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Violations by the Angolan Armed Forces

The Angolan government and its armed forces, the FAA, are obligated to abide by international human rights and humanitarian law in Cabinda.  Angola has ratified, among other international human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)³² and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Banjul Charter),³³ many of whose provisions are guaranteed in the Angolan Constitution.³⁴  They provide, for instance, that persons taken into custody are promptly brought before the courts and charged with an offense, and that criminal proceedings conform to international fair trial standards.  Human rights law applies at all times, except where superceded by specific provisions of international humanitarian law (the law of war). Hostilities between government and rebel forces that rise to the level of armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law.  Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which applies during non-international (internal) armed conflicts, is binding on both the FAA and the FLEC.  Common article 3 protects captured combatants and detained civilians against execution; torture and cruel treatment, including sexual violence; outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, including sexual violence; and the passing of sentences that are not in accordance with fair trial standards.  Customary laws of war prohibit attacks directed against civilians and civilian property or otherwise cause disproportionate or indiscriminate civilian harm.

Extrajudicial Executions

Human Rights Watch documented extrajudicial killings by the FAA, including a killing in July 2004. Those killed are suspected by the FAA of being FLEC combatants or civilian supporters; the killings, and typically occur on military bases or during military operations in villages and in the forest.  The summary killing of persons in custody, whether civilians or captured combatants violates international human rights and humanitarian law.

In December 2003, FAA soldiers summarily executed three male civilians and attempted to execute two other men in Buco Zau municipal district. One of the survivors who is thirty-eight year old, M. M. was badly wounded and still bears the scars:

The day before Christmas last year [2003], FLEC ambushed FAA soldiers in the vicinity of my village. We heard shots and hid in our houses. When the attack stopped, the FAA soldiers turned against us. About thirty soldiers surrounded the house where I was hiding with other villagers. We tried to escape, but the soldiers pointed their guns at the doors and windows and opened fire so all of us came out with our hands in the air. They stopped shooting. I recognized two of the soldiers. The commander of the nearby military base, was told over the radio that three FAA soldiers had died and one injured in the attack. The commander said over the radio to one of the soldiers whom I recognized that they must kill three people, the same number as the number of soldiers killed. The soldiers chose five men, including myself, and made us sit in a row on benches where the village elders normally meet. I was the last person on the right.  One of the soldiers whom I recognized opened fire at us with his AKM [lighter and more modern version of an AK-47 assault rifle]. Three – two old men and one young one – died immediately but I and another man ran away. I was hit but continued running. The first shot entered my right shoulder, the second hit me in the right side of my torso and the third shot severed ligaments in my right wrist. I can no longer use my right hand properly as two of my fingers are permanently bent. The soldier only stopped firing when the soldiers caught the other man who tried to run away. He was not killed. The soldiers ordered the villagers to return from their hiding place in the forest and arranged for the funeral of the three men the next day.

I first received medical treatment in the village but after four weeks the FAA flew me in a helicopter to Cabinda town for treatment in the military hospital. I am too afraid of the soldiers in the village to go back to my there.³⁵

One of the witnesses to these summary executions said that a FAA soldier blamed the deaths of the three villagers on “his brothers in FLEC, for making shit near the village.”³⁶ The FAA has not taken any action to investigate these killings.³⁷

On June 17, 2003, the FAA killed Teresa Nzita and SebastiÃo Lelo while soldiers were searching for FLEC combatants in a village in Buco Zau municipal district.³⁸ Nzita was shot in her stomach while standing on the veranda of her house with her children and Lelo was found dead in the road near his house with a bullet hole in his temple. When asked by villagers whom they were shooting at The FAA soldiers claimed to be shooting at “the enemy”. Soldiers had, however, already searched Nzita’s house and established that no FLEC combatants were present. Relatives of the deceased were subsequently detained for one night, released and then detained for two weeks in a pit at a military base. After these killings, most of the inhabitants left the village as they no longer felt secure with the soldiers. Witnesses interviewed said that they will only return after the soldiers leave. The FAA has not investigated these killings.³⁹

