VII. Abuses by the Angolan Armed Forces

This chapter details key human rights violations committed by the Angolan Armed Forces against persons detained under the charge of “crimes against the security of the state” and related crimes since September 2007.

Arbitrary Arrests

The 20 detainees interviewed at Yabi prison and lawyers of those and other detainees told Human Rights Watch that all were arrested without warrants, most of them by the military. Arrests without a warrant are permitted under Angolan law when the persons are caught in the act of which they are accused, but the arrests need to be validated by the public prosecutor on the same day, or within five days maximum, when a public prosecutor cannot be reached immediately.[15] This time limit is often exceeded in Angola, as even the Cabinda public prosecutor conceded to Human Rights Watch.[16]

According to the detainees, lawyers, and legal counsel, none of those arrested was apprehended in combat situations or with arms alleged to have been used in guerrilla attacks, nor were the detainees presented to any authorized magistrate immediately following their arrest, as required by law. Lelo was presented with an arrest warrant, with no issuing authority, at his work place in Cabinda and was taken in handcuffs to the military section of São Paulo prison in Luanda, where he was held for more than three months before being transferred back to Cabinda on March 30, 2008. Most of the detainees arrested in villages said they were arrested following a guerrilla attack that had taken place close to their village or several villages away. In addition, several detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were arrested when they presented themselves to the authorities, either because they had heard a military commander was looking for them at their homes, were seeking information about an arrested relative, or, as in the case of three former FLEC members in the DRC, because they formally announced to the Congolese authorities their intention to return to Cabinda.

Incommunicado Detention

All detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were held incommunicado in military custody for long periods of time—in several cases, for more than 35 days and in some cases for up to 50 days—before being presented to an authorized magistrate (the public prosecutor) and the criminal investigation police and eventually brought to the civilian prison of Yabi. During military custody, they were unable to contact legal counsel or family members. Only Fernando Lelo had access to a lawyer five days after his arrest.

FAA members co-accused with Lelo (but arrested before him) were held incommunicado in military custody for up to six months in Cabinda and Luanda, without access to a legal counsel, until they were transferred to Cabinda on March 30, 2008, brought to the prison at Yabi, and presented to the Cabinda public prosecutor.[17]

Those detainees who were arrested in rural areas told Human Rights Watch that they first were held in different military garrisons and in the FAA headquarters in Cabinda, before eventually being brought to the prison at Yabi and presented to the public prosecutor.[18]

Detainees arrested in the DRC by Congolese intelligence agents said they were first sent to and held in unknown places in the capital, Luanda, before being directly transferred to the FAA headquarters in Cabinda, where they were held for more than three weeks before being presented to the public prosecutor and finally brought to the prison at Yabi.[19]

According to Angolan law, incommunicado detention is allowed until the public prosecutor interrogates the detainee. This must occur on the same day, or within five days maximum. Incommunicado detention can be extended after the first interrogation—for national security crimes for up to 10 days—but only if authorized by the public prosecutor.[20]

Extended incommunicado detention violates the fundamental human rights to humane treatment and access to counsel, as provided under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Angola ratified in 1992.[21] The UN Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly said that incommunicado detention should be prohibited.[22] In addition, Angola’s practice is contrary to the minimum international standards of detention as set out in the UN Standard Minimal Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.[23]

Torture in Military Custody

Many detainees told Human Rights Watch that military officers and soldiers under their command tortured them to force them to incriminate themselves and others. Others said they were threatened that they would be killed unless they “say the truth.” Some were forced to sign written confessions at gunpoint in local military garrisons, before they were transferred to the FAA headquarters in Cabinda city.

All detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch were specific about where and how they were tortured. Several practices of torture and degrading treatment described to Human Rights Watch in March 2009 are consistent with practices documented by Human Rights Watch in 2003—a period when the armed conflict in Cabinda was more intense.[24] A Human Rights Watch researcher saw that most of the detainees had visible scars on their arms near their elbows, consistent with their accounts of having been tied up with cords across their back.

One of the legal counsel of the FAA members convicted along with Lelo in 2008 told Human Rights Watch that his clients were subjected to torture and inhumane treatment—including mock executions, severe injuries with firearms, beatings with various objects, and public humiliation of relatives—in several FAA garrisons. One soldier lost a leg as a result of injuries suffered in military custody.[25] Lelo was the only detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch who said he had not been physically mistreated.

Three other detainees described to Human Rights Watch their treatment by the military as follows:

I slept at the police post, and the morning after, the FAA came to fetch me, and a military security commander took me to the military garrison at Loma. There soldiers tied me up with cords across my back and beat me, shouting ‘because you are FLEC’, ‘because you attacked a car of a company and killed a worker’, ‘You are the head of the group’. I bled a lot. They took me—tied up—to the military garrison at Caio and put me in a hole full of water. I stayed there for 19 days, after which they took me back to Loma where I was presented to a group of senior military. I insisted I was innocent. Then they put me again in the ‘hole’ in Caio where I stayed for another nine days.[26]

They beat me, squeezed my testicles and my tongue with a pincer, telling me to ‘say the truth.’ I cried in pain. They called a nurse to give me an injection. Commander Lacrau then asked, ‘Tell us how many arms the coordinator gave you to attack this car.’[27]

