Volume 4

July - September 2002

Mandate ends, the repression continues

ON 19 April 2002, the members of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) voted in favour of a resolution that terminated one of its longest serving mandates - that of the Secretary-General's Special Representative on the situation of human rights in Equatorial Guinea. Pursuant to this resolution, at the next session of the CHR the situation of human rights in Equatorial Guinea will be examined under the agenda item concerned with technical assistance programmes. 

On 9 June 2002, 68 of the 144 opposition members facing trial in Malabo were sentenced to prison terms of six to 20 years on charges of an "attempt on the life of the head of state, conspiracy and incitement to rebellion." The press was barred from covering the trial. 

Even as Amnesty International unequivocally condemned the trial as one marked by "torture and heavy sentences", and the EU echoed this criticism, several other individuals continue to face the threat of detention for their alleged links with banned opposition - the Fuerza Democratica Republicana  (FDR), or the Democratic Republican Force. 

The persecution of prominent opposition figures - accused of having planned a military coup d'état aimed at removing the President - has reached its apogee.  For five years, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema has managed to convince the world of his government's commitment to better human rights and more democracy, backing Western oil companies' claims that they have had a positive influence on Africa's fastest growing oil producer. Now President Obiang's regime has been handing out punishments as appalling as those meted out in the 1970s when he was defence minister under Francisco Maciás Nguema, his uncle against whom he led a bloody coup in 1979. 

Mass arrests, allegations of torture and public denunciations of dissidents characterise President Obiang's latest purge. According to Daniel M. Oyono, President of the opposition UDI party, the situation in Equatorial Guinea has only grown worse. The Obiang administration is showing signs of a dangerous paranoia, suspecting anybody and everybody of being threats to the regime, and as a result, it has increased political persecution. 

On 9 June 2002, two founding members of the clandestine opposition party, the FDR - Felipe Ondó Obiang, ex-President of the House of Representatives of the People and Guillermo Nguema Elá were sentenced to 20 and 14 years' imprisonment respectively, while Plácido Mico Abogo, secretary general of the main legal opposition party, Convergencia para la Democracia Social (CPDS) or Convergence for Social Democracy, was sentenced to 14 years.  

Felipe Ondo Obiang and Guillermo Nguema Ela, as well as the leader of the registered Unión Popular (UP), Emilio Ndong, were arrested in Malabo on 12 March 2002 and imprisoned in Bata. Within two weeks, 150 more people were detained. Most were from the President's home region near Mongomo.  They included serving and retired senior army officers, opposition supporters, pregnant women and children. 

On 21 March 2002, the Interior Minister publicly stated that a conspiracy against Obiang had been thwarted, that clandestine groups, former officers and elements from within the armed forces had planned "criminal acts of violence" and that their hit-list was now in the hands of the authorities. 

On several occasions, Interior Minister Clement Engonga Nguema has publicly accused the leaders of the CPDS of being "the legal arm of the terrorist formations", which allegedly threatened the regime by plotting a coup. Several leaders of the so-called "satellite parties" - former opposition parties, but in reality taken over by the government party, the Partido Democrático de Guinea Ecuatorial (PDGE) - have publicly called for the prohibition of the "terrorist" opposition parties and for the detention of their leaders. In May 2002 Fabian Nsue Nguema, the leader of the opposition party, UP, was arrested on charges of  "insulting the head of the state". 

According to the CPDS - one of the few opposition parties still active - scores of people were held incommunicado in Bata, the capital of Equatorial Guinea's mainland province of Rio Muni, for alleged links with the FDR prior to the 9 June 2002 trial. 

Credible eyewitness accounts have noted that some of the detained, most of whom have remained imprisoned incommunicado, bear visible marks of torture. In April 2002, Guillermo Nguema Ela, former Equatoguinean Minister of Economy and Finance died in a state prison, allegedly after being tortured. Several other Equatoguinean opposition members may meet the same fate. 

