Police are rounding up peaceful activists and accusing them of
responsibility in a deadly attack on the Togo team bus as it headed
to the African Cup of Nations, an Angolan human rights lawyer said
on Tuesday.
Martinho Nombo said five people arrested over the last week
were not related to the separatist group that has claimed
responsibility for the Jan. 8 attack that killed three people and
wounded eight. Authorities already had arrested two members of the
Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC).
"But the five others that have been arrested have nothing to
do with FLEC," Nombo told The Associated Press. "They are just
intellectuals who are expressing opinions the government doesn't
share. And as soon as somebody criticizes the government, he is
tagged as a FLEC member."
Cabindan prosecutor Antonio Nito was not available for
comment on Tuesday. The government of the southern African country
has denied previous charges from international human rights groups
that its military has committed atrocities in Cabinda. The unruly,
oil-rich outpost shares no borders with the Angolan mainland.
Nombo said that one of the men arrested, economics professor
Belchior Tati, asked Nombo to be his lawyer but that police have
refused access to Tati in jail.
Nombo's concerns were echoed in a Tuesday statement from
London-based rights group Amnesty International.
"Amnesty International calls on the government to ensure that
this deplorable incident is not used as an excuse to violate the
rights of citizens in Cabinda through arbitrary arrests and
detentions or any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,"
said Erwin Van Der Borght, Amnesty's Africa director.
Nombo said he fears he may be the next to be arrested, but
said he was undeterred by the threat.
"I'm a free man. They can deny me my right to be a proper
citizen, they will never stop me expressing ideas," he said.
Cabinda's armed groups have been weakened by factional
fighting. But periodic announcements from the Angolan government
that the Cabinda uprising has been quelled - either by force or
negotiations - have been followed by new outbreaks of violence.
Nombo said many in Cabinda seek more autonomy from the
Angolan mainland. The small coastal enclave is north of Angola,
wedged between Congo and the much smaller Republic of Congo.
Cabinda is Angola's main oil-producing region, and Angola is
one of Africa's top oil producers. But the people of Cabinda remain
poor despite the oil revenues, and human rights groups have
repeatedly accused the government of hiding oil money, making it
impossible to trace.