In a recent killing of a civilian by the FAA, both the FAA and the civilian authorities have taken some steps to investigate the alleged crime, although it remains to be seen whether the alleged perpetrators will be prosecuted and whether the trials will be conducted in accordance with international fair trial standards. Villagers told Human Rights Watch that Angolan solders took thirty-nine-year-old Luís Bundu from his village to the nearby military base on the morning of July 3, 2004.⁴⁰ They reported seeing the soldiers beating Bundu and forcing him to dig a hole near the military base. In the evening of the same day, the soldiers sent the civilian women living with them at the base away, and villagers heard three shots fired. On August 17, 2004, the deputy civil administrator of Cacongo municipal district told the villagers that Bundu’s body would be exhumed from a grave behind the military base and a funeral held on the following day. Bundu’s relatives exhumed the body in the presence of a civil prosecutor and identified the corpse. Also present were the alleged perpetrators: a captain, a sergeant and a soldier who had been arrested by the civilian authority and detained pending further investigation of the crime. Representatives from the FAA and civilian authorities attended the funeral and explained that this killing was not ordered by the FAA but was the act of the captain. The FAA replaced the captain’s unit deployed at the military base with another unit and the new commander reportedly told the villagers to come to him if they are harassed by his soldiers. The FAA also provided the coffin, food and drink for Bundu’s funeral.

Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Other Ill-Treatment of Detainees

During the military operations against FLEC rebels in 2003, Angolan forces frequently detained civilians.  Since the general cessation of fighting in 2004, the number of cases of arbitrary detention of civilians has dropped considerably. Human Rights Watch nonetheless interviewed several persons who had been arbitrarily detained in 2004.

During military operations, armed forces may be justified in briefly detaining persons who they believe are security risks.  Persons apprehended while directly participating in hostilities or otherwise engaged in criminal offenses may be charged and prosecuted.  However, the FAA has detained persons for periods of over a month on mere suspicion of their being FLEC combatants or supporters, or with supplying FLEC with food, weapons or information. The FAA apprehended unarmed persons while in their homes, and others whom their forces come across in the forest.

Those apprehended were often brought to the military bases where they were detained, or the detention was affected in situ in the forest. The majority of persons were taken into custody in the presence of or with the knowledge of officers, including at times high-ranking officers. The FAA commander in Cabinda said that some former FLEC combatants who joined the FAA have supplied lists of FLEC combatants to the FAA.  However, most of the cases of detention investigated by Human Rights Watch involved civilians with no connection to the conflict that remained in military custody long after their identity and civilian status had been established, in violation of Angolan and international law. In many such cases, Angolan soldiers tortured or otherwise mistreated detainees to obtain information from them about FLEC.

Human Rights Watch interviewed several persons who were detained more than once. J. S., a thirty-three-year-old man, was detained three times within a period of six months in Buco Zau municipal district. The first time he was held for one night when the FAA detained his two adult nieces whom they suspected were married to FLEC combatants in early August 2003.  J. S. accompanied his nieces to the military base in Necuto where he was then also detained. He spent the night in a pit while his nieces were detained in a room. The nieces were reportedly beaten by a major who was the deputy to the commander of the base. J. S. and his nieces were released the next day.

J.S. was subsequently detained for nineteen days at a small military base in September 2003 on the suspicion of being a member of FLEC. Before being taken to the military base, he spent one night in the bush with his hands and feet tied up in an FAA camp. His hands and feet swelled up because his blood circulation was cut off; J.S. still has difficulty holding objects in his left hand. Upon his arrival at the military base, he was stripped naked, beaten on his chest and threatened with death. A lieutenant-colonel beat him and grabbed his penis. He was also interrogated about FLEC, including being asked how FLEC obtained weapons and food. During his detention, J.S. was under the constant guard of a soldier.

The third time J.S. was detained was when he met soldiers on patrol in mid-December 2003 along the river Luali. He was taken to one of FAA’s major military bases located in Loma where he was detained in a room for 42 days. His hands were tied for the first 24 hours. He was detained with nine other male detainees. Three of these detainees also spent 42 days in captivity. J. S. told Human Rights Watch:

The first fifteen days, we were all interrogated one by one about FLEC by different soldiers. The commander would hit me with a machete while I was lying with my stomach on the floor. The commander wanted to force us to say things even if we knew nothing about what he wanted us to say. I saw another male detainee being stabbed in his foot twice by a soldier. He was taken by car to the military hospital but returned to Loma after one week. Then we were all forced to work for the soldiers. We had to carry twenty-five-liter jerry cans with water, cut the grass with a machete, sweep the compound and clean the officers’ rooms.    

