Os crimes políticos do MPLA e a Fortuna de JES

International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court that tries people accused of committing serious Crimes Against Humanity. It tries people who are accused of committing Genocide or involved in War Crimes.

Communications and claims under art.15 of the Rome Statute may be addressed to:Information and Evidence Unit Office of the Prosecutor Post Office Box 19519 2500 CM
The Hague The Netherlands or sent by email to otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int
or sent by facsimile to +31 70 515 8555

---

The Official List of the Henchmen of the MPLA Regime

TOP 60 RICH PEOPLE IN ANGOLA LIST

Looting the country's riches by liquefying the natural assets of the nation through the creation of companies
under the name of family and members of the ruling elite of the MPLA Regime
 

---

The Rome Statute

Article 15: Prosecutor
1. The Prosecutor may initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.
2. The Prosecutor shall analyse the seriousness of the information received. For this purpose, he or she may seek additional information from States, organs of the United Nations, intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations, or other reliable sources that he or she deems appropriate, and may receive written or oral testimony at the seat of the Court.
3. If the Prosecutor concludes that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, he or she shall submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation, together with any supporting material collected. Victims may make representations to the Pre-Trial Chamber, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
4. If the Pre-Trial Chamber, upon examination of the request and the supporting material, considers that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, and that the case appears to fall within the jurisdiction of the Court, it shall authorize the commencement of the investigation, without prejudice to subsequent determinations by the Court with regard to the jurisdiction and admissibility of a case.
5. The refusal of the Pre-Trial Chamber to authorize the investigation shall not preclude the presentation of a subsequent request by the Prosecutor based on new facts or evidence regarding the same situation.
6. If, after the preliminary examination referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, the Prosecutor concludes that the information provided does not constitute a reasonable basis for an investigation, he or she shall inform those who provided the information. This shall not preclude the Prosecutor from considering further information submitted to him or her regarding the same situation in the light of new facts or evidence.

THE CASE FOR TRIAL OF THE MPLA REGIME AND OF THE DICTATOR
JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS  IN THE HAGUE

We hereby refer the following official document which relates the scale of the crimes, the nature of the crimes, the manner of commission of the crimes, and the impact of the crimes committed by the MPLA Regime directed by the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
The present cases illustrate in detail the true form of state sponsored terror in Cabinda and in Angola. More than one crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court have been committed directly and indirectly sponsored by the MPLA Regime under the direction of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

International Criminal Court

Seat of the Court - The Hague The Netherlands

CRIMES OF THE MPLA REGIME AND OF THE COMMUNIST

DICTATOR JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS

Full Court Case officially Filed
7th February 2011, Seat of the International Criminal Court, Hague Netherlands

Piecing together, the tip of the Iceberg, on the Acts of total state of Criminality.
The MPLA Regime is sponsored by criminal minded international companies (such as Texaco - Chevron) and aided by corrupt governments such as the portuguese state, the failed Republic. Harsh words indeed for an even harsher state of affairs on the ground.

---

THE CASE FOR TRIAL OF THE MPLA REGIME AND OF THE DICTATOR
JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS BY THE UNITED NATIONS

To the Office of the
 High Commissioner for Human Rights

We hereby submit to the United Nations, Human Rights Committee, an Official Communication against the MPLA Regime of Angola.

This process is submitted by virtue of the first Option Protocol relating to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and based on the breach of articles 7, 9, 10 and 14 of the Covenant, relating respectively to the ban on torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to liberty and security, the right of all persons deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person and the right to a fair trial.

We hereby refer the following official document which relates the scale of the crimes, the nature of the crimes, the manner of commission of the crimes, and the impact of the crimes committed by the MPLA Regime directed by the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his cronies.
The present cases illustrate in detail the true form of state sponsored terror in Cabinda, Lunda Tchokwe and in Angola. And several hundreds of crime within the jurisdiction of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and that of the International Criminal Court, this crimes have been committed, and are directly and indirectly sponsored by the MPLA Regime under the direction of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

CRIMES OF THE MPLA REGIME AND OF THE COMMUNIST

DICTATOR JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS

Full Crimes Against Humanity with counts of Genocide,
against the Ibinda, Bakongo and Lunda Tchokwe People, Case officially Filed:
On the 29th of September 2011, at the Head Quarters of the United Nations, New York

Freedom House Africa 2011 Report

The MPLA Regime
Gained Power by Violence and Maintains Power by Terror

To be judged by the Court in accordance to International Law & International Humanitarian Law

" True to their Stalinist roots, the MPLA methodically bought or co-opted its political opposition, and
whom it could not buy, it killed. "
- Margaret Hemenway and Martin James

 “ We came here to kill, to eat, and to assassinate! ”
- A Namibian TV station once aired a news item that featured an MPLA soldier declaring

" Opposition groups are not tolerated by the MPLA, as former Interior Minister Nito Alves made clear. He explained that dissidents would, if possible, be "re-educated", "but the intransigent ones, the most hard-headed, the most obstinate, will have to be eliminated. "
- Black Flag, September 1976, p. 3

" The MPLA and Mr. Jose Eduardo dos Santos, bare direct responsibility for the destruction of the country and the de facto desegregation of all the State institutions. Moreover, Mr. Jose Eduardo dos Santos is directly accountable for the promotion of incompetence, embezzlement and corruption as political and social values. " 
- Rafael Marques: 3 July 1999, The Lipstick of Dictatorship

“Angola is run by criminals”
- Bob Geldof songwriter and organiser of Live Aid at the Conference on sustainable development Lisbon 6 May 2008

"How much you want (in cash) to stop writing and talking about Cabinda", "You must stop writing and talking about the situation in Cabinda, or your physical integrity may be affected." Special envoys of the MPLA Communist unelected Regime who added that "money is not a problem", stressing the point that "also the rest is not a problem either."
- Orlando Castro, Journalist reporting on the 9th of December 2010

"Cuban military intervention in support of the communist MPLA dictatorship in Angola led to decades of civil war that cost 1 million lives."
- Paul Bogdanor

"There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail." 
- M. Gandhi

The Government of the Republic of Cabinda welcomes interested parties in assisting in the presentation of the legal case at The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court in the Hague, against the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
 

 Crimes of the MPLA Regime
non-exhaustive list

Case Publishing Note

CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST THE MPLA REGIME

Page last updated 2 June 2012

Any information that private individuals or any public or private organization, possess and wish to make available to the investigation team, are welcome to send their finding and submit further evident to the: Chief Prosecutor of the Case The Rt. Hon. Mangovo Ngoyo at:  africafederation@gmail.com

The 32 year Old Regime of the MPLA and its military and security forces had committed crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape this state of affairs continues unabated until present times.
 

- CASE No. 1 -

Alberto Chakusanga shot dead by the MPLA Regime on the 6 September 2010

Journalist and Radio presenter gunned down

On the 6 of September 2010 the journalist Alberto Chakusanga, of 31 years old, was assassinated by MPLA agents in the municipality of Viana, Luanda.

Following Sunday’s murder in Angola of Alberto Graves Chakussanga, a radio journalist with a station critical of the ruling unelected MPLA regime, authorities must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation exploring all possible leads and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Chakussanga’s neighbours and relatives found the journalist lying in a corridor of his home in Luanda’s Viana district with a bullet in his back early Sunday morning, according to local journalists. He had been the presenter of a weekly, Umbundu-language news call-in program on private Radio Despertar.
The motive for the killing was not immediately clear. Colleagues told CPJ that the only item missing from the house was a bottle of cooking gas. No arrests have been made.
“We condemn the murder of Alberto Chakussanga,” said Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “We call on Angolan authorities to consider every possible motive for this killing including his journalism.”
Chakussanga had a following with the Ovimbundu, Angola’s largest ethnic group who originate from the south of the country, a stronghold of former rebel movement UNITA, according to local journalists. Radio Despertar was launched in December 2006, under the terms of a 2002 peace deal between the ruling MPLA and UNITA.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Rui Falcão, secretary of information of the MPLA politburo accused Radio Despertar of repeatedly inciting the population to commit “civil disobedience” since Monday in support of the opposition former rebel movement UNITA, according to news reports. The accusations were based on interviews and commentary that criticized the government’s performance. In a press statement today, Radio Despertar rejected the allegations as “unfounded and slanderous,” and asserted its editorial independence. Local journalists said the station has been critical of both UNITA and the authorities, and they allege that the government electronically interferes with its frequency in parts of Luanda.
Chakussanga, 32 years old, was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Agostinho Neto state university and at the Angolan police academy, according to local journalists. A few hours before his death, Chakussanga had left his pregnant wife at a hospital where she gave birth later that day to a baby boy, colleagues said.