Despite repeated demands by the opposition, the Ministry of Home Affairs refused to disclose the whereabouts of those detained. Various sources maintain that the detainees have been moved from Malabo (the capital, on the island of Bioko), where they were last seen, to the Rio Muni mainland. The prison of Evinayong and several buildings in the town of Bata have been mentioned. 

Reportedly, since early April the detainees have been transferred regularly from the Bata Public Prison to several unofficial places of detention, including the Presidential Palace "Africa" in Bata and an isolated house on a beach near the village of Utonde. The fact that nobody has known of their whereabouts has led to fears that some of them may have died in custody. 

According to Amnesty International, the trial was "marked by serious human rights violations and abuse of procedure, such as the use of confessions extracted under torture and which the defendants retracted in court, the court's disregard of allegations of torture by defendants despite visible marks of torture on their bodies, the absence of adequate defence as lawyers for the defence had only one day to examine specific charges made against their clients, and the lack of independence of the court as its members were appointed by the authorities". 

There is no gainsaying that the government of President Obiang has stuck to power using all means since his military coup in 1979. The most notable publications, radio stations and limited television service are all in the hands of the governing party, which is unwilling to loosen its grip. The opposition very rarely has access to it. Self-censorship is the rule in the government press, to such an extent that a local journalist commented: "a comma in the wrong place can cause a journalist of the official press to have his salary suspended". 

According to a report by the French media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), the country has one of the most repressive policies for the press media in Africa. Several journalists, political leaders and association heads have complained of increasing difficulties in accessing the Internet. Illegal phone tapping has increased and the country's sole Internet provider closely monitors almost all electronic communications. The situation has only deteriorated since the beginning of the political trial in May 2002.  

The trial of 144 political opponents accused of plotting against the government is one of the most significant political trials in Equatorial Guinea's recent history. The press, however, has been widely excluded from covering the trial. According to the RSF, the available places in the courtroom are reserved primarily for journalists from the State press making it very difficult for non-state journalists. The few who have access to the trial face insidious attacks from the presidential guards and members of the security forces on almost a daily basis. 

On 2 June 2002, Rodrigo Angue Nguema, a correspondent for Agence France Presse (AFP), the BBC and the Pan African News Agency (PANA), was unable to attend the trial's ninth hearing. Police officers and presidential security guards prevented him from entering the courtroom, allegedly because the journalist had used a sidewalk that the police had "sealed off", even though he showed his press card to police officers. 

The previous evening, on 1 June 2002, presidential security guards threatened to bar Nguema and Pedro Nolasco Ndong, president of the Equatorial Guinea Press Association (APSOGE), from entering the court if they continued to "have contact" with the accused. Nguema like several others was seen as paying too much attention to the brutal treatment of the defendants. 

In a statement, the former Special Representative, Mr Gustavo Gallón noted that nothing had changed in Equatorial Guinea that could justify the adoption of the UN resolution; only the composition of the Commission had changed during the last year. Questioning the basis for the vote that ended in the termination of his mandate, Mr Gallón stated that the Commission endorsed facts and statements that are at odds with reality, such as the one stating that the Government of Equatorial Guinea had ratified the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 

It was apparent that either the EU was not consulted by the African Group, or the EU was not serious about human rights violations in Equatorial Guinea. When Nigeria registered the resolution on Assistance to Equatorial Guinea in the field of human rights (2002/11) at the last minute, the EU did not have any draft resolution on Equatorial Guinea. 

The resolution was drafted to ensure a win-win situation for Equatorial Guinea - its rejection would have led to the termination of the Special Representative's mandate anyway. Spain, on behalf of the EU, introduced an amendment that would have changed operative paragraph 5 to provide for the appointment of an Independent Expert (to replace the mandate of the Special Representative) for the purpose of monitoring technical assistance provided to Equatorial Guinea. 

If the unprecedented amendment proposed by the EU had been adopted, Equatorial Guinea would still have got off lightly.

That technical assistance may be sought by States to get off the human rights monitoring hook has once again proven successful.