Search Results for “Cabinda”

The Road to Dialogue in Angola or Things Fall Apart in Angola

18 de February de 2016 Rafael Marques de Morais

Last Friday, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution paving the way for Angola to be promoted from a low to middle income country by 2020. This resolution is cause for celebration by the government, for it is an international endorsement of its stewardship of the country. From 2003 to 2013, the country’s oil revenues reached over US $450 billion, according to Angolan economic estimates, and for a decade it ranked among the ten fastest growing economies in the world. Meanwhile, the timing of the UN resolution seems to be a twist of irony for ordinary Angolan citizens. It comes at a time when the bust of the oil fueled economic boom is all too evident on the supermarket shelves, and poverty is on the rise. Food shortages are becoming severe in parts of the country, while in the capital retailers are imposing rationing of certain products. […]

The War on Social Media and the Trial of Activists

12 de January de 2016 Rafael Marques de Morais

Following the president’s outline of his war on social media, Judge Januário Domingos is making history by being the first to hear a case of a political joke on Facebook that has displeased the regime. Yesterday, the judge of the Luanda Provincial Court questioned a Catholic priest, Father Jacinto Pio Wakussanga, for being part of an imaginary government, generated in a playful Facebook discussion, as the head of the National Electoral Commission. In court, the priest told the judge that he had heard through social media about this imaginary government and thought it was just a joke. Last May, a lawyer Albano Pedro set up an open online forum on his Facebook page to entice discussants to come up with names for what would be an ideal government of national salvation. The leader of the millennial religious sect “The Light of the Day”, José Julino Kalupeteka, who has been in […]

United Nations Calls for the Release of Marcos Mavungo

6 de January de 2016 Maka Angola

The American Bar Association, ACAT France, Front Line Defenders, the Southern African Litigation Centre and the global law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP –– welcomed the opinion by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) condemning as arbitrary and in violation of international law the arrest and conviction of Angolan human rights activist José Marcos Mavungo. The UNWGAD has called on the government of Angola to immediately release Mavungo and grant him compensation. “Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental to a democracy and no one should be detained for legitimately exercising these rights,” said ABA President Paulette Brown. “The ABA calls upon the government of Angola to respect the UNWGAD’s decision and immediately release José Marcos Mavungo.” Mavungo was arrested and detained in March 2015 on charges of rebellion for organizing a demonstration on human rights violations and bad governance in the Cabinda region of Angola. […]

Youth Protesters Charged with Rebellion on Trial Today

16 de November de 2015 Maka Angola

Seventeen young Angolan activists were charged in court with rebellion against the state on Monday, a case rights groups said showed increasing intolerance of dissent. The young campaigners were detained in June after organising a reading of U.S. academic Gene Sharp’s 1993 book: “From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”. The book’s blurb describes it as: “a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes”. Charges against them read out in court included acts of rebellion, planning mass action of civil disobedience in the capital Luanda and producing fake passports. Their defence lawyer told the hearing his clients were not guilty of any crime because debate and freedom of speech were protected under the constitution. Human rights groups have accused Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his government of using the legal system to crack down on critics after several activists were jailed or detained this year on […]

Independence Celebrations Marred by Crackdown on Human Rights

11 de November de 2015 Administrador

President José Eduardo dos Santos’s tightening stranglehold on freedom of expression in Angola and his government’s decades of fear and repression will cast an indelible stain on the 40th anniversary of the country’s independence, said Amnesty International today. As dignitaries and foreign leaders gather in the capital Luanda to mark four decades of independence, at least 16 activists continue to languish in Angolan jails. “40 years after independence, many Angolans still have a long way before they realise their human rights freedoms. Those who express views that differ from those of the regime are subjected to brutal treatment. Independence should also be about people being allowed to freely express themselves,” said Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southern Africa. “Many human rights defenders are suffering in jail merely for asking for accountability and respect for human rights. The state is using police and the judiciary to entrench fear and […]