- CASE No. 2 -

Assassination of Professor Mfulupinga Lando Victor a major Political Opponent, leader of an opposition party

Professor Mfulupinga Lando Victor (54 years old born in Uige and Professor in the University of Agustino Neto), was assassinated (gun down) by the son of the Chief of Staff of the MPLA armed forces in Luanda in front of all present while leaving from a meeting in Luanda 2004.

This question will remain valid until the competent authorities will publicly disclose the identities of the men who on July 2, 2004 assassinated the founder president of the political party PDP-ANA, Professor M'fulumpinga N'Lando Victor.
Regarding this matter, the newspaper AGORA in its issue No. 484 of 8 July 2006, writes that despite numerous promises made by the justice agencies there has been nothing done yet been to clarified the circumstances surrounding the assassination of the founder and leader of the PDP-ANA political party.
"Two years after the assassination of leader and founder of the PDP-ANA, Professor Mfulupinga N'Landu Victor, the MPLA Regime and its bodies of “justice”, despite frequent promises, have not resulted, so far, in public explanations about the circumstances surrounding the assassination of what was seen as the most charismatic leader of the opposition to the MPLA Regime brutal and despotic Rule, "reads the AGORA newspaper.
In the session of the National Assembly on 25 April this year, when questioning the Government on the issue of internal security of the state, Mr Andrew Paul, the parliamentary group of the FNLA, asked the prime minister at that stage was the investigation on the death of Professor Victor Mfulupinga N'Landu. "
Yet according to the weekly, citing Sidiangami Mbimbi, "Fernando Dias dos Santos" Nando ", not only was unable to answer but gave little importance to this question."
"It is with great sorrow and sadness that the MPLA Regime have not fulfilling its promises, because it can not put the its state institutions to function".
Professor Victor Mfulupinga was assassinated on July 2, 2004. A Friday by unknown elements opposite the headquarters of the PDP-ANA in the neighbourhood of Cassenda in Luanda.
In that day, the deceased had just attend a meeting of the Council of the Republic where, according to sources familiar with that party formation, presented "clear and brilliantly" the position of his party on the upcoming elections that are subject to repeated and abusive delays.
The police have promised to reveal who the killers of Professor Mfulupinga where and making this information public, but so far nothing tangible has materialized.
Last year there were reports that gave account of the capture of alleged murderers, but then everything fell into a deathly silence.
To mark the passage of the second anniversary of the assassination of the leader of the PDP-ANA, it was held on Sunday 2, a pilgrimage to the cemetery of Santa Ana where homage was paid in memory of Professor Mfulupinga Victor and to all known and unknown heroes of all time without exception, who have shed their own blood for the noble cause of defending their homeland independence, and the ideals of freedom, democracy and justice.
On the occasion, said Mr. Sidiangani Mbimbi that July 2, 2004 left an unforgettable mark and memory of violence and insecurity in Angola. "It was exactly on Friday, July 2, 2004, that the Professor Mfulupinga was barbarously and cowardly murdered by the enemies of peace, democracy and tolerance policy in Angola, "he said.
The Mr. Sidiangani Mbimbi stressed, moreover, that the direction of his party will ask the National Assembly to draft and pass a law that enshrines the now murdered Member of Parliamentary Professor Mfulupinga as a national hero and martyr of democracy and much more.

- CASE No. 3 -

A list of 13 Cases of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide committed by the MPLA

While negotiating the run-off, under a white flag of truce, the MPLA launched a holocaust against UNITA and other opposition parties, in a mass killing spree Australian reporter Jill Joliffe labeled the "night of the long knives," carnage unsurpassed until the more recent Rwandan ethnic cleansing. UNITA diplomats, party officers and activists were slaughtered nationwide, with the body count estimated in the tens of thousands.

A leaked internal U.N. document proved the balloting rife with fraud. The run-off election between Eduardo Dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi was never held.

Since 1975, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the MPLA armed forces and the police, committed crimes against humanity by the steady practice of acts of political and tribal genocide in Angola.
The following are examples of what took place in Angola and UNITA can produce documentary evidence to support the accusations:-
CASE A - In 1975, the pica-pau genocide in Luanda where the MPLA people's power assassinated 300 (three hundred) UNITA militants.
CASE B -  In 1975, the MPLA armed forces with the complicity of a detachment of the Portuguese armed forces, carried out the massacre of more than two thousand UNITA supporters, on the bridge over the Kwanza river, in Dondo.
CASE C - In 1975, the MPLA forces murdered more than 200 (two hundred) UNITA militants in Kassamba.
 

             
Genocide of 27 of May 1977

CASE D - For a short period, from 27th May 1977, the MPLA armed forces carried out collective assassination of more than 40,000 (forty thousand) Bailundos, accused of being factionists and supporters of the leaders of an attempted coup-de-etat, Mr. Nito Alves and Mr. Van-Dunen.
CASE E - In 1992, genocide took place in Luanda, carried out by the MPLA militia, the rapid intervention police and the armed forces. More than 30,000 (thirty thousand) UNITA supporters and Angolans of ethnic ovimbundu and many thousand more in other parts of Angola were murdered. Amongst the murdered in Luanda were, 4 high ranking Leaders of UNITA: the Vice-President, Geremias Kalandula Chitunda, the Secretary General of the Party, Mr. Adolosi Paulo Mango Alicerces, the chief of the UNITA delegation to the Joint Military and Political Commission (CCPM), Mr. Elias Salupeto Pena and the Chief of UNITA administrative services, Mr. Eliseu Sapitango Chimbili. Their bodies are still under the MPLA custody in Luanda.
CASE F - On 22 January 1993, on a day known as the Bloody Friday, the MPLA militia, the rapid intervention police and the armed forces, carried out a selective assassination in Luanda of hundreds of Angolans of ethnic Bakongo.
Military, national police and civilians massacre civilians, mostly Bakongo, in several cities. Reports suggest this is a deliberate attempt to destroy the Bakongo (ethnic cleansing) who are referred to as "Zaireans" in Angola. The number of dead is thought to be in the thousands (most reports suggest between 4000-6000 dead). Some Ovimbundu were also killed.
CASE G - In 1994, the MPLA airforce carried out a deliberate bombardment of a primary school, in Waku-Kungo. More than 150 (one hundred and fifty) children were killed.
CASE H -  From January 1993 until November 1994, the MPLA airforce bombarded constantly the city of Huambo, causing more than 3,000 (three thousand) civilian victims, the old, the women and the children.
CASE I - From April 1997, during the implementation of the extension of central administration, under the Lusaka protocol, the MPLA armed forces and the police murdered more than 1,200 (one thousand two hundred) UNITA personnel of its national structural organisation.
CASE J - Today, more than two million Angolans are displaced within Angola. They have escaped the massacres perpetrated by the MPLA forces during the extension of State administration.
CASE K -  In 1998, the MPLA carried out selective assassinations in Luanda, of 150 (one hundred and fifty) Angolans of ethnic ovimbundu.
CASE L - In 1998, Monua confirmed the massacre of more than 100 (one hundred) business people, in Bula.
CASE M -  In 1998, the massacre in Malange of 300 (three hundred) people: Angolans, Congolese and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The long list of more than 100,000 (one hundred thousand) Africans, barbarically murdered by the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his MPLA Regime, represent beyond any doubt, a strong case of crimes against humanity
The International Community has a strong reason to start the proceedings, for a law-suit to be issued against Eduardo dos Santos, to be tried in the national and international criminal courts.
We all issue a firm challenge to Eduardo dos Santos, to produce conclusive proof of his real place of birth.