J.S. added that even after his release he remains under surveillance by the FAA and showed Human Rights Watch a letter signed by a FAA colonel stating that he was a suspected FLEC supporter.⁴¹

Human Rights Watch interviewed other persons whom the FAA detained more than once and mistreated in custody.  In May 2004, a sixty-six-year-old man, M.B., and eleven other villagers were arbitrarily detained by FAA soldiers when they went to harvest food from their fields in Buco Zau municipal district. Eight of the villagers were women and the other three were men who had accompanied the women to the fields for their security against the FAA:

Armed FAA soldiers caught us and started beating three of us with a stick the width of my arm and a machete. I knew they were from the Necuto battalion because I recognized the commander. He accused us of giving logistical support to FLEC. I was beaten on my backbone. My daughter was beaten on her forearms, which caused them to swell up. The other man who is older than me was beaten with the flat blade of the machete and the butt of an automatic rifle on his back and on his head.⁴²

His forty-two year old daughter, C.L., added that the soldiers broke her arm.⁴³ She also said that because the soldiers were frightened that they would report the incident to the authorities, the former gave them two boxes of army rations. In July 2004, the same M.B. referred to above was detained by another group of armed FAA soldiers for six hours in a field where he had gone to collect food. The soldiers tied his elbows together behind his back and a stick across his wrist with the soldiers’ bootlaces. The commander hit him on his head with his ramrod [rod for barrel of a firearm] and interrogated him, asking whether he had sons in FLEC and where they were. M.B. decided to leave his village because of these incidents.⁴⁴

Conditions of detention varied, but the FAA frequently detains persons without regard to minimal international standards for the treatment of prisoners.⁴⁵ Some detainees were held in basic shelters, where they received minimal food and water.  The most egregious conditions of detention were pits dug in the ground.  An FAA commander did not deny the existence of such pits, but maintained they were used only to detain FAA soldiers as an internal disciplinary measure.⁴⁶ Detention in these pits, in which detainees often had to defecate and urinate where they were held, constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in violation of international law. During the rainy season, detainees remained in the pits which partially filled up with water. The water took a day or two to drain away.

Most of the former detainees who spoke to Human Rights Watch had been beaten and threatened with death during interrogation by the FAA. The FAA also subjected several male detainees to other forms of torture including: tying a detainees’ elbows together behind their backs and by their hands, causing loss of circulation and short-term damage; tying two pieces of steel against their heads and then squeezing the two pieces tightly; tying a rope around a detainee’s chest followed by five soldiers pulling the rope at each end.⁴⁷ Detainees were also subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment, including threatening to rape and cut off one detainee’s genitalia. In mid-2003, B. K., a forty-four-year-old man was captured by the FAA when he was fishing on the suspicion that he was FLEC. He explained that first he was tied up with his elbows behind his back:

It was very painful as my hands had to touch each other in front of my chest. The rope cut into the skin above my elbows causing me to bleed. They also hit me with the back of a machete on my chest and legs as well as on my chest with a military belt. They asked me: “How many FLEC soldiers are in your village? How many villagers have guns in their houses?” I said that I could not answer these questions. They poured dirty water over me and made me lie down on my stomach. They covered me with banana leaves and used the stem of a palm tree leaf to beat me. They threatened to kill me because I did not answer their questions. I told them to kill me.

I was then turned onto my back and the commander pulled my pants down. He pretended to cut off my penis and my balls, saying: “We should cut off your penis and balls as they are FLEC.” He held my genitalia in his hands and brandished a machete. I was very scared and shouted: “Jesus Christ.” One soldier said that they should leave but the others laughed. The soldiers untied me and I was allowed to wash myself in the river. When it got dark, the commander told one soldier to go and have sex with me. The soldier refused to have sex with another man. The commander ordered another soldier to have sex with me but he also refused. The commander then pretended that he was going to have sex with me and took me by my hand. I said: “I would rather die.” The other soldiers said nothing but laughed. The commander said: “I will leave you but we will go to your village where I will sleep with your wife.” I said that I will never let that happen. The commander then said: “When I meet women in the bush, I will rape them.”⁴⁸

After one night in the bush, B.K. was taken to the military base in Necuto where he was detained in a pit which was 2.5 meters wide and 5 meters deep. He was interrogated again by the commander of the base. Before being released he was also interrogated by the police and the head of security in their offices. B.K. expressed concern that his treatment during detention has weakened him as he can no longer carry heavy loads.

Some detainees were forced to serve as guides to the FAA to help them locate FLEC bases in the forest.⁴⁹ J.T. was first detained and interrogated by the FAA on July 25, 2004 at the military base in Loma:

