Opposition politicians arrested

Equatorial Guinean authorities arrested on Thursday the Secretary General of the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy party (CPDS), Placido Mico Abogo, released him the following day but immediately placed him under house arrest, news agencies reported. The arrest was part of a widespread crackdown on the opposition on charges ranging from "breach of national security” to “ Insulting the head of state", PANA reported. Abogo was arrested from a meeting with other party leaders and the Interior Minister Clement Engonga. He was accused of involvement in a plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in October 2001. Ten days earlier, Fabian Nsue Nguema, the leader of the opposition party, the Popular Union (UP), was imprisoned for "insulting the head of state." A UN official reported recently that massive detentions of political opponents had occurred since March in Equatorial Guinea. Gustavo Gallon Giraldo, the former UN special representative for Equatorial Guinea, said that the human rights situation in the country "was still serious" and deserved close monitoring." However the UN Commission on Human Rights terminated Giraldo’s mandate on 19 April, and instead resolved to "encourage the government of Equatorial Guinea to implement a national human rights action plan". A representative of Equatorial Guinea told the commission that "in recent years there had been no politically motivated disappearances or arrests, arbitrary detentions, political kidnappings, ethnic violence or discrimination against ethnic groups, and the political system had been transformed". Amnesty International however warned in a report issued in mid-April that ending the mandate of the special representative in Equatorial Guinea was likely to compound the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.