- CASE No. 4 -

The assassination of Dr. Savimbi in cold blood, not in battle,
but in an act of total cowards and against military rules.

Dr. Jonas Malleiro Savimbi, Assassinated by the MPLA unelected Regime the Henchmen the MPLA General Wala on the 22 February 2002. Dr. Savimbi was killed while pleading them no to kill him. He was criminally murdered. Comrade General Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda has informed that while Dr. Savimbi was resting in his tent they shot him he goes to the ground but is not dead so in his knees Dr. Savimbi says "It is me do not shoot". Informed the Traitor Comrade General Nunda, to the act where also the Colonels Kivo and Calado both Traitors.

- CASE No. 5 -

Cold Blooded Assassination of Civilians in Cabinda by the MPLA Regime

Dans la nuit du 25 septembre 2008, un commando des FAA, composé d’un ex-élément de l’ancienne guérilla (FLEC Rénové), connue actuellement sous le nom de «Tchicuco», et deux militaires angolais ont pénétré à l’intérieur de la république du Congo-Brazzaville, dans une résidence située vers le village de NZassi dans la région du Kouilou, et ils ont exécuté à la «Catane», le Commandant adjoint des opérations des Forces Armées Congolaises Unifiées (FAC Unifiée) de la zone centre et du sud du Cabinda, Joäo-Maria Manuel Gomes, alias «Maymona», a informé une source de la résistance depuis le territoire du Cabinda.

Le «Commandant Maymona» 48 ans, appartenait à un groupe de guérilleros, ayant trouvé refuge dans le Kouilou et détenus par les autorités congolaises à Pointe-Noire, à la demande de l’Angola. Soumis par une intervention chirurgicale par les médecins à Pointe-Noire, pour l’appendicite, pendant sa période de convalescence, le détenu «Commandant Maymona» va demander d’être transféré dans le village de NZassi dans la région du Kouilou, près de la frontière de Massabi, et c’est de là, qu’il a été exécuté par le commando MPLA.

Selon la source de la résistance depuis le Cabinda, la sécurité congolaise aurait facilité l’opération du commando MPLA sur leur territoire national. Cette exécution apparaît après le début de la coopération militaire entre la républiques du Congo-Brazzaville et de l’Angola avec des patrouilles et des opérations militaires mixtes, le long de toute la frontière séparant le Congo-Brazzaville et le Cabinda.

Des témoins affirment que plusieurs femmes sont régulièrement violées, dans les villages frontaliers du Cabinda et du Congo-Brazzaville, par ces patrouilles mixées.

Selon une autre source de la résistance Cabindaise de Massabi au Cabinda, les responsables de l’assassinat du «Commandant Maymona» formant le commandant angolais en république du Congo-Brazzaville, sont des Cabindais, qui ont intégrés les Forces Armées Angolaise (FAA) au terme de l’accord de paix signé par l’Angola et l’ancien résistant Antonio Bento Bembé.

Selon cette même source de la résistance, de Massabi au Cabinda, les hommes opérationnels du commando qui ont éliminé «Maymona», en République du Congo-Brazzaville, ont pénétré dans la nuit du 25 septembre 2008, avec l’appui de «Saddam», un officier de la sécurité congolaise (DRM) qui participe aux patrouilles mixtes.

Le commando opérationnel qui était envoyé dans lé région du Kouilou, était totalement constitué des Cabindais: José Tchitembo Bissafi, Policarpo Mouélé Moulélé, Pédro Chicaya Nlembiano, Augusto Wanga et Francisco Mabiala, tous des transfuges des accords de pais signé entre l’Angola et l’ancien résistant Antonio Bembé. Ils sont tous, originaires des villages proches des villages de la région du Kouilou au Congo-Brazzaville, à l’exception de Pédro Chicaya Nlembiano.

Selon les informations recueillies par la sécurité FLEC vers NZassi en république du Congo-Brazzaville, du côté du commando angolais, cette opération était conduite par José Tchitembo Bissafi, l’home au 4*4 qui circule à peine entre Luanda, Cabinda et Pointe-Noire.

Par cette opération et cet assassinat du Commandant adjoint des opérations militaires des FLEC, les Forces Armées Angolaises (FAA), prétendent réduirent les activités de la guérilla Cabindaise.

Les obsèques funèbres du «Commandant Maymona» se sont déroulé Samedi 27 septembre 2008, dans la région du Kouilou, au Congo-Brazzaville, où, il avait été exécuté.

- CASE No. 6 -

THE ASSASSINATION OF RAFAEL CHIDUNDO

Cabinda 10 August 2007

1. Identity
Name: Rafael Chidundo (also known as Rafa)
Identification Card Number: 000094786CA014
Place and date of Birth: Chimpemba, Nhuca (Buco-Zau),  24/04/1974
Son of: Father name, Rafael Chidundo and of Mother name, Ana Maria Pemba
Marital Status: was living martially with Mrs. Maria Massanga, the couple has six (6) children. And resided in Chimpemba with his spouse and children.
2. What happened
On Saturday, 30 de June 2007: Rafael Chidundo (also known as Rafa) went to the fields to verify his traps. The Elders of the Village Conde Pequeno, inform that they heard screams from some one in panic. During the night Rafael fails to return home, so his family members alert the MPLA Regime local coordinator, Comrade Estêvão Corado who, informs the MPLA Commander of the Military Zone of Nhuca, Comrade Fereiro Nelito. This individual then phones the Commander of the Military Patrol troops, Comrade Rafael Mando Tshipa Tshica, who confirms that he as arrested someone, but promises to return the captive before the 15 of July 2007. 
Monday, 2 July 2007: The village elder and 3 other elders go to the fields, from where Rafael has disappeared and where Rafael had his field crops. They found traces of the passage of Military Troop boots on patrol. The Village Elder found the working tools left behind on the fields by Rafael. 
Before the day 15, the Military MPLA Commander Rafael Mando Tshipa Tshica returns with his military patrol to the village to reassure the family members of Rafael would be back to the village before the 15 July 2007.
Tuesday, 10 July 2007: The family members submitted the case to the MPLA Regime by presenting a petition addressed to the Provincial Comity for Human Rights (An office totally controlled by the unelected MPLA Communist Regime). Up to now Rafael gives no signs of life.

- CASE No. 7 -

Eight Cabinda civilians beaten up and tortured by the MPLA Regime

24 August 2006

The Republic of Cabinda hold responsible the MPLA Communist Unelected Regime and the Board of Directors of Chevron for the apprehension and the torture of the Following civilians on the 13th of August 2006 in Cabinda.

Maurício Mbizi, Bonifácio Nzau, José Deus-Dado, António Félix, João Maria Simba e André Massanga

and on the 12 of August 2006 the Angolan Armed Forces of Angola (MPLA) beaten up and tortured the Village Chief of Caio Poba and the village Elder Mr. António Simba of 64 year of age.
This people (normal citizens) where taken prisoners by the occupying Armed Forces of Angola (MPLA) which are directly sponsored by Chevron-Texaco corp. These Cabindas where charged with being part of the Human Rights Association of Cabinda Mpalabanda and tortured after they refused to participate on a church service by the Angolan collaborator and priest Mr. Gabriel Nzau.

- CASE No. 8 -

The Murderer of Tatinho Garcia Saianganhi 

12 September 2010

A citizen Tatinho Garcia Saianganhi, son of Garcia and Saianganhi Lotina Xavier, born on 4 June 1990, Natural of the local Casa Branca, Luzamba Cuango province of Lunda-Norte, was shot dead at eight hours and 30 minutes of the day September 12, 2010 in the area of the river Cambamba Camazanga Cuango by a group of elements the MPLA Armed Forces stationed in the areas. The deceased who was crossing the bridge, his body was thrown after into the water of the river Cuango. People who watched the murderous episode, informed that there was no voice contact of conversation between the deceased and the elements of the MPLA Armed Forces.
The Elder Soba Bungulo, told us that in recent months, has found in the woods dead bodies in a state of advanced decomposition and does not recognize the identity of the bodies. The victims are mostly young miners and women raped and killed and then thrown into the woods, "here in the Cuango region, we live in terror" - said Elder Soba Bungulo.

