Church implicated in forced removals

The Angolan government and the Catholic Church have been slated in a report by rights group Amnesty International for the eviction of thousands of people in the capital, Luanda.

Amnesty International's report, 'Lives in ruins, forced evictions continue', covering the period from 2001 until May 2006, said the cycle of evictions in the oil- and diamond-rich country - "nearly always without notification to the families affected" - had intensified since 2001. "Tens of thousands have been left without shelter, with hundreds of families still living their lives in ruins."

The Kilamba Kiaxi area of the capital had experienced waves of demolitions to make way for the development of public and private housing projects since 2004, and although the ruling MPLA government acknowledged in 2006 that it needed to review the housing needs of the city, so far "none of the affected residents of Kilamba Kiaxi has received compensation or alternative adequate accommodation."

Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme, said in the report, "Disturbingly, many forced evictions in the last two years have been carried out apparently at the request of the Catholic Church."

The alleged complicity of the Catholic Church in forced removals in Luanda's Wenji Maka neighbourhood refers to land owned by the Church before Angola's independence in 1975 and returned to the Church in 1998 at the request of the late Pope John Paul II. Thousands of families had settled on this church land in since independence.

"When granting the land title to the Catholic Church [in 1998], Angolan authorities reportedly did not take into consideration those people already living on the land, and national police have repeatedly tried to expel over 2,000 families in the area where the Catholic Church intends to build a sanctuary," the report said.

The Angolan government and country representatives of the Catholic Church could not be reached for comment.

According to Amnesty International, the Archbishop of Luanda asked the government to provide land in other areas for those being evicted from the Church land. The Church alleged "that in many instances individuals put up constructions on land when they found out that the Church had intentions to use the land."

The Archbishop of Luanda told Amnesty International that the Church rationalised its actions with the phrase: "Absolute justice can result in injustice."

Hondora dismissed this reasoning, saying, "The Catholic Church should not ask the Angolan authorities to evict people occupying land to which the Church has been granted title."

Amnesty International's Angola researcher, Muluka-Anne Miti, said the government was obliged by both its own laws and international treaties to provide alternative housing for evictees, and the rights group was calling for a moratorium on all further evictions "until policies are put in place to protect these people" and those already evicted had been provided with housing.

Angola emerged from a 27-year civil war in 2002, but since the onset of peace the country's huge reserves of oil, diamonds and other natural resources have drawn international corporations seeking business opportunities to Luanda, in turn attracting workers in search of jobs and adding to pressure on the existing housing stock.

During the civil war Luanda's population swelled to about 4.5 million from a pre-independence population of about 500,000 as people fled to the city from the rural areas. About half the 16 million people of the southwest African country have access to clean drinking water, while life expectancy is about 40 years, according to UNAIDS. More than two-thirds of the people live on US$2 or less a day, and 4 million of those survive on US$0.75 or less a day.

A report published in 2006 by the nongovernmental organisations Christian Aid and SOS Habitat, which advocates for housing rights, said the evictions were overseen by the Angolan authorities, acting in concert with private security companies, and "extreme violence" was often used to force families from their homes.

"The houses were then razed to the ground by bulldozers, often with the family's possessions still inside, including ID cards and school books, which has resulted in some children being unable to continue their education," the report said.

Sian Curry, of Christian Aid, told IRIN that poor neighbourhoods were being replaced with middle-class suburbs to accommodate a burgeoning expatriate community, where new houses being sold for about US$500,000 and were beyond the reach of poor people.

UN resident coordinator Pierre-François Pirlot said Angola faced tremendous reconstruction challenges in the aftermath of three decades of civil war and some progress regarding eviction practices had been made in the last few years, such as some alternative housing being built for those evicted.

"Where before people were forcibly removed and in some cases shot, [the process has evolved] ... to negotiations [with the evictees], to finding alternative housing," he said. "But further progress can be made."

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