Three soldiers, including the head of intelligence called Walter, a lieutenant and a sergeant accused me of being a FLEC supporter and providing them with logistical support and advice. They accused me of receiving a letter from FLEC. After two hours, I was taken to a room where I spent the night. The next day, Walter and the two other soldiers showed me a long list with the names of FLEC fighters. My name was written in red. I think that people in Buco Zau must have given the names of the FLEC fighters to the FAA. He also showed me another list with the names of my parents, wife and children. Their names were written in red. I was then taken to the military base at Cata Buanga. The commander of Cata Buanga told me: “If we do not get any information out of you, we will get rid of this garbage,” meaning he would kill me if I did not tell him what they wanted. In Cata Buanga, I was detained in a pit before being taken to the deputy commander. He told me: “We will give you whatever you want if you show us where FLEC is in the bush. You can either show us where FLEC is or we will kill you.” I agreed to show them where FLEC is in the bush to save my life even though I did not know their bases. The deputy commander made Cabindan FAA soldiers responsible for me by getting one to sign a letter saying that he accepts to be killed if I escape. I stayed on the base for three nights under guard. I was well treated. Then eleven soldiers and I went into the bush to look for FLEC. I was dressed in civilian clothes but was given a military hat and jacket.  The soldiers had AKMs and other guns. We spent three days in the bush and found several places which FLEC had recently deserted. When we returned to the military base in Cata Buanga, Walter, Brigadier [name withheld] and another lieutenant tried to persuade me to collaborate with the FAA by bringing them information and delivering letters to FLEC. They asked me if I drink and said that they could bring me a drink so I would talk more freely. I refused to collaborate with them. The brigadier showed me money and asked me whether I had this much money or whether FLEC had so much. I said: “How would I know about FLEC money?” They offered to pay me a salary from Luanda but I refused. I was then free to go to my family although I have since been interrogated again by the FAA.⁵⁰

Gender-Specific Violations

Human Rights Watch documented a range of violations committed by the FAA against women and girls, including rape and sexual slavery.⁵¹ Rape and sexual slavery by government agents are violations of human rights and during armed conflict are considered war crimes under international humanitarian law. The FAA also arbitrarily detained women who were married or suspected of being married to FLEC combatants together with their children. In addition, Human Rights Watch received reports of women marrying FAA soldiers as they feared being accused of being married to FLEC soldiers that could result in their detention, sexual violence or torture.  Human Rights Watch was informed by numerous interlocutors in different municipal districts that women and girls in rural areas generally avoid going into the bush alone as they are afraid of being raped by FAA soldiers and often go the fields in mixed groups with males.⁵² The FAA regional commander denied, however, that FAA soldiers raped women and girls, but admitted that “excesses” happened when soldiers became drunk.⁵³  The FAA has taken no disciplinary action in these cases of rape.

The low status of women and girls in Angola and the structural discrimination to which they are subjected is reflected in the stigma attached to women who have been raped.  One response to rape in Angolan society is for the rapist to marry the victim who might otherwise no longer be considered eligible for marriage. Human Rights Watch investigated several cases of girls (i.e., under the age of eighteen), one as young as fourteen, who had married FAA soldiers.  These early marriages in all likelihood took place after the girls had been raped by the FAA soldiers.⁵⁴  

A.T. described how she was gang raped by fifteen FAA soldiers and an officer when she was fourteen years old in November 2002:

I was talking to a friend when a FAA colonel, whose nickname is Decídido, called me. He and the two armed soldiers took me to their military base. The colonel put a pistol to my head and told me that he would kill me if I tried to run away. They took me into a room where Decídido hit me on my face and on my breast with his pistol. He then pulled off my underwear and put two fingers in my vagina. He said to the other soldiers: “Do you know who this woman is? She is a woman from FLEC.” He beat me again and then he raped me. I do not know if the two other soldiers remained in the room while he raped me because it was dark. After he raped me, he said: “I am going to send fifteen soldiers troops to use you. Do you want to sleep in the mud or do you want to sleep punished?” I was raped by fifteen soldiers, one after the other one. When they had finished using me, he sent for two soldiers who took me outside. I was in a lot of pain and bleeding. Decídido said to me: “If you complain to the traditional leaders, I will kill you.” He then ordered two soldiers to take me home. 

I could not walk properly for two weeks. I got medical treatment at the clinic for a few days and then went to Cabinda town for more treatment, including psychological treatment.⁵⁵

A 25-year old woman, J.M., was abducted by FAA soldiers in November 2003.  The soldiers took her to their base in the forest where she was raped and held in sexual slavery for six weeks during which time she was repeatedly raped by the six soldiers who abducted her and by other soldiers in the same unit:

I was traveling by car back to Cabinda town. There were three other persons in the car: the male driver and a couple whom I did not know. We were stopped by six armed FAA soldiers at about 7 p.m. The soldiers told me and the two other passengers to get out and took us into the bush. At about 11 p.m., the other female passenger who was about twenty-eight years old started to complain that she did not want to go any further. One of the soldiers put an AK to her head and fired. The bullet went through her head, causing her brain to spill out. We walked until we reached the soldiers’ military base. The soldiers slept in shelters made from green tarpaulin. The soldiers took the husband of the woman whom they had killed to another part of the base and I never saw him again.

I was taken to a tarpaulin shelter where I stayed for about six weeks. I was raped day and night by many soldiers. They used force when they raped me. The soldiers said: “You Cabindans talk too much so now we will teach you a lesson.” I was afraid and therefore did what I was told. I was too traumatized to remember how many soldiers raped me. The soldiers told me that I was there to be their wife. The soldiers threatened me and said they would kill me like the other woman if I refused to have sex. I felt like a lost person and was not sure whether I would survive.⁵⁶

After six weeks of being held and raped repeatedly by many soldiers, a soldier helped J.M. flee after he had raped her. He took her to the main road where J.M. managed to get a ride with a truck driver. J. M. was highly traumatized and in pain:

When I left the bush I was like a crazy woman with wild hair and very dirty as I did not wash for the whole time I was in the bush. My stomach hurt. It hurt to walk and urinate. I was ashamed of my appearance and could hear people in the street talking about me looking like a crazy woman. My mind was all messed up.⁵⁷

After her escape, J. M. was treated for infections and given psychological treatment, arranged by the Catholic Church. The transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, is greatly increased in violent sex with multiple partners. A report about her case was submitted to the FAA and to the police but they have not taken any action.

The FAA also arbitrarily detained women on the suspicion of being the wives of FLEC combatants. In early 2003, a large group of women married to FLEC combatants were detained by the FAA at a military base in Loma after the FAA had attacked their FLEC base in the bush.⁵⁸ The women and their children were detained on the base for about a month and were interrogated by the FAA about FLEC and were subsequently made to live in an old warehouse under constant guard by the FAA for about another two months. During this time, they had limited freedom of movement in that they could go to the market but the FAA threatened to cut off their heads if they went to the fields.⁵⁹

Another woman married to a FLEC combatant was captured by the FAA in a separate incident, while on her way to take food to her husband. FAA soldiers tied her hands behind her back so tightly that the rope cut into the skin above her elbows, which caused scarring.⁶⁰ The officer of the unit who captured her threatened to kill her. She was also filmed by Angolan Public Television and forced to say on camera: “We went to the bush to meet our husbands who are in FLEC and told them that they must come out of the bush.”

Some women married FAA soldiers as they fear that the FAA will otherwise accuse them of being FLEC wives which could result in them being detained or subjected to sexual violence.⁶¹ According to a displaced woman interviewed by Human Rights Watch, FAA soldiers told women in her village: “I will take you as my wife otherwise we will consider you as a wife of a FLEC.”⁶² Human Rights Watch heard of families and communities who refused to allow FAA soldiers to marry their daughters and were fearful of the consequences. In some of these cases, the girls were sent to the capital city to avoid possible rape that often results in marriage to the FAA soldier responsible for the rape.  In one case, the daughter was sent away but was forced to marry a FAA officer upon her return to the village.⁶³

Denial of Freedom of Movement

The most widespread abuse by the FAA is the ongoing denial of freedom of movement to civilians in the rural areas, which has resulted in their inability to cultivate their crops in agricultural areas. In addition, the FAA continues to prohibit civilians from going into the forest to hunt or fish in many rural areas and has confiscated hunting rifles.

International human rights law provides that everyone shall have the right to liberty of movement.  This right may be restricted on national security grounds, such as barring access to a military security zone, but only as is necessary.⁶⁴    In its General Comment 27, the Human Rights Committee stated that restrictive measures on liberty of movement must be appropriate to achieve their protective function, be the least intrusive instrument among those which might achieve the desired result, and must be proportionate to the interest to be protected. ⁶⁵

Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, which is considered reflective of customary humanitarian law, specifically bans starvation of civilians as a method of combat.  It also prohibits acts that would destroy or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, and livestock.⁶⁶ 

Civilians are denied regular access to the land and the crops they have cultivated; some are barred access for a period of weeks, while others no longer have any access to their fields. One displaced woman explained to Human Rights Watch:

The FAA does not allow women to go and cultivate our fields so how can we mothers provide food for our children? My wish is for peace so we can return to our village and fields.⁶⁷

In the words of a father of four children interviewed by Human Rights Watch:“The FAA is everywhere. We do not have freedom of movement and can not send our children to school, as they can not go to school hungry.”⁶⁸ Another man commented: 

“We in the villages live from agriculture and now the forest is full of soldiers, stopping us from getting to our fields. How can we live?”⁶⁹

Villagers who venture into areas declared off-limits by the FAA are routinely arbitrarily detained on the suspicion of being FLEC supporters.