Winds are Blowing in Equatorial Guinea

November 4, 2011

Source: Human Rights Watch

Concern over politically motivated arrest of opposition member ahead of referendum

The government of Equatorial Guinea should immediately release an opposition party member and civil society activist arrested on November 1, 2011, in what appeared to be a politically motivated act, Human Rights Watch and EG Justice said today. Marcial Abaga Barril, the representative of the main opposition party on the national electoral body, was detained without a warrant outside of his home, allegedly in connection with a murder investigation. 

Abaga's arrest and detention comes just days after the start of campaigning for a Nov. 13 referendum to approve constitutional changes proposed by President Teodoro Obiang's government. Abaga's party has strongly opposed the constitutional changes. Sources close to him said that on the day of his arrest he had been helping to plan a series of public events to press for a "no" vote on the referendum. 

"Marcial Abaga's politically motivated arrest is yet another example of President Obiang's offensive against opposition voices," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The allegation that Abaga is connected with a murder simply has no credibility." 

The Obiang government has sought to silence those opposed to the referendum. Uniformed police officers and others in plainclothes disrupted events held this week by Abaga's party, Convergence for Social Democracy (Convergencia Para la Democracia Social, CPDS), and forced the participants to disperse, a witness told EG Justice, a US-based group that works for human rights and the rule of law in Equatorial Guinea. 

Abaga is on the party's national executive committee. It is one of only two political parties in the country that are independent of the governing party. He is a municipal council member in Malabo and also sits on the National Electoral Commission of Equatorial Guinea as the representative of his party. The electoral body, which is dominated by the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (Partido Democrático de Guinea Ecuatorial, PDGE) and representatives of allied parties, lacks the independence necessary to oversee votes impartially, Human Rights Watch and EG Justice said. 

Human Rights Watch and EG Justice emphasized that there is no independent judiciary in Equatorial Guinea. The government commonly carries out arbitrary arrests and denies detainees due process, holding them indefinitely without telling them the charges against them. Basic fair trial standards are disregarded. Torture remains a serious problem despite a national law prohibiting it. Abaga has not reported being ill-treated, according to the sources. 

The constitutional changes coming up for a November 13 vote would potentially allow 69-year-old Obiang to serve for two more terms of seven years each. They also would create a new post for a hand-picked vice president, widely considered to be intended for his eldest son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, who is his presumed successor. 

The younger Obiang has been the subject of corruption and money-laundering investigations in France, Spain, and the United States. These investigations have so far led to the seizure of a fleet of luxury vehicles outside his Paris residence and a US government effort to seize more than $70 million in assets. 

In October, the president appointed the younger Obiang, known as Teodorín, to head the ruling party's campaign to promote the referendum. In 2010, Teodorín was made the vice president of the ruling party. 

Equatorial Guinea has been roundly criticized for its conduct of elections. President Obiang was re-elected in November 2009 with 95.4 percent of the vote in an election with weak international monitoring, raising "the suspicion of systematic voting fraud," according to the US State Department. Ahead of the vote, the government stifled and harassed the country's beleaguered political opposition, denied the opposition equal access to the media, and imposed serious constraints on international observers. 

Abaga also is active as the head of a youth organization engaged in human rights education, Sensation of the Young Future (Sensación del Joven Futuro, SEJOF). And he is an advocate for greater transparency about the government's management of oil revenue through participation in the international Publish What You Pay Coalition and the now-defunct National Commission for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Equatorial Guinea was a candidate country for membership in EITI until 2010, when it was expelled from the initiative. 

Abaga was detained outside his home at approximately 10 p.m. on November 1, by plainclothes security officials who said they were from the police but did not provide an explanation for the arrest other than to say they needed to question him as part of an investigation, a family member said. He was taken to the Malabo jail known as "Guantánamo" because of its reputation for abuses against detainees, where he has had access to visits from family members, colleagues, and his lawyer. Equatorial Guinea's law allows for a suspect to be held in detention without charge for up to 72 hours. 

Sources close to Abaga said he was informed on the afternoon of November 2 - more than 12 hours after he was detained - that he was being held in connection with a police investigation into an alleged killing two weeks earlier of a cook working for President Obiang. No such incident had previously been publicly reported. Abaga firmly denies the allegation, which Human Rights Watch and EG Justice described as implausible.

The Vampire of Francophone Africa

October 24, 2011
By Christian Mbouende

The government of France has for too long dealt with Africa in inconsiderate, disgraceful and unrepentantly diabolic ways. This was recently repeated during and after the recent presidential election in Cameroon. This government is a disgrace to humanity and its people. Their filthy ways is of the highest degree for a nation who has made a place in the world at the expense of Africans by extortion, deceit, blood shedding, killings, wars, division, oppression and other diabolic devices which have contributed to keep Africa from progressing and in constant deprivation. In all confidence, the devil itself must be drawing lessons in diabolism from this government. 

This government of a country that advertises itself as the example of human refinement in intellect, fashion, mannerism and good living has been a disgrace to its people and humanity as it continues one administration after another to work on its eternal goal of sucking Africa of its God's blessings, by any necessary means, both in peace and war times which it orchestrates at will to meet its materialistic and financial aims. But the so called peace times in countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Gabon, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Algeria, until recently Tunisia and Rwanda, and many more have only been opportune times for this government and the dictators it has handpicked to tyrannize a truly peaceful people who simply demands to live in dignity and freedom in their lands and to choose their own destiny. Whenever the aims of this imperialistic government are not achievable in Africa in periods of stability it would ignite wars and chaos to assert greater influence and extort. The French government for nearly half a century has maintained defense treaties with African dictators in order to discourage internal rebellion, when in fact the only defense French speaking Africa truly needs is to be freed from the tyranny of its dictators and of the French government. Of course, those dictators too are subjected to the sanguinary might of France if they no longer meet the objectives of France. 

President Obama coming to the White House gave many Africans hope that France tyranny toward Africa can subside. It's clear that he has tried behind the scene to influence the current French administration to allow Africans to get rid of their dictators if they choose to. This diabolic and nearly century old ways the French government has continuously dealt with Africa is clearly a well-entrenched and hugely lucrative habit it is not ready to let go as the recent upheavals in Tunisia and Ivory Coast and its approval of and involvement in rigged presidential elections in Gabon and just recently Cameroon confirm. In Gabon it has manipulated the last presidential election result with the use of its sophisticated technology to put into the presidency the son of the deceased dictator who ruled Gabon for several decades with an iron fist and the full support of the many successive French administrations. Last week, after less than a third of Cameroonians voted in presidential election which is considered with undeniable and abundant evidences by most observers, independent news medias and opposition parties as non-transparent and pervasively imbued with massive frauds, irregularities, logistical nightmares and unfair rules, the French government from Paris was quick to assert its opinion by declaring the election to have been acceptable and without serious concern, this in its attempts to influence public opinion in order to maintainin in power the ruler of Cameroon of the past 29 years. Within short time after that the American ambassador in Cameroon before a news conference asserted a totally different opinion of the election by declaring that the election was full of irregularities and the results were unreliable. The next day the French government recanted its prior statement by nearly reasserting the opinion of the American ambassador. Well, this is simply another case of the French government being caught with its pant down in its dealings with Africa, and the sight of it is never pretty.

Any followers of Africa's events understand that without the assistance of the French government most of Africa's dictators would not be long lasting and without those dictators who do not reflect any modernism let alone any viable legacy for their decades long reign, Africa would be confidently marching toward a meritocratic and progressive society and its best talents would find it viable to return to and remain in Africa to pursue their aspirations without being subjected to constant fear of persecution, bureaucratic nightmares, corruption at every level of daily life and from its sham institutions, tribalism, mediocrity, disregard of human and property rights, imprisonment without charge and judgement, kidnapping, lawlessness frequently perpetrated by those expected to legislate, judge and enforce the law. 

I am confident that this American administration will continue to pressure the evil French government to mend its way toward Africa. But, lasting change will be possible if the French people become less tolerant of this state of affairs for the sake of our common humanity. There are many Africans, their children and wives who are French citizens, they too must awake and organize and participate in the politics of France and help stop this ever insatiable monster that is their government, the diabolic government of France. And Africans living under this tyranny on the daily basis must accept that this evil will not depart from them as long as they remain fractured, unwilling to bond together for the common purpose of liberating themselves.