeman forbade me from entering the courtroom. I did not resist. I just went […]

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Police Detain 23 at Anti-Government Protest in Luanda

Angolan police detained 23 protestors, including an opposition official, near Luanda’s Largo de Independência on Thursday afternoon in connection with an attempted anti-government demonstration by the informal group of youths known as the Angolan Revolutionary Movement (ARM). A 2,000-strong police contingent, including armed police with machine guns and dogs and hundreds of state security agents, prevented the demonstration from occurring. At 12.30 p.m. police detained Manuel de Victória Pereira, who is both the national secretary of the Bloco Democrático party and the vice-president of the National Teachers’ Union, in the vicinity of Largo de Independência. Pereira was distributing party leaflets when he was detained. In a press statement, Bloco Democrático condemned the detention as a “contemptible” act that “confirms the dictatorial character of the current executive.” Police also seized Coque Mukuta, a Voice of America correspondent, for 30 minutes after he tried to check the name of a demonstrator who […]

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Sergeant Shoots Boy Dead in Football Celebration

An Angolan Armed Forces sergeant shot and fatally wounded a 12-year-old boy on Saturday, in Lunda Norte province,  Angola, while celebrating a goal scored by 1º de Agosto, the military football club. Justino Pedro, a representative of the family, told Maka Angola that Sergeant Armando Manuel of the Military Police was arrested this morning during a combined police and army operation. After the shooting, the Sergeant had sought refuge in a colleague’s house. The boy, Adão Abílio da Piedade Xavier, died in the hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning, of a bullet wound to the abdomen. The incident occurred in the small town of Cafunfo in Cuango district, where a local businessman had installed a giant screen next to his shop in the town centre to allow more people to watch the match between 1º de Agosto and a rival club, Kabuscorp. “My son left our house in […]

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The Schoolboy Who Shook the Regime

At age 15, Nito Alves had a simple but generous idea: to share critical information about everyday events in Angola with neighbors and passers-by. Inspired by the Arab Spring in 2011, Nito Alves created a newspaper mural that he displayed outside his home in Viana, Luanda. Each week he chose articles from weekly papers and pasted them to a wooden board. This attracted dozens of readers who, each day, would stop at his doorstep to catch up with events. Nito Alves is proud to be the namesake of the man who, in 1977, led a faction within the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) for regime change. Although controversial and brutally crushed by the security forces, such a movement continues to inspire opponents of the Angolan regime.  Young Nito Alves’ mother says she simply liked those names and was unaware of their significance when she named her […]

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Minor Arrested for “Defaming” the President

Angolan police detained youth activist Manuel Civonda Baptista Nito Alves, 17, on Thursday, September 12, for allegedly defaming President José Eduardo dos Santos. The arrest took place in Luanda’s Viana district. “We went to Unit 45 of the National Police in Capalanca neighborhood, and the police told us my son had been detained when he went to fetch t-shirts for the Revolutionary Movement demonstration scheduled for September 19,” his father Fernando Baptista told Maka Angola. “The police officers told us he was detained for having committed the crime of defaming the President of the Republic,” the father added. “They asked us to go to the Municipal Directorate of Criminal Investigation tomorrow to get his case number.” Other activists in the Viana area told Maka Angola that Nito Alves had been detained in connection with the production of 20 t-shirts bearing the words “José Eduardo out! Nasty dictator.” On the back […]

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“Generals vs Rafael Marques” at the United Nations

Representatives of 17 Angolan and international organizations have written to the United Nations and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, asking that these bodies call on the Angolan government to put an end to the defamation charges against journalist Rafael Marques de Morais. A letter sent on August 2 expresses concern with the various legal measures taken against Mr. Marques de Morais concerning his book Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola published in Portugal in 2011. The book reports cases of murder and torture against people in the diamond-bearing Lundas’ region, in northeastern Angola. The most recent legal action against  Mr. Marques de Morais comprises 11 criminal complaints brought by seven Angolan generals acting individually and three corporations acting collectively, namely Sociedade Mineira do Cuango, ITM-Mining and the security company Teleservice. All are implicated in the alleged crimes that occurred in the Lundas, as documented in Mr. […]

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Margoso: Urban Development for the Rich, Eviction for the Poor

José Agostinho Quiteque, 31, represents his family’s third generation to be born in the neighbourhood of Margoso, in the Maianga district of Luanda. Nestled on the hillside between the neighbourhoods of Prenda and Bairro Azul, and Avenida Revolução de Outubro, Margoso is to be demolished to make way for a new housing development for the wealthy. The Quiteque family has lived in the area for more than fifty years. Family patriarch Agostinho Quiteque, born in Kwanza Sul, saw the birth of his first child in Margoso in the wooden house that he built on the site now occupied by Prenda Clinic. The colonial authorities granted him another site a little lower down the hill where he built a permanent house of bricks and mortar in which he lived until he died four months ago at the age of 81. All four of his children were born in Margoso, and when […]

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HRW: Leis de Difamação Silenciam Jornalistas

A organização internacional de direitos humanos Human Rights Watch (HRW) urge a Procuradoria-Geral da República de Angola a arquivar imediatamente todas as acusações recentes de difamação contra o jornalista investigativo Rafael Marques de Morais, alegando que estas põem em causa o direito à liberdade de expressão. Em comunicado emitido hoje, 12 de Agosto, a HRW indica ainda que o governo angolano deve rever as leis de difamação do país, que são o fundamento da acusação contra o jornalista. Segundo Leslie Lefkow, diretora-adjunta de África da HRW, “Angola tem achado as suas leis de difamação muito útil para reprimir relatos sobre corrupção e violações de direitos humanos. Angola devia estar a investigar estes relatos de graves violações de direitos humanos ao invés de tentar silenciar os portadores de más notícias”. As várias acções judiciais contra o jornalista estão relacionadas com o conteúdo do seu livro Diamantes de Sangue: Corrupção e Tortura […]

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HRW: Defamation Laws Silence Journalists

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Angolan attorney-general to drop all criminal defamation charges against investigative journalist and human rights defender Rafael Marques de Morais, arguing that the charges undermine the right to freedom of expression. In a press release  (HERE É PARA TIRAR O LINK APENAS here) issued today, August 12, HRW also urged the Angolan government to repeal the country’s criminal defamation laws, which are the basis for the charges against Mr. Marques de Morais. According to Leslie Lefkow, HRW deputy Africa director, “Angola has found its criminal defamation laws very useful to try to squelch reports about corruption and human rights violations. Angola should be investigating these reports of serious human rights violations instead of trying to silence the bearers of bad news.” The various legal measures taken against Mr. Marques de Morais are related to his book Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, published […]

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Jimmy Mubenga’s Death

By Lara Pawson   An Angolan man was unlawfully killed while being deported from Britain to Angola on October 12, 2010, a jury in London has found yesterday. The jury said that 46 year-old Jimmy Kelenda Mubenga suffered a cardio-respiratory collapse as a result of restraint by three G4S security guards on board a British Airways aircraft at Heathrow airport. In their verdict, which took four days of deliberations, the jury found that, “Mr Mubenga was pushed or held down by one or more of the guards causing his breathing to be impeded. We find they were using unreasonable force and acting in an unlawful manner. The fact that Mr Mubenga was pushed or held down, or a combination of the two, was a significant, that is more than minimal, cause of death.” “We believe the guards would have known that their actions would have caused Mr Mubenga harm if […]

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