Luanda offers apology over expelled miners

Angola has apologised for the treatment of Congolese miners during a recent crackdown on illegal diamond traffickers in the country, acknowledging that "excesses" were committed by soldiers. "These excesses provoked harmful repercussions, which we regret, and for which we offer a public apology," Angola's official Journal de Angola newspaper quoted interior minister Osvaldo Serra Van-Dunem as saying on Monday. Some 10,000 illegal diamond miners from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been expelled from Angola since December 2003 as part of the government's campaign to clean up the diamond mining industry. However, a DRC rights group, Voice of the Voiceless (VOV), raised the alarm over alleged rights abuses soon after the expulsions took place. VOV reported that Angolan troops and civilians had subjected many of the Congolese to beatings and death threats. "Many of returnees told us that they had experienced some form of violence. In one case, one of the miners crossed the border after Angolan soldiers had amputated one of his arms. These people were treated as subhuman," Dolly Ibefo, vice-president of the rights body, told IRIN. Although Voice of the Voiceless welcomed the apology, "it was not enough", Ibefo said. He noted: "We are glad that the government has apologised, but the returnees need some assistance now that they have arrived home. Most of them arrived with nothing - there was no time for them to even take their personal belongings. Some of those who fled are now stranded in villages along the border. They have no funds which they can use for transportation." The Angolan authorities in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, had been alerted to the situation, "but until now there hasn't been any solution", said Ibefo. "We would call on the Angolans to cease the expulsions immediately." According to official figures, about 700 illegal diamond miners known as 'garimpeiros', including 334 foreigners, have been arrested in the central Bie province since last year. It is believed that the majority of traffickers in Angola are from the DRC, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone.