Cabinda activists complain of harassment

Civil rights activists in Angola's Cabinda province on Tuesday complained of ongoing harassment by the authorities in the troubled oil-rich northern enclave. Over the weekend some 1,500 activists were prevented from launching an organisation that would call for a peaceful solution to ongoing hostilities in region and monitor alleged human rights abuses. According to Agostinho Chikaia, who heads the Mpalapanda Civic Association (MCA), the police and government on Sunday cordoned off access to a soccer stadium in Cabinda city, the venue for the launch. "We had conformed to all the legal requirements. The provincial authorities were told about the launch and they approved it. We cannot understand why the police and FAA were present because we had followed procedures," Chikaia told IRIN. Civic rights groups have over the past two years raised the alarm over alleged rights abuses in the province, noting a rise in civilian causalities because of ongoing hostilities between the army and secessionist rebels. Chikaia said the MCA would further the work of the Ad-hoc Commission for Human Rights in Cabinda - a group of lawyers, academics and NGO activists - who had over the last two years released detailed reports chronically allegations of rights abuses in the province. "There has been no improvement in the situation despite the government's pronouncements that it is working towards a peaceful solution. The MCA will continue to work to encourage dialogue not only between all the major stakeholders. It will continue to report on human rights violations," Chikaia said. Meanwhile Rafael Marques, the Angola representative of the pro-democracy NGO, Open Society, condemned the latest move by the provincial authorities saying it was a "clear violation of freedom of association". "It is ironic that as the government is preparing to establish a national commission to address human rights issues that there are ongoing violation in Cabinda. This signals that the government is not committed to improving its human rights record, especially in Cabinda," Marques told IRIN. Separatist rebels have been battling the central government since Angola achieved independence in 1975. They claim the enclave has its own distinct and separate identity, history and culture, and that it has been illegally occupied by the ruling MPLA government since 1975.