Attempting to Assassinate the President with a Non-Violence Manual

1 de November de 2015 LUSA

The manuscript of Angolan academic Domingos da Cruz, one of the prisoners of conscience in Luanda, defends peaceful actions against totalitarianism. The Portuguese press agency Lusa had access to the manuscript Tools to Destroy a Dictatorship and Avoiding a New Dictatorship – Political Philosophy for the Liberation of Angola, of Domingos da Cruz whose work is based on the ideas of the American academic Gene Sharp. According to the indictment of October 15 from the Luanda Provincial Court, the reading sessions of Domingos da Cruz’s work were a threat to state security. “It was at these meetings that the participants decided to fight against the so-called dictator, overthrowing and substituting those in charge of the sovereign bodies of the state, and drafting a new constitution,” says the charges about the activities around the book whose author insists deals with non-violent mechanisms. “I can’t make any claims to the ideas contained […]

Lawyer Faces Up to 5 Years in Jail for Inviting Congolese Journalists

30 de October de 2015 Lisa Rimli

Human rights lawyer Arão Bula Tempo has been formally charged with the crimes of attempted “collaboration with foreigners to constrain the Angolan state” and rebellion. He faces a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment for the first indictment, and 12 years for rebellion. The court informed Tempo, and other defendant Manuel Biongo of the charges on October 22. Arão Tempo, who is the chair of the Angolan Bar Association in Cabinda, was given a conditional release in May after two months in jail. He had been arrested and jailed on March 14 at the border town of Massabi, along with his client Manuel Biongo, a businessman who has also been charged with attempted collaboration with foreigners. The public prosecutor António Nito accused them of inviting foreign journalists from the Republic of Congo to cover a protest against human rights violations and poor governance in the exclave. The protest was going […]

The Emergence of Fascism in Angola

4 de October de 2015 Rafael Marques de Morais

Allard Prize acceptance speech, Vancouver, Canada. I am deeply honored to be here today, at this great University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law and most grateful for being selected the joint-recipient of the prestigious Allard Prize for International Integrity. Sharing this Prize with John Githongo, who has always been an inspiration to me, is humbling, and a double honor. I pay tribute to the finalists, the Indonesian Corruption Watch and the late Sergei Magnitsky, for their outstanding work. I dedicate the Prize to my family for their love and unconditional support. The journey I have taken to merit your recognition has a fine irony that I would like to share with you. In 2009, after I had finished a Master’s degree at Oxford University, I returned home, to Angola, with no prospects of getting a job. I had become more dangerous to the power holders for I had […]

Crisis in Angola Could Free Social Conscience and Lead to Change

17 de September de 2015 Rafael Marques de Morais

A few days ago a lawyer was complaining over dinner about the lack of official information on the economic crisis in Angola. She felt the government, or rather the president, ought to keep society informed about how the crisis is to be managed and dealt with. The conversation reminded us how Angolans need to reflect on current realities and become more aware of the disarray in which our society finds itself at the moment. For the first time in the history of independent Angola, all the political parties are ideologically feeble and incapable of imposing their vision of Angola onto society. But this means that also for the first time, Angolans have the opportunity to exercise citizenship rather than party-political activism. The middle level For the first time in many years, the economic crisis is starting to affect an important sector of the population. This is the middle level – […]

Mavungo Convicted to Six Years in Jail for a Protest Never Held

15 de September de 2015 Lisa Rimli

Yesterday, September 14, a judge of the provincial court of Cabinda sentenced José Marcos Mavungo, a 57 year-old human rights activist, to six years of imprisonment on the charge of rebellion. His legal counsels will appeal to the Supreme Court. Mavungo has already spent six months in jail, and will serve 5.5 more years in jail. The peaceful protest he attempted to organize on March 14 never took place, as it had been prohibited by the authorities. Nevertheless, police and security forces arrested him as he stepped out of a Catholic religious service early in the morning on the same day of the planned protest. The authorities charged him with the crime of rebellion. Mavungo’s sentencing was a mockery of justice. It did not meet basic due process guarantees and formal trial standards required by Angolan law. The judge Jeremias Sofrera ignored the blatant lack of evidence exposed during the […]

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