- CASE No. 9 -

The Assassination of José Gabriel Puati MPLA

Saturday 29 December 2007, around 17:00, Mr. José Gabriel Puati (also known as Gabby), of 24 years, natural of Chinfuca (near the village of Beira-Nova in the municipality of KaKongo) and resident in Caio-Contene (Ncuto), son of Gabriel Puati and of Teresa Malila, and father of two children, was murdered by bullet by the MPLA Military Regime, by military personnel of the MPLA Pangamongo Military Unit.

José Gabriel Puati Assassinated on the 29 December 2007 by the MPLA in the Republic of Cabinda

The act happened after and attack by Freedom Fighters of the National Liberation Army FLEC in the same day around 08:00, in the location of “Mongo M’lola” (down unto the M’lola creek), 50mt from the village of Seva, which is eight Kilometers from Pangamongo. In result of this incident, three citizens of Seva, Mr. Martins Yanga, André Nduli and Leão where arrested by the MPLA Regime Armed Forces FAA, under accusation of being involved in the attack. Apart from this, the MPLA FAA proceeded to the confiscation of Identity Cards from all village Elders among others Mr. Alberto Mbumba, João Buela and Afonso Massiala, who they demanded that they must appear in the MPLA Military Barracks in Pangamongo. 

And Mr. José Gabriel Puati returned to Buco-Zau, where he had returned to the night before in business. Arriving near the MPLA Military Unit in the village of Pangamongo, he was confronted by a group of occupying MPLA Military personnel, who tried to accuse him of being a member of the Freedom Fighters National Army of Cabinda FLEC, in manner to justify his trip. While trying to present his identification the unelected MPLA Regime Troops started to beat him up, and then they shot him, resulting in his death instantaneously. Eye witnesses to the event told that this MPLA troops where under the direct command of Comrade Lacrau, who have gone to Pangamongo to reinforce the MPLA Military presence and grip in the region. 

The three citizens who where arbitrary arrested where taken to Buco-Zau, and to the office of the municipality of Buco-Zau. The notoriously and famously Brutal Brigadier Wala, who went to the terrain to better control the situation, promised to return the prisoners to the village, due to the lack of proofs against the detainees. Never the less the where about of these prisoners is unknown; there are no news on the evolution on the requests for the presence of the villagers in the MPLA Military Barracks of Pangamongo. 
Apart from that the Elder of the Village of Seva, Mr. José Gime, better known as José Bota is reported missing. Finally, Mr. José Gabriel Puati is another victim of the present status of the social-political-judicial status of Cabinda, where the law of the bayonet is the rule. Mr. José Gabriel Puati is nephew of Mr. José Marcos Mavungo, vice-president of the now extinct Mpalabanda Human Rights Organization which was forced to be shut down by the MPLA Regime.
- Thursday 3 January 2007. The hunt by the MPLA Military Regime to the Elder of Seva continues. Around 05:00, Mr. Alexandre Mavungo (better known by the name of Bayona Mavungo), 70 years old, elder of the Neighborhood of Seva, and resident in Seva, son of Lamba Mavungo (better known as Chief Lamba Khuta) and of Bazonga, father of three children; and Cesar Ngimbi, where kidnaped by members of the MPLA Security and Defense Battalion, in the area of Madombolo, in the neighborhood of GIKA in the city of Cabinda.

The family members of Bayona Mavungo – Mrs. Teresa Nsuami (daughter), of 35 years of age; Mr. António Chibilica (son in law), of 45 years of age; and Willy (grand son), of 15 years – during the act, they thought better to take a lift in one of the two Jeeps of the MPLA National Police (PN) vehicles, who transported the detainees to an unknown place. At the moment we don't have any information on the whereabouts of this citizens.

- CASE No. 10 -

Torture of an elder Cabinda Women 55 years old.

J.M. , a 55-year-old traditional healer from Ntsaca village. On 2 March 2003, she was beaten and imprisoned in a pit for three days at the military's special Belize unit. She was accused of performing prayers for the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda (FLEC). On the fourth day, she was forced to dress in an MPLA Armed Forces uniform to serve as a guide to lead the army to her brothers, who were reportedly members of FLEC. When she refused, an officer slapped her 80 times on the hand with the side of a machete. She was released shortly thereafter.

- CASE No. 11 -

Public whipping, beating and firing of arms to the air in the Airport of Cabinda or the Humiliating scenes and the of apprehension of Cabinda Journalists and Human Rights Activists in Cabinda.

29 September 2006

The Journalist Raul Danda and the spokesperson of the now MPLA Regime closed MPALABANDA (Cabinda Human Rights Association), was detained for questioning on the 29 September 2006 at around 17:00 in the airport of Cabinda when he arrived from Luanda, Angola in the flight JEMINI in a trip with other Cabinda nationals and Human Right Activists in Cabinda.
After the arrival of the Airplane the MPLA Regime secret police closed the passengers terminal of arrivals placing the agents of Immigration, and Customs to search piece by piece paper by paper all documents brought by the Cabinda Human Rights Activists Mr. Raul Danda and Mr. Belchior Lanzi. 
Mr. Belchior Lanzi could pass the border agents because he had no papers in his cases. Mr. Raul Danda was taken to an office to be criminally investigated  and to declare why he carries with him so many documents which needed to be investigated one by one. While in the Airport the passengers from Lunda, Angola where barred from leaving the airport by more than an hour and a half while they conducted the interrogation of Mr. Raul Danda and Mr. Belchior Lanzi.  A group of 70 People Cabinda National gathered in front of the room where Mr. Raul Danda and Mr. Belchior Lanzi where being held and where dispersed by the MPLA Regime Police using whips, sticks and firing live ammunition.         

- CASE No. 12 -

Beaten and Disappearance of Civilians in Cabinda by the MPLA

24 September 2006 - A Cabinda man, Mr. José Jonatani, Elder of the village Conde Lintene, Community of Necuto, was brutally beaten by the MPLA Regime forces on the 20th of September 2006, for the reason of his beating by the MPLA Armed Forces was that they found at the entrance of the Village a Soldier of the MPLA Regime Armed Forces heavily drunken and laying down in the street completely drunk. Afraid some how of the situation of totally drunk soldier these MPLA Soldiers entered the village firing indiscriminately to everything and every one in the village, the population had to flee the village and take refuge in the jungle. The village Elder Jonatani, Chief of the village was brutally beaten and left half dead by the MPLA Regime Armed Forces.
Because of the injuries caused by the MPLA Military Regime the Elder was taken to the Capital city of Cabinda by the MPLA Military Troops. The family of the Elder Jonatani whent to the Capital City of Cabinda to all hospitals but he has not found in any hospital. The village Elder Jonatani was 70 years old when he disappeared.

- CASE No. 13 -

THE LAWLESS, CORRUPTION AND ILLEGALITY OF THE MPLA REGIME

MPLA troops invaded Cabinda on 11 November 1974. Cabinda was a Portuguese Protectorate since the signing of the Treaty of Simulambuco in 1885, and became known as the Portuguese Congo. Troops from Angola are still occupying Cabinda and committing organized atrocities against Cabindans including rape, summary execution, and genocide. The government of Cabinda and the heroic military forces of FLEC exercises control over the majority of the Nation. An MPLA military offensive begun in 2002 has included organized torture, rape, murder, and looting but has not broken the spirit of the Cabindan people.

The Criminal MPLA Regime in power since (1974) and under so called elections in 1992 of which was voided as a second round was needed to clarify the result, since 1992 no election has taken place the MPLA promised elections in 2001 and its now 2006 how many more years will the international community allow this to go on, one in each 4 children in Angola dies before it reaches 1 year of life, 14 years without elections, the MPLA is still invading Cabinda, a Cabinda National receives 50% of the salary that is paid to and Angolan, the Cabindan Clergy is not allowed to leave the Cabinda Nation, the Cabindan People are not allowed to go to their fields and cultivate them.

