Human rights abuses denounced

Since 1979 (when former ruler Macias Nguema was overthrow), Equatorial Guinea has been building a democracy that respects human rights, Prime Minister Candido Muatetema told the UN Commission on Human Rights on 6 April. Four days later, rights advocates denounced fresh abuses by the military against the inhabitants of Batate on Bioko Island, where the capital, Malabo, is situated. According to the Asociacion para la Solidaridad Democratica con Guinea Ecuatorial (ASODEGUE), soldiers beat up villagers after youths from Batete stoned a policeman who had slapped the village headman and a local councillor. The two officials had tried to mediate in an altercation that broke out between the policeman and a local taxi driver following a dispute between the latter and a woman of the Fang ethnic group. The Fang form the overwhelming majority of Equatorial Guinea’s people and rulers, but most of the people of the island of Bioko are from a different ethnic group, the Bubi. ASODEGUE reported that soldiers stripped and beat the headman, councillor and other members of the community. They also extorted money from villagers as well as some nuns and a group of Ghanaians who were building a school in the area. The district commissioner of the area tried to restrain them but they called him a “little Bubi” and ignored him, according to ASODEGUE. There is no sustained rule of law in Equatorial Guinea, according to the UN special representative for that country, Gustavo Gallon. In a report he presented at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Gallon said the military and the ruling party exercised various de facto and de jure powers to control the population. This has led to continued arbitrary arrest and detention, he said. Gallon had to base his report on information he received from people in Spain with ties to Equatorial Guinea because the government refused to allow him to visit the country and did not respond to his requests for information. However, Muatetema told the commission his government was committed to recognising and promoting the human rights of all the country’s people. Authorities, he said, were prevented from infringing on people’s rights. He also asked for international technical assistance to help his government implement provisions of international human rights instruments.