Amnesty International Report 2017/18

74

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

The continuing economic crisis precipitated 

popular discontent with the MPLA. Because 

of the economic crisis, the government 

adopted a development model for agri-

business mega projects, large-scale land 

acquisition, and dispossession of rural 

communities, which put community 

livelihoods at risk.

Political intolerance was increasingly 

normalized due, in part, to government 

indifference to sectarian violence in Monte 

Belo in Benguela province. Following the 

signing in 2002 of the peace agreement 

between the government and UNITA, the 

area became an enclave of political conflict 

with increasing polarization of and violence 

between MPLA and UNITA supporters. 

Monte Belo residents continued to suffer 

persecution, violence, death threats, 

intimidation and looting on grounds of 

suspected allegiance to one or other of the 

political parties. Despite public objections 

from civil society, the government allowed a 

culture of impunity and violent political 

intolerance to develop.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

To silence critics, particularly journalists and 

academics, the authorities used defamation 

laws among others, restricting freedom of 

expression and access to information. The 

misuse of the justice system and other state 

institutions in order to silence critics 

remained commonplace. The “Press Law 

Pack” of five bills was passed by Parliament 

in January; it included Press Law, Journalist’s 

Statute, Radio Broadcasting Law, Television 

Law and Social Communications Regulatory 

Body Law.

The laws contained provisions that 

restricted freedom of expression, particularly 

press freedoms, through a series of 

prohibitive regulations on social 

communication and by establishing a 

communications regulatory body with 

oversight competencies, including the power 

to determine whether or not a given 

communication met good journalistic 

practices; this amounted to prior censorship 

and hindrance of the free flow of ideas and 

opinions.

The majority of the regulatory body’s 

members were nominated by MPLA, the 

party with the most seats in the National 

Assembly, which caused concerns as to the 

body’s independence and impartiality.

On 20 June, Rafael Marques de Morais, 

investigative journalist and editor of the online 

publication Maka Angola, and Mariano Brás 

Lourenço, journalist and editor for O Crime

newspaper, were charged with “defamation 

of a public authority” and causing “outrage to 

a sovereign body” in relation to an article they 

published questioning the acquisition of 

public land by the General Public Prosecutor.

FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

The authorities frequently refused to allow 

peaceful demonstrations to take place, even 

though prior authorization was not required in 

law. When demonstrations did take place, 

police often arbitrarily arrested, detained and 

ill-treated peaceful protesters. However, no 

investigations were initiated into the police 

actions.

On 24 February, police violently repressed 

two peaceful protests by the Angolan 

Revolutionary Movement taking place 

simultaneously in Luanda, the capital, and 

Benguela. The protesters demanded the 

resignation of Bornito de Sousa, Minister of 

Territorial Administration, who was in charge 

of electoral registration for the August 

election and was also the MPLA’s vice-

presidential candidate; these roles were seen 

as amounting to a conflict of interests and to 

a violation of the electoral law. After 

handcuffing and forcing the protesters to lie 

down, the police beat them with batons.

On 24 June, security forces violently 

dispersed a peaceful demonstration 

organized by the Lunda-Tchokwe 

Protectorate Movement, which campaigned 

for autonomy for the eastern and 

southeastern regions in Lunda Norte 

province. Security forces used live 

ammunition against demonstrators, killing a 

bystander, and injuring 13 protesters. They 

arrested 70 people; on 28 June, they were 

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

75

sentenced each to 45 days’ imprisonment 

and a fine of 22,000 kwanzas (USD135). 

Those who paid the fines had their sentences 

suspended and were released immediately 

while the others served their full prison terms. 

The protesters were calling for, among other 

things, an end to persecution and arbitrary 

imprisonment of their members, and for the 

release of political prisoners in Kakanda 

Prison in Lunda Norte.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Repression of the right to freedom of 

association persisted. The space in which 

human rights defenders, political activists, 

journalists, broadcasters and civil society 

organizations could exercise their civil and 

political rights was increasingly restricted. On 

11 July, however, the Constitutional Court 

struck down the NGO law which had 

been passed by presidential decree No. 

74/15 in 2015. The law had restricted the 

legal framework within which NGOs could 

operate, and empowered the Public 

Prosecutor’s Office to suspend national and 

international NGO activities on suspicion of 

money laundering, or illegal or harmful acts 

against “Angola’s sovereignty and integrity”. 

The decree imposed burdens on civil society 

organizations, including excessive 

requirements and unwieldly procedures for 

NGO registration; excessive control over NGO 

activities; funding restrictions and sanctions.

UNFAIR TRIALS

On 25 September, six people, five of whom 

had been held in prolonged pre-trial 

detention for one year, were brought to trial 

before Luanda Provincial Court on charges of 

“organizing terrorism”. However, the trial was 

adjourned the same day when the Public 

Prosecutor failed to appear in court alleging 

health reasons. The Court granted the 

substitute prosecutor’s plea to be allowed 

more time so that he could familiarize himself 

with the case. Five of the accused remained 

in detention while a sixth, the wife of one of 

the detained, remained under house arrest at 

the end of the year.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

In March, the government proposed an 

amendment to legislation under the Penal 

Code which would de-criminalize abortion in 

cases where a woman’s pregnancy was the 

result of rape, or when the pregnant woman’s 

health was at risk. Parliament rejected the 

proposal. The final parliamentary vote on the 

legislation was scheduled for later the same 

month, but was postponed indefinitely 

following a public outcry against Parliament’s 

rejection of the government’s proposal to 

liberalize the abortion laws.

LAND DISPUTES

Ongoing land acquisition for business, mainly 

in southern provinces of Cunene and Huíla, 

continued to devastate local communities 

who relied on the land for their livelihoods.

In April and May, the government of Huíla 

presented its Transhumance Project, which 

included plans to appropriate a water 

fountain used by the community of Capela de 

Santo António in the Kahila area of Gambos 

municipality. Capela de Santo António is 

home to 600 families who depended on the 

fountain for drinking water, and for their 

livestock and irrigation. The community was 

not consulted over the plans and the 

authorities did not conduct an environmental 

impact assessment. The government of Huíla 

remained determined to seize the 

community's water fountain in violation of the 

Constitution and laws including the Land Law 

and the Environmental Law.

In June, it came to light that the Angolan 

government had authorized the Agro-

Industrial Horizonte 2020 mega project to 

appropriate 76,000 hectares of fertile land 

without the free, prior and informed consent 

of the affected communities. The land is in 

the west of Ombadja municipality and the 

south of Curoca municipality, both in Cunene 

province. It is home to 39 communities of 

2,129 families with 10,675 children who live 

by the Cunene River. They have historically 

relied on agriculture and livestock for their 

livelihoods. By the end of the year, vegetation 

on 15,000 hectares had been destroyed, 

including trees used for food and firewood, 

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