Oral Statement by Ms. Virginie Mouanda, International Federation for the Protection of the Rights of Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic and Other Minorities.

Mr. Chairperson,

I am making this statement on behalf of the IFPRERLOM and would like to draw attention to one of the world’s longest, but least reported, armed conflicts, namely that of the Cabinda province, in Angola.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch states that military operations of Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) have included “serious and widespread violations of human rights and humanitarian law against the civilian population” and asserts that the FAA continues, “to commit violations against civilians with almost complete impunity.” (Available at: http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/angola/2004/1204/). Amongst the human rights abuses documented in the report are; extra-judicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, mistreatment, sexual violence and the denial of civilian freedom of movement. Human Rights Watch maintains that neither the FAA nor the Angolan National Police have proceeded to investigate or prosecute abuses against civilians in which the Angolan army has been implicated.

Other reports by local civil society organisations and international NGOs continue to portray a grim and worrying picture of the human rights situation in the enclave of Cabinda. A report by the Mpalabanda Civic Association (MACC) (Mpalabanda Associacao Civica de Cabinda (MACC)), titled “A Reign of Impunity”, details around 70 alleged violations, including murder, rape, intimidation and illegal detentions committed against men, women and children between September 2003 and December 2004. Quoted by the BBC, a MACC spokesperson stated: “We’re talking about women and children being raped, we’re talking about putting people in jail only because they are from Cabinda.” (Angolan Army ‘abuses Cabindans’, BBC News- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4228785.stm)

Mr. Chairperson, our organisation acknowledges the fact that one of the thematic mandates of this Commission was invited to visit Angola, including the enclave of Cabinda, in August 2004. In her mission report Ms. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human defenders, notes that: “Fear of reprisals against human rights workers … continue[s] to be a serious obstacle to active engagement by the population in human rights activities… In Cabinda, in particular, defenders were very much on the defensive during meetings and several later confessed that they feared reprisals for having met with the Special Representative.”(E/CN.4/2005/101/Add.2) Ms. Jilani affirmed that “… the judiciary is entirely absent from many parts of the country and is frequently ineffective as an independent guarantor of the law”, and additionally voiced concern over the high number of government troops in the enclave, commenting that human rights violations continued to occur because of the close proximity of the military to civilian populations.

We hereby call on the Commission to urge the government of Angola to take all appropriate steps to ensure that the FAA act in accordance with Angola’s obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law and to allow civil society to operate freely in accordance with international human rights treaties to which Angola is party.

In view of a recent initiative by Cabinda representatives from FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) and local civil society organisations (In August 2004 the “Forum Cabindes para o Dialogo” was founded to establish a common interlocutor to negotiate conflict resolution and the future political status of Cabinda with the Angolan government. More info available at: http://www.unpo.org/member.php?arg=13), we appeal to this Commission to encourage Angola to begin a process of genuine dialogue leading to substantive negotiations, with the purpose of resolving the Cabinda issue peacefully.

Our organisation finally calls upon the Angolan government to extend an open-ended standing invitation to the thematic mandates of the Commission, to demonstrate a genuine commitment to human rights.

Thank you.

Source: OHCHR