Angolan Authorities Move to Keep Downtown Luanda Free of Demonstrations
Angola banned public protests in the capital’s Independence Square and said they may only take place on the outskirts of Luanda, Radio Nacional de Angola reported, citing a provincial government statement.
Police in sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer arrested 41 protesters this month during demonstrations against President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s 32-year rule, corruption and water shortages. A Luanda court sentenced 18 of the detainees to from 45 days to three months in jail after they were found guilty of injuring police officers and defying the authorities.
The statement listed several places around Luanda where protests may be held legally, the state-run radio said today. “Protests outside those places will be disobedience,” it said.
Bento Bento, a member of the political bureau of dos Santos’s ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, yesterday accused the largest opposition party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, of planning an “insurrection” in several cities to oust the government.
Unita, in a statement, dismissed the accusations as “an attempt to divert attention from the grave social issues Angolans are suffering and the government’s lack of capacity to deal with them.”
Unita fought a civil war for almost three decades against the MPLA. The conflict ended in 2002, following the death of the group’s leader, Jonas Savimbi.
Spark Instability
Angolan Foreign Minister Georges Chicoty said the government was concerned the protests may spark instability.
“We have a country with several ethnic groups, various political sensibilities and what happens if everyone takes to the street to protest?” Chicoty was cited as saying by the Portuguese newspaper Expresso on Sept. 14. “It is true that we will accept some protests, but we must be careful for this not to get out of hand.”
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the government to drop what it called “politically motivated charges” against the protesters.
“Unfair trials of demonstrators are not the answer to the legitimate reform demands of citizens,” Daniel Bekele, Human Rights Watch’s africa director, said in a Sep. 14 statement. “The authorities should respect the right to peacefully demonstrate and impartially investigate violence against demonstrators.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Candido Mendes in Luanda at cmendes6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
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