The charade of the MPLA regime and the control of one man over an entire nation since 1979

Flag of the Marxist MPLA party is used has the flag of Angola in another words the message is that the Marxist party in power since 1974 MPLA owns Angola.
Fulano José Eduardo dos Santos, Dictator of Angola
Unelected President of Angola (Head of State)
Unelected Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the MPLA
Supreme Court and separate provincial courts (judges are appointed by the unelected president)
5th Richest man in Brazil (source list of bank account holders and their deposited amounts in the Brazilian Banks)

Declarations by the Dictator Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos

“It is evident that not all people that have the confidence of the prime minister are the same ones that have the confidence of the head of state.“ Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, unelected President of Angola, self appointed Chief of the Armed Forces, etc....

”It is often said that the magnitude of a people is measured by their ability to know how to win. “ Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, unelected President of Angola, self appointed Chief of the Armed Forces, etc....

”Our goal is not to crush the enemy at any price, but to make it realize that it is illegal to take up arms to overthrow a democratically elected government.“
Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, President of Angola, self appointed Chief of the Armed Forces, etc....

”The current constitutional law places the president of the republic in an embarrassing situation.”  Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, Dictator of Angola, self-appointed Chief of the Armed Forces, etc....

BLOOD FOR OIL: SECESSION, SELF-DETERMINATION, AND SUPERPOWER SILENCE IN CABINDA

- CASE No. 14 -

MURDER IN CABINDA

MPLA Armed Forces Torture and Kill Cabinda Civilians in new wave of Human Rights violations in Cabinda

20 DECEMBER 2006

Cabinda civil society has denounced that the violations of human rights in Cabinda continues. Accused are the MPLA the Armed Forces of Angola of beating up Cabinda citizens accused of belonging to and collaborating with the Cabinda Liberation Front, FLEC.

On the 20th November 2006, at about 15h00, António Zau (in the photo), 29 years old, son of Agostinho Nhimi and of Joana Lubanda, a father of 6, from Micuma II, Mayombe, living in the village of Mbongo-zi-Minu (MBuku-NZau municipality), “was shot dead (3 shots) by a group of MPLA-FAA (MPLA - Armed Forces of Angola) soldiers, on the road between Mbongo-zi-Munu the village of Nsindi” in Cabinda.
According to the document, distributed by the Human Rights (DH) activists in Cabinda, António Zau was returning from hunting in the forest close to the village, he was approached by MPLA Angolan soldiers who “immediately accused him of belonging to the FLEC resistance”, “this was motive enough for the soldiers to murder him in cold blood”. Following the shooting, “the executioners cut open their victims belly, spilling out his intestines”. News of the death of António Zau was spread in the village Mbongo-zi-Munu by the very same soldiers who “asked the family to keep silent, in exchange for which they would pay all funeral expenses”, a promise which would not be kept.
On the 25th of November 2006, the inhabitants of the villages of Massabi commune “had a terrifying start to the day”. Around 03:00AM, the MPLA FAA began an operation to “remove all male citizens aged between 14 and 60 from their homes.” According to the Human Rights activists, the “allegation put forth to justify the operation, led by the Chief of Staff of the Second Military Region (Cabinda), the MPLA General Carlitos Wala (the same who murdered Dr. Savimbi), was that “these villagers had been lending logistic support to FLEC forces” and that, “by dislodging them from their area, this kind of support could be reduced or even eliminated.” Therefore, according to the same source, all the men and adolescents of the villages of Nkumbu-Liambu, Caio, Liku, Icazu, Tchela, Loango Pequeno, Weca, Liambu-Liona, Tchiloti, Tchicamba, Tchibueti, Simu l’Incondu, Mandarim, Bitchékete, Mbuku-Sókotu, Ngomangu, kumbu-Liambu, Manenga, Tchissangu and others, were rounded up, “put on URAL brand military trucks and taken to headquarters of the local command zone”.
The friends and family women, upset by the soldiers` murderous actions, got together and “made their way to the place where their sons, brothers and husbands had been taken”, calling for their immediate release. These women “said that if the men were not released, they would not move, not matter what the soldiers did to them.” Due to the strong pressure, the soldiers “decided to let the prisoners go, but not before having photographed all of them and make a registry of their identification (name, age, parentage, etc…)”. The MPLA soldiers, however, “refused to take them back to their houses, a task entrusted to some local economic entities, who had their own means of transport.”
On the 2nd December of 2006, at around 10:00AM, Gabriel Buku, 42 years old, driver of the ETP bus, of the MAN brand, license plate CBA-74-42, which covers the Cabinda-Lândana - Mbuku-Nzau - Belize routes, son of José Jimbi and Antonieta Buku, father of 10, and his two helpers, José Bambi Muanda, 31 years old, son of Daniel Muanda and Angelina Pemba, father of 3; and João Hilário Capita, 20 years old, son of Lourenço Capita and Josefina Lubota, “were tortured by the Angolan MPLA FAA soldiers, in the village of Mbongo-zi-Munu”, denounced the same Human Rights activists.
In the document, they state that an unknown number of Angolan soldiers ordered the bus to stop, but “thinking they wanted to hitch a ride, the driver did not stop, but merely slowed down to signal to them that the bus was full and then carried on.” The soldiers, “annoyed, took a Toyota Hiace van, which happened to be passing by, and set off in pursuit.” Close to the village of Micuma III, the Toyota Hiace overtook the bus and blocked its passage. The soldiers “burst into the bus and began to beat the driver Gabriel Buku, forcing him to return to Mbongo-zi-Munu”. Here, all the passengers were forced off the bus, “and a real beating session began on the bus driver and his two assistants.”
Finally, the driver and his assistants, badly beaten, were allowed to continue their journey, but only “taking the women they were transporting”. The 20 or so men were forbidden to go on. The soldiers alleged they “stopped the bus to look for male citizens accused of being FLEC elements that travel on vehicles along that road, attacking FAA soldiers”. The same activists state that the “fate of the 20 or so men, aged between 14 and 60, are as yet unknown”.

- CASE No. 15 -

Murder in Cabinda by the MPLA Regime

MPLA Regime terror of the battalion 704 have assassinated the Cabindan citizen Agostinho Baza, son of Anselmo Bodo and Felicidade Bumba, natural of Bata Sano, resident in the village of Vito in Necuto, district of Buco-Zau, born on the 2 of July of 1980, was assassinated on the 16 of September 2004. The youngster was shot with 3 bullets to his abdomen.

- CASE No. 16 -

23 September 2010

Case of Intimidation and Torture in Cabinda committed by the MPLA Regime

Two weeks ago the Administrator of the Municipality of Kalussinga, Comrade Faustina Cmbundo in the province of Bie sent to be beaten and arrested the Village Elder Soba Bernardo Samangomba angolan citizen who had been detained in the police jail of that town, without any charges being made to him for 4 days, his only crime was that he attended a political rally of the UNITA party which he his a member of.
After a public complain made to the MPLA Regime Governor of the Province Comrade Boavida Neto he then went to the municipality of Kalussinga last week to make a public rally and with abuse of authority publicly threatened those who made the complain concerning the arrest of the Elder Bernardo Samangomba which is in direct violation of the Communist MPLA Constitution in its article 31 whereby all provincial governors must protect its residents.
In the last 48 hours in the municipality of Chitembo in the province of Bie where committed by the local police of the MPLA Regime 11 crimes against the freedom of the citizens of choosing which party they choose to belong to.
Also in the last 48 hours in the Municipality of Hengue and Village of Bailundo in the Province of Huambo, where committed violent crimes with fire arms against the physical integrity of its unarmed citizens Information given by Alcides Sakala Simões.

Cabinda 28 January 2006 Killing of Civilians by the MPLA Regime

Cabinda 28 January 2006 Killing of Civilians by the MPLA Regime

- CASE No. 17 -

MPLA The unelected Regime of Corruption and Theft

The business interests of MPLA ruling elite by Rafael Marques de Morais

2010-02-11

During the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola’s (MPLA)[1] central committee meeting in Luanda in November 2009, President José Eduardo dos Santos defined his challenges facing his party in terms of three fundamental questions: Keeping watch on government, the irresponsibility of government leaders, and fighting corruption with a policy of zero tolerance. In this investigation I deal with the transfer of state assets to the MPLA’s private businesses through a company called GEFI (Sociedade de Gestão e Participações Financeiras/Management and Business Participation Company), and the consequences of its involvement in such money making activities. In order to make clear the gap between the leadership’s words and its deeds, I will analyse those three main questions that dos Santos, both president of the Republic and leader of the MPLA, put forward during his speech when he opened the party central committee meeting on 29 November 2009. In this speech dos Santos spoke of the absence of scrutiny of the acts of government and the irresponsibility and bad faith of political leaders, and announced a zero tolerance policy towards corruption.
MONITORING, IRRESPONSIBILITY AND ZERO TOLERANCE
First, dos Santos accused his party of incompetence in ‘monitoring the government’s activities of governance, through the national assembly and the ‘tribunal de contas’ – the latter being the statutory body responsible for monitoring the use of state finance. This statement is contradictory. Dos Santos has been chairman of the MPLA and head of government for 30 years. His power in government as well as in the party is total. So it is dos Santos who bears primary responsibility for the MPLA’s performance in the national assembly.
The new constitution, approved on 21 January 2010, limits further the national assembly’s potential to keep a check on the government’s actions, because of the process that it lays down for the election of the president. Rather than being elected directly by the public, or indirectly by elected members of parliament, under the new system proposed by the MPLA the person at the top of the candidate list of the winning party in the election will simply be named president (Article 109).
This model invented by the MPLA rules out both the separation of powers and the accountability of the head of government, creating instead an excessive concentration of power in the figure of the president and the leader of the party. In the event that these two roles were not filled by the same person, power would be concentrated in the hands of the chairman of the party, even if he or she were not a member of parliament. In such a case, it is the party leader who chooses who is on the party’s list of candidates for the legislative elections, and which candidate is at the head of the list. The MPLA currently has an absolute majority in the National Assembly, with 191 of the 220 members.
With regard to the tribunal de contas, the president made a serious admission that has gone largely unnoticed by the public. In his speech of 29 November 2009 he stated that the MPLA had not been fulfilling its watchdog role through the tribunal de contas.[2] This apparently ignores the fact that the constitution provides for the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, and hence the independence of the courts. It is not the MPLA’s task to monitor the executive by means of the tribunal de contas. If the MPLA works through the tribunal de contas, this undermines its independence and the ability to perform its role. One example of this is when in 2005 dos Santos ignored the court’s finding that Isaac dos Anjos, at the time the Angolan ambassador to South Africa, had diverted money from pension funds, and convicted him in 2004 for such an offence. Dos Anjos was promoted to be governor of Huila province, with greater responsibility in terms of managing state funds and state assets.
Second, in the same speech the president condemned ‘irresponsible people, people of bad faith’ for taking advantage of the MPLA’s apathy, and ‘squandering resources and administrating in a way that is illegal, as well as dangerous or fraudulent’. The people he accused were members of his own administration.
This is the kind of language that the president adopts whenever he feels the need to reaffirm his authority at times of public discontent: He accuses his subordinates indiscriminately and asserts his own innocence. In 2007, during an extraordinary meeting of the central committee of the MPLA, the president condemned members of the government and administration officials over the use of public funds in their own businesses.
In 2001, the president assured citizens that democracy would allow them to participate in combating corruption and government inefficiency. In 1998, while opening the MPLA’s fourth congress, Dos Santos said that ‘corruption is a worrying problem that must be tackled by political and judicial means and by the police if we are not to lose control of it’. At an MPLA central committee meeting on 16 February 1996, the president spoke out against the ‘wild capitalism that has taken root in the country over the last three years’ and made clear that this practice among the ruling elite was destroying the MPLA and its fundamental goals: ‘the equitable distribution of wealth and national resources, solidarity and social justice.’ In an address to the nation during the 1996 economic crisis, the president called for transparency in government and measures to prevent corruption and influence peddling, at the government and state levels. Dos Santos promised that he would ‘put a definitive end to high-level crime, to organised theft and to the pillaging of state assets’.
Nevertheless, corruption continues to define the government’s actions, since the president and head of government has not taken serious and adequate measures to stop the looting of state assets. Responsibility for criminal acts committed by officials must in the first instance fall upon the head of government, who is exclusively responsible for appointing and dismissing members of government and for instructing, supervising and guiding their actions.
Thirdly, during MPLA’s sixth congress, on 7 December 2009, dos Santos repeated his promise of a zero tolerance policy towards corruption. Nearly two months later, neither he nor his government has presented any plan or programme to fight corruption. It has remained nothing but rhetoric. Nevertheless, the idea must be interpreted as an invitation to the nation to denounce publicly acts of corruption at the heart of government and in the public administration, the looting of state asses and the unjustified enrichment of the elite. Such a process of denunciation must be a fundamental step for nation-building, and to allow citizens to start thinking differently and to seek change in the areas of the law, politics, the economy and the ethics of Angolan society. This was what was recommended by the Interdisciplinary Commission to Study the Phenomenon of Corruption in Angolan Society, co-ordinated by the late minister of justice, Lázaro Dias, and created by presidential decree 22/90 of 15 September 1990.
THE MPLA’S BUSINESS INTERESTS
On 21 September 1992, a week before the first multiparty general elections in Angolan history, leading MPLA figures legally and formally established the ruling party’s business conglomerate GEFI (Sociedade de Gestão e Participações Financeiras/Business Management and Participation Company.) The company’s founding charter was signed by the following people, in the name of the MPLA:
- Francisco Magalhães Paiva, at that time minster of the interior, currently member of parliament and still a member of the MPLA Political Bureau - José Mateus Adelino Peixoto, then chief of staff of the president, currently secretary general of support services to the president of the republic and member of the MPLA central committee - António de Campos Van-Dúnem, then legal advisor to the president of the republic - Augusto Lopes Teixeira, at the time a member of the political bureau and chairman of the board of Angola-Telecom, a state-owned company - Carlos Alberto Ferreira Pinto, member of parliament and member of the MPLA political bureau - The Fundação Sagrada Esperança, the foundation which is the party’s social affairs and investment arm.
GEFI’s current business portfolio includes participation in 64 companies operating in the sectors that include hotels, industry, banking, fisheries, media, construction and real estate. Given the range of its business interests, this article presents merely an overview of GEFI’s activities, based on the availability of official documents. Moreover, this investigation focuses, in particular, on how the government has engendered the murky transfer of state assets to GEFI, for MPLA’s financial and patrimonial benefit.
AVIATION
In April 2009 the Angolan authorities granted permission for the airline Fly540 Angola to begin operating in the country. According to public statements by the multinational Lonrho, which has shares in the company, Fly540 flights would initially cover six of the country’s 18 provinces – Cabinda, Luanda, Zaire (Soyo airport), Benguela, Huambo and Malanje – using ATR72 aircraft.
GEFI has a majority (51%) shareholding in Fly540 through its aviation company Planar, while Lonrho holds 49% of the shares and has a right to 60% of the profits, according to Lonrho’s press release of 2 October 2007. Planar contributed through its air service licence, a 1000m2 hangar at Luanda’s Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport which was given to it by the state, and offices.
The way in which Fly540 Angola was constituted presents a serious problem in terms of Angolan law. The current secretary of the council of ministers, Joaquim António Carlos dos Reis Júnior, in his capacity as manager of businesses for the MPLA and consequently of GEFI, is formally the major shareholder in Planar, with 20 per cent of the shares. In other words, the secretary of the council of ministers is GEFI’s figurehead in the aviation business. Four other individuals linked to the MPLA represent, in the name of GEFI, 60 per cent of Planar’s capital. The remaining 20 per cent is in the hands of individual shareholders. Thus GEFI in effect owns 80 per cent of Planar’s capital. Its management model and the way in which it does business are based on the supposed party loyalty of its members. This creates enormous confusion when it comes to distinguishing between the state businesses, party businesses and the private businesses of MPLA and government leaders.
Nevertheless, from the legal point of view, responsibility for the company’s actions lies directly with those who hold shares, and in the case of Planar, the major shareholder is the secretary of the council of ministers. Joaquim António Carlos dos Reis Júnior is covered by Article 10 (2) of Law 21/90, the law on crimes committed by holders of public office, which prohibits the holders of public office from participating in private business. Fly540 Angola, in order to operate, requires authorisation from the government, namely from the transport minister, Augusto Tomás. He, in turn, requires the authorisation of the secretary of the council of ministers in order to submit any kind of proposal for consideration by the council. The institutional relationship between Augusto Tomás and Joaquim António Carlos dos Reis Júnior creates a situation of influence peddling, according to the definition laid down in the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (Article 18, a, b), the SADC Protocol against corruption (Article 3,1,f), and the African Union Convention against corruption (Article 4, 1, f). These articles have been incorporated into Angolan law, and contravening them is punishable under Article 321 of the Angolan Penal Code, with aggravating circumstances provided for under Article 4(1) of the Law on crimes committed by holders of public office.
Lonrho, in turn, by associating itself with Planar, whose major shareholder, Joaquim António Carlos dos Reis Júnior, is in government and therefore able to influence its relationship with the state, creates a situation susceptible to active corruption according to the similar definitions in the United Nations Convention against corruption (Article 15, a), the SADC Protocol against corruption (Article 3, 1, b), and the African Union Convention against corruption (Article 4, 1, b). Lonrho is a company listed on the Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges.
HOTELS
In Luanda, GEFI owns the Hotel Tivoli, has a 20% share in Hotel President Le Meridien (20%), and benefited from a 20% concession in the shares of Serafim L. Andrade, the company that owns the Hotel Trópico, through the minister of industry’s Despatch no 55/00 of 10 March 2000. The other 80% is owned by the investor, the Portuguese construction company Teixeira Duarte.
Also in the capital city, the privatisation process awarded to GEFI the site of Farol Velho, a restaurant on Ilha de Luanda, which has been destroyed to make way for a new hotel project. GEFI also has 25 per cent of the shares in Hotel Turismo, which previously housed some of UNITA’s (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) leadership and which was consequently destroyed during the fighting after the 1992 elections, while a further 25 per cent of shares are held by Sogec, a subsidiary of GEFI. A new Hotel Turismo is planned for the site.
On 20 May 2009, the state sold two properties in Luanda to GEFI for token prices. Hotel Zimbo cost US$527,000, and a residential, in Largo do Pelourinho, went for US$260,000.The state has also granted GEFA ownership or part ownership of the biggest hotel in Cabinda, Hotel Mayombe (51%), the Hotel Central (80%) in Luanda, and Hotel Grão Tosco (100 per cent) in Benguela.
BREWERIES
On 16 September 2005, Resolution 65/05 of the council of ministers approved the privatisation of the Cuca brewery, after the state secretly transferred 50 per cent of its shares in the brewery to Soba, a holding company owned by the MPLA, GEFI and Brasseries Internationales Holding (BIH), part of the French Castel group. The latter, as the only foreign investor, received 13 per cent of the shares in Cuca. The French company holds 75 per cent of Soba’s capital, and GEFI 25 per cent.
Although it is an MPLA company, no one knows what contributions GEFI has made in its partnership with BIH, in contrast, for example, to the partnership with Lonrho in Fly540. Nevertheless, it is important to look at how the government handled the creation of the business deal. The council of ministers is chaired by dos Santos, who, in approving the privatisation of Cuca, was clearly enhancing his own party’s business portfolio and the business interests of the presidential inner circle – including Adelino Peixoto, secretary general of the presidency of the republic – and other privileged government figures.[3]
Being leader of the MPLA and at the same time chairing the council of ministers, which approves the handing over of state assets to GEFI, puts the president of the republic in a serious situation of conflict of interests and in an embarrassing position with respect to what happens to GEFI’s profits: something that remains unknown even by some members of the Political Bureau. I return to this issue in the concluding remarks.
MEDIA, PROPAGANDA AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The MPLA has been the main beneficiary of the government’s project to create Angola’s first four commercial FM radio stations since independence. The radio stations were set up entirely with state funds in 1992, but ownership was transferred mostly to GEFI, the MPLA’s holding company. Through its subsidiary A Foto, GEFI owns 60% of Luanda Antena Comercial (LAC), while the remaining 40% is held by the journalists José Rodrigues, Luísa Fançony and Mateus Gonçalves. In Benguela, GEFI through its subsidiary Sopol owns 80% of Radio Morena, of which the remaining shares are owned by António Mendes Filipe, a private individual. In Huila province another GEFI subsidiary, Pontual S.A., has 75.50 per cent of the shares in Rádio 2000, while its managers Horácio Reis and Carlos Andrade own the rest. In Cabinda, GEFI’s subsidiary Orion owns 60% of Rádio Comercial de Cabinda, with the rest being owned by two former local directors, André Filipe Luemba (20 per cent) and Pedro Simba (20 per cent). Orion itself is an interesting case regarding the boundaries between the state and the ruling party. Orion is a partnership between GEFI, with 70%, the former Minister of Social Communication (1992-2005) and current ambassador to Egypt, Hendrick Vaal Neto, who holds 11%, Minister of Planning Ana Dias Lourenço, who holds 5%, and other figures within the MPLA who own the remaining 14% of the shares. Since 1992, Orion has been the lynchpin of government and MPLA propaganda. This company provides facilities and serves as a front for the Brazilian firm M’Link, owned by Sérgio Guerra, which plans, produces and oversees the broadcasting of MPLA and government propaganda in the media.
Over the past 10 years, the ministry of social communication has paid about US$24 million per year to M’Link for its services to the government and the MPLA, without distinguishing between the two. This agreement was signed by Hendrick Vaal Neto, who has also benefited directly from the profits from this work, in contravention of the Law on crimes committed by holders of public office, which prohibits people in government from using state functions and contracts to their own benefit.
M’Link’s managing director is the journalist and MPLA parliamentarian Luís Domingos, who in partnership with Francisca Pacavira holds 10% of the shares. For several years now, Luís Domingos has presented the weekly propaganda programme ‘Angola em Movimento’ (Angola on the move), which is produced by M’Link on behalf of Orion and broadcast on the state television station, TPA. The constitution (Article 82,1,c) states that the duties of a member of parliament are incompatible with serving as managing director of a private company. Luís Domingos has not declared this conflict of interests and continues to play both roles with the blessing of the MPLA leadership. Pontual is a screen printing business privatised by the state: Its shareholders comprise GEFI (70 per cent), the secretary general of the MPLA, Julião Mateus Paulo ‘Dino Matross’ (5%), the chairman of the board of GEFI and member of the MPLA Political Bureau Mário António de Sequeira e Carvalho (five per cent), and while the remaining 20% is shared among the company’s former managers and party activists.
Other state businesses that were handed over to GEFI as majority shareholder are A Foto (73 per cent), as well as the printing presses Gráfica Impresso (41 per cent), in Benguela, and Edigráfica (27 per cent).
BANKING AND FINANCE 

In the banking sector, GEFI is the main shareholder in Banco Sol, holding 55% of shares through its subsidiary Sansul, according to Banco Sol’s latest annual report. Sansul’s capital is in turn owned 99% by GEFI, while four MPLA members share a token 1%. Direct shareholders in Banco Sol, each with 5%, include first lady Ana Paula dos Santos, the vice-chairman of the National Assembly and member of the MPLA Political Bureau, João Lourenço, and the MPLA parliamentarian and former minister of finances Júlio Bessa.

João Lourenço first deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Angola

Banco Comercial Angolano: is controlled by ABSA/Barclays (50%) as investor, while GEFI holds a mere 1.8% of the shares. But leading figures in the regime are numbered among the shareholders, including the MPLA secretary general Julião Mateus Paulo, the ministers of transport and fisheries, Augusto Tomás and Salomão Xirimbimbi, the governor of Huila province, Isaac dos Anjos, and members of parliament Fernando França Van-Dúnem and Dumilde Rangel.
GEFI’s interests also extend to offshore companies, namely Faierden, which it owns outright, and Invest, in which it has a 20% share. Both companies are registered in Panama, but little else is known about their finances or their business activities.
INDUSTRY
In the industrial sector, GEFI’s role is curious when compared to that of MPLA leaders. The government transferred ownership of the country’s main flourmills to GEFI without any tender, while the leading figures in the regime enjoy substantial shares in petroleum and diamond concessions, for their personal benefit. The milling business is nevertheless of great political, economic and social importance since it means partial control over the manufacture of bread, an important food for the whole country, and maize flour, which is the staple diet of southern Angola.
On 14 July 2008, the minister of industry, Joaquim David, and the then secretary of state for public enterprise, Augusto Tomás, drew up Joint Executive Decree no 91/08, with reference to the total privatisation of the Cimor mill in Matala, Huila province. The beneficiaries were Seipo, a GEFI subsidiary (50%), local businessman Fernando Borges (35%) and other smaller shareholders including workers and local professionals (15%). Seipo, in turn, is owned 55% by GEFI, while MPLA parliamentarians João Marcelino Typinge and Alfredo Berner, as well as defence minister Kundy Paihama, have 14 per cent of Seipo’s shares between them, while other MPLA figures own the remainder.
From a legal point of view, the transfer of shares from the state to Seipo involves influence-peddling. Law 21/90 (Article 10,2) prohibits members of the government – in this case, the defence minister – from participating in business in which the state is also involved.
Until May 2008, Cimor was producing 300 tons of maize flour per day. According to information that its manager, Edgar Macedo, gave to Jornal de Angola, the mill intended to triple its daily production to improve the supply to the south of the country.
The decree in question explained the privatisation ‘in terms of a strategy to develop the food industry and to refurbish and increase the productive capacities of the maize milling industry’ as well as ‘to make the private sector participate in the development of these industries.
Ten years before, on 31 July 1998, the then ministers of industry and of finance, Manuel Duque e Alcântara Monteiro, had drafted Joint Executive Decree no 39/98, for the total and direct privatisation of the Heróis de Kangamba mill in Viana, Luanda, to the benefit of GEFI (60 per cent) and its subsidiary Sengoservice (40%). According to the ministers’ explanation, the privatisation took place ‘in terms of the strategy to develop the food industry and the Bread Programme’ and ‘to make the private sector participate in those industries’. After privatisation, the mill – the biggest in Angola – was renamed Moagem Kwaba. GEFI subsequently sold 45 per cent of its shares to a foreign investor, the US-based Seabord. Nevertheless, since 2006 Kwaba has not been in operation due to managerial and investment problems.
As part of the strategy already referred to, and as part of the institutional norms for the privatisation process, all the mills ought to have been sold on the open market, with guaranteed shares for workers and small local shareholders. Formally, the ministers of industry and of finance announced that privatisation would be undertaken through public tenders in the case of 60% of the shares of the Saidy Mingas and Aliança mills in Lubango, Huila province. Another example of public bidding in the same sector was the privatisation of shares in the Empresa Industrial de Produtos Alimentares (EMPAL – Industrial Food Production Company) in favour of Fundo Lwini, which belongs to first lady Ana Paula dos Santos. In Joint Executive Decree no 31/00 of 21 April 2000, the then ministers of finance and of industry, Joaquim David and Albina Assis, declared that ‘there was no public participation by individual or collective entities’ and, consequently transferred ownership of the firm directly to the first lady. Although this deal represents influence peddling in favour of President dos Santos’s wife, the trick of supposedly opening the deal to public tender demonstrates how MPLA leaders comply with the law and the rules of transparency selectively and at their own convenience.
GEFI, though its subsidiary Sogepang, also received 20% of the shares in Cerangola, the second biggest grain processing factory in the country, in Benguela. Seabord was also asked to contribute its know-how to this project. The MPLA’s taste for the bread business extends also to the Sociedade dos Industriais de Panificação de Luanda (Luanda Baking Industries Partnership – Sopão), in which GEFI is the second-largest shareholder, with 20% in relation to Martal’s 35%.
Yet despite the privatisations, the state continues to intervene in the sector through mechanisms that raise further doubts. At the Conference on the Re-launching of the Food Processing Industry 2009-2012, held in May last year, the government announced an investment in US$100 million in the construction of two wheat mills, with a production capacity of 1,000 tons per day. JP Morgan and local banks will lend the money for the construction of the factories, which are to be built in the provinces of Bengo and Kwanza-Sul.
At the same conference, the director of studies and planning in the ministry of industry, José Gonçalves, unveiled plans for the imminent rehabilitation of the Kwaba, Cerangola and Saydi Mingas mills – the latter in Huila province – at a total cost of US$33 million, to be raised from local banks.
In the projects announced at the conference, the line between public and private investment is blurred. The government has increased investment in industry and other sectors, only to give away ownership of assets, virtually for free, to businesses that belong to government officials. This, however, is another story to be dealt with in due course.
THE MOTOR INDUSTRY
A clear example of the use of state power to the benefit of the private businesses of the MPLA and the country’s ruling families is the case of the Volkswagen and Skoda vehicle assembly plant in Angola. On 23 December 2004, the council of ministers passed Resolution 39/04, authorising Agência Nacional de Investimentos Privados (National Private Investments Agency – ANIP) to enter into an investment contract with the American Company Ancar Worldwide Investments Holding, worth US$48 million. On 26 January 2005, ANIP initialled the contract for the assembly of 160 cars per day at Pólo Industrial in Viana, Luanda.
This contract was signed after Ancar undertook to hand over 49 per cent of the shares in its Angolan offspring to five Angolan-based companies, namely: - Acapir Lda, a company that belongs to the president’s daughter, Welwitchia dos Santos, usually known as Tchizé dos Santos. - Mbakassi & Filhos, official representative of Volkswagen in Angola; - GEFI, the MPLA’s company; - Suninvest, investment arm of the Fundação Eduardo dos Santos (FESA), the President’s private institution; - Tchany Perdigão Abrantes, cousin of Tchizé dos Santos. Three days after the contract was signed, the chairman of FESA, Ismael Diogo, called a meeting at FESA’s headquarters, with a representative of Ancar, Carlos Garcia, the owner of Mbakassi & Filhos, António Mosquito, and as a witness, the then administrator of FESA and chairman of Suninvest, António Maurício.
Ismael Diogo called the meeting, as stated in the minutes, ‘according to a mandate from His Excellency the President of the Republic, Engineer José Eduardo dos Santos’, to clarify the circumstances and the reality that ACAPIR Lda. would have to participate in the ‘Ancar – Automóveis de Angola’ partnership, owing to the fact that one of the shareholders was the daughter of the head of state, to obtain his favour for the approval of the investment project.
Mbakassy & Filhos felt cheated at having had 16 per cent of the quota meant for them taken away in order to accommodate the president’s daughter, who was then named vice-chair of the board of Ancar – Automóveis de Angola. According to the minutes, ‘at no time did Ancar Worldwide Investments Holding explain the offer of 16 per cent to ACAPIR Lda. in order to benefit from the favours of His Excellency the President of the Republic in the approval of the project.’ The final decision in the council of ministers to approve Ancar’s project rested with President dos Santos, as head of government.
The point worth noting about the Ancar case is that a business row, not a dispute about the legality and transparency of the deal, took place at government level. Dos Santos was involved in a blatant act of influence peddling, in favour of his foundation, his daughter, and his party’s company GEFI, which received 12 per cent of the shares in the project. The case was considered worthy of a second stakeholders’ meeting in order to redistribute the shares among the presidential family, the MPLA’s business interests and those of Mosquito, a businessmen who has benefited from the MPLA’s wealth distribution policies.
Nevertheless, according to information published in the German press in July 2005, the chairman of Volkswagen, Bernd Pischetsrieder, delayed the plans to install the assembly plant owing to allegations of corruption surrounding the project.
Also in the motor industry, GEFI was the direct beneficiary of the privatisation of the Mabor tyre factory, now renamed Pneucar. GEFI received 60 per cent of the shares in the company that owns the factory, which is currently not operational.
OTHER BUSINESSES
In the retