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VI. VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Threats and Attacks against Activists

The situation of opposition political parties and civil society groups remains precarious outside of Luanda. In particular, the former rebel movement UNITA has faced difficulties in its attempts to establish civilian political structures in the provinces, following the demobilization of its military forces.

UNITA members in Huambo city told how they had come to the city to seek refuge after armed men attacked the UNITA branch office in Kalima, a small town in Huambo province.

According to testimony by two officials who were working and temporarily residing in the office building, unknown men first attacked the office on March 23, 2004, at about 9 p.m., breaking a glass door. About five people entered the building until the occupants called for help, and a further twenty people remained outside.

One of the witnesses said that on March 26, at about 3 p.m., a group of armed men arrived in Kalima from another town, Chilemba. According to the witness:

“They were wearing FAA uniforms, but with O.D.C. badges. All of them had firearms – AK-47s and AKMs – and they also had machetes, pickaxes, hoes, and two liters of petrol.”

Shortly after midnight on March 29, this group attacked the UNITA office, throwing petrol through the window of the front office of the building and setting it on fire, and entering into the living quarters at the back where they threw stones at the occupants, injuring two people. The witness continued:

“One of our men went to the police to get help. Unfortunately the police didn’t co-operate because they knew what was going on. One of the neighbors lit a lantern, then the forces started running away. All of our delegation had run away by this time, but we went back and spent the night there. We managed to put the fire out.

Some things had been stolen: $550 from our management fund and kitchen equipment. Other things were burnt: seventeen blankets, twenty-eight pairs of trousers, twenty-three shirts, fifteen T-shirts, nine cloths, fourteen blouses, three caps.

At 6 a.m. we went to the police again and asked for their help and to provide security. The police commander said ‘go and do your work, and if there is another problem, contact us’.

At 8 a.m. the same group came back to destroy the delegation (office). I recognized the commander of the force, a man called Mariano. We ran away, through the bush, until we got to the main road. Our members in the bairro (poor outlying neighborhood) didn’t know what had happened. Then we came here (to Huambo). The police started a manhunt in Bairro Santangoti, where two of our members were: EstevÃo Balako and Graciana Xavier. They were beaten by the police and put in jail – they escaped and came to Huambo.”

An official from LIMA (the UNITA women’s league) who witnessed the incident said the attackers had told her “if you stay here you have to be MPLA” and ordered the women present to leave LIMA and join OMA (the MPLA women’s organization).⁸⁶

UNITA has written letters to the provincial government, police, army, and intelligence services detailing two further attacks on UNITA activists in Huambo province.

In the first of these incidents, activists Manuel EstevÃo Sambumba and Júlio Epalanga were allegedly attacked on February 28, 2004 in the Kangongo sector of Mungo municipality. Sambumba’s collarbone was broken and his shoulder dislocated, while Epalanga’s right hand was injured. UNITA’s letter names seventeen attackers; four of them were said to be dressed in FAA uniforms, while a further three are identified as state intelligence agents, and all but one of the others as activists in the MPLA or MPLA Youth.

In the second incident reported by UNITA, fifteen men carrying stones and knives attacked the local UNITA office in Chipipa commune at 8.30 p.m. on March 26, 2004. The local branch secretary, Adriano Sali, was injured, and the attackers stole goods.

In Kangamba, Moxico province, police detained and beat Soba (traditional leader) Felipe Samuyuleno, who was more than eighty years old and a long-standing UNITA member. The incident is believed to be linked to Samuyuleno’s refusal to join the MPLA. (Sobas are a powerful force in rural Angola, not least because they control access to land by subsistence farmers.) Supporters of the former rebel movement in Huambo and Moxico provinces said sobas were under pressure from the local government not to receive UNITA supporters into their areas.⁸⁷

Officials of the Partido de RenovaçÃo Social (PRS), which is most active in the north-east of the country, reported the murder of Soba Mualengue, a traditional leader in Monakimbundo commune, in September 2003. They believe that the failure on the part of the authorities to investigate the death is linked to the chief’s sympathies with the PRS.⁸⁸

PRS officials have also reported that flags hoisted by PRS members in their villages have been torn down.⁸⁹

In Cabinda province, civil society activists reported attempts by the government to prevent the formation of a civic association in the oil-producing enclave in February 2004. They said police had blocked access to a stadium in Cabinda city where a launch ceremony was to be held for the Mbalapanda civic association, despite the association having followed the correct legal procedures for the holding of the rally. The launch of the civic association has since gone ahead.⁹⁰

Carlos LeitÃo, president of PADEPA, said agents of SINFO (the state intelligence service) followed him in Luanda during March 2004. LeitÃo said the agents had on occasion asked his relatives and neighbors about his whereabouts; he added that this stopped after he initiated legal action against SINFO.⁹¹

On March 19, 2003, Luís Araújo, an activist with the Angolan NGO SOS-Habitat who teaches human rights during the association’s meetings, stepped out of his car in Luanda’s Benfica neighborhood. He knew the police had surrounded the neighborhood and was trying to evict its population of approximately 240 people.⁹² Araújo walked toward the head of the police to try to negotiate the eviction. Police officers pushed him with their weapons and told him to leave. They threatened his life, but he insisted on staying. One police officer told Araújo that if he ever went back, they would kill him.⁹³ A group of people from the community intervened to save him and then accompanied him to his car. Police denied Araújo’s repeated requests to access the community for the next two months. The eviction operation lasted for about three months during which time police action resulted in several injuries, one death, and one miscarriage resulting from severe beatings.⁹⁴ Luís Araújo told Human Rights Watch:

“They knew I was the leader of the community. I had spoken to them before. I wanted to negotiate with them. I had instructed the people to resist peacefully but the police came to me with their weapons in hand. I couldn’t speak. I was pushed out of there and almost killed.”⁹⁵

In March 2003, José Pedro JoÃo Rasgadinho, leader of the Boavista Neighborhood United Residents’ Commission (ComissÃo de Moradores Unidos do Bairro Boavista) organized a protest against the arbitrary relocation of the inhabitants of Boavista to two other neighborhoods, Zangu-Calumbo and Terra Nova II.⁹⁶

“Rasgadinho was the main point of contact for people from Zangu-Calumbo, Terra Nova II, and Boavista. However, after three meetings with people living in these communities, Rasgadinho was denied access to the new neighborhoods. Police officers threatened him repeatedly. Rasgadinho also said he and his family had been threatened by unknown people.”⁹⁷

On September 11, 2003, Rasgadinho was again arrested and accused of mobilizing those who had been relocated. Although the prosecutor found no grounds to charge him and ordered his release on the following day, he was not released until September 15, 2003, allegedly for having mislaid his release warrant.⁹⁸

Registration Requirements as a Means of Limiting Freedom of Association

As described previously in the legal section of this report, under national legislation, civil society organizations, including human rights groups and trades unions, must obtain official registration. Requests for registration are often denied, even when these organizations comply with all the official registration requirements. The lack of legal status then undermines the work of these organizations, and sometimes restricts their access to funding.

For example, members of the AssociaçÃo para Justiça, Paz e Democracia (Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy, AJPD) have been denied permission to visit prisons in Luanda on the grounds that AJPD had not been legally registered. In 2000, AJPD had filed for registration, and submitted all the required documentation. Its statute was published in the Diário da República on August 11, 2000.⁹⁹ AJPD, however, never received its registration number, and when the organization requested information about the number of detainees in the Luanda prison facilities, the authorities accused the organization of being illegal and required it to change its approved statute.¹⁰⁰ AJPD members were prosecuted for defamation and interrogated after distributing leaflets protesting against this action.¹⁰¹ During police interrogation, Pedro RomÃo, AJPD vice-president, was beaten on the face and thrown to the ground from his chair. AJPD members immediately presented a public statement that was broadcast by local private radio stations. The police authorities apologized orally to AJPD members in person. The criminal cases, however, are still pending.¹⁰²

Kimpuanza Marlene Paulo Amaro, director of AJPD told Human Rights Watch:

“In addition to this prosecution, more recently, we have received a threat to close the organization in forty-five days in an official communication from the Office of the Attorney General. We have appealed, but we cannot get any response from authorities. Basically, they just ignore our claims of irregularities.”¹⁰³

The Sindicato de Jornalistas Angolano (Angolan Journalists’ Syndicate, SJA), with 1,253 affiliated members,¹⁰⁴ requested official registration in April 1996. It is still awaiting official recognition.¹⁰⁵ Many of the other organizations, associations, and unions cited in this report face similar bureaucratic obstructions.¹⁰⁶

Even if the routine failure to recognize civil society organizations is not a deliberate policy, as many suspect, it represents the failure by the Angolan government to ensure the free exercise of the right to free association, guaranteed by its own law and international human rights treaties.