In the village, the military tied our arms up with bootlaces, stripped our shirts, and beat us. I vomited blood. They searched the village for arms and ammunition but didn’t find any. We were taken to the next military garrison in Necuto where they stripped us naked and tied my testicles to a mortar. Then they took us to the military unit at Loma, Buco Zau. There, the military commander, Lacrau, accused me of having taken arms to the village from the city. He gave a guard a weapon and a bucket and told him to dig a grave and execute me. Then he fired a shot in the air and told the guard to lock me in the latrine and tell the others arrested with me that I was dead and the same would happen to them if they didn’t tell the truth… throughout the night military counter-intelligence operatives came to beat us. They threatened us with pistols and knives ‘to tell the truth.’ At some stage we said anything. The beatings were too much. Later we were taken by state security agents and two military in a civilian Land Cruiser to the military garrison at Dinge. There they shouted at us, ‘You are FLEC.’ They beat us with whips and rifle butts and burned our testicles with cigarettes.[28]

Detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were eventually held for varying periods of time under inhumane conditions at the FAA headquarters in Cabinda in a dark, dirty cellar without windows and sanitation facilities, which floods when it rains. This detention facility is commonly known and feared as “the hole.” The FAA spokesperson in Cabinda in March 2008 denied to Human Rights Watch the existence of such a prison.[29] Some detainees said they met military personnel who were being held there for internal disciplinary offenses. Most who had been detained there complained that they were prevented from washing for up to 17 days and defecating for up to five days. A lawyer acting as defense counsel for the six FAA members co-accused with Lelo told Human Rights Watch that the detained FAA members were handcuffed for three months in the “hole,” where they were beaten and often denied food.[30] Another defense lawyer told Human Rights Watch his client was beaten at the FAA headquarters with whips until he fell unconscious.[31]

Former FLEC members arrested in October 2008 in the DRC and transferred to Angola told Human Rights Watch that they were held in the “hole” for long periods of time—between 25 and 30 days—where they were threatened with execution, beaten, and kicked by officials identified only by aliases—“Colonel Walter,” “Major Cafundinho”—and several unidentified military, including military police officers from the FAA headquarters. As a former FLEC member arrested in Cabinda described:

Members of the military police who arrested me threatened to shoot me, tied me up with bootlaces, and took me to the headquarters of the second regional command of the FAA. There, “Major Kafumbira” beat me with metal sticks and rifle butts and shouted “Take off your clothes! We will kill you!” They took my money and ordered me to tell them the names of all the people I work with, whether I knew guerrilla members in the forest, and why I came to the city. Blood poured out of my ears.[32]

The local representative of the Angolan Bar Association (OAA) told Human Rights Watch that 10 people arrested on March 26, 2009 in the village Liambo-Lione (Cacongo municipality) alleged that they were severely beaten by military personnel inside the FAA headquarters. Only five of the men—after 26 days of incommunicado detention—were eventually presented to the public prosecutor. The other five, including the wife of one detainee, were released directly from military custody after five days.[33]

According to Angolan law, only the public prosecutor has the power to interrogate detainees.[34] However, detainees and lawyers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that, in all cases, military intelligence officers carried out interrogations. In addition, military officials in command of interrogation sessions that involved torture, in which some participated actively, never formally identified themselves, either by name or affiliation. Thus, soldiers and commanding officers involved in the torture of detainees are only known by aliases, or noms de guerre, the most quoted being “Colonel Fuchi,” “Colonel Walter,”[35] and “Major Cafundinho.” Some detainees, lawyers, and others told Human Rights Watch that the officers belong to a unit called the Operative Intelligence Group (Grupo Operativo de Inteligência or GOI), created some years ago to coordinate the counter-insurgency activities of Angola’s domestic and military intelligence services in Cabinda.[36] Human Rights Watch could only identify the full name of one well-known senior military officer, Col. António José da Conceição Kambanda, alias “Lacrau,” commander of the Third Infantry Regiment of the FAA, who oversaw the torture of detainees in Buco Zau. Several detainees told Human Rights Watch that some local administrators and military commanders as well as senior military officials tried to intervene on behalf of detainees they perceived to be innocent, but were overruled by Colonel “Lacrau.”

The provincial public prosecutor and former military prosecutor, António Nito, denied having “any knowledge” of unofficial military detention places, as well as interrogations under torture in military custody, and questioned the credibility and accuracy of detainees’ accounts. He told Human Rights Watch: “They would say anything, but this is not sufficient. They have to present evidence and file a legal complaint.”[37] Nevertheless, the accounts collected by Human Rights Watch are remarkably consistent and suggest a systematic pattern of abuse by the Angolan military and intelligence services.

The prohibition on torture is a fundamental principle of international human rights law; torture is prohibited at all times and under all circumstances. Angola has yet to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which obliges states to prevent and sanction acts of torture and other mistreatment. The Angolan government has on several occasions promised to ratify the convention and its optional protocol, which allows international monitoring of detention facilities. It reiterated this promise in its voluntary pledges submitted to the UN General Assembly in May 2007[38] before being elected as a member of the Human Rights Council for 2007-2010.

As a member of the United Nations, Angola has agreed to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which bans all use of torture and other mistreatment.[39] Angola is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, both of which prohibit arbitrary detention and outlaw the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.[40] In addition, Angola is bound by international humanitarian law, the laws of war. Common article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which applies during internal armed conflicts, protects captured combatants and detained civilians against torture and cruel, humiliating, and degrading treatment.

In addition, Angola’s constitution, which is currently under review in parliament, states that “Constitutional and legal norms related to fundamental rights shall be interpreted and integrated harmoniously with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other international instruments to which Angola is party,” and that “In the assessment of disputes by Angolan courts, those international instruments shall apply even when not invoked by parties.”[41] These international instruments place a legal obligation on Angola to end its arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment of detainees in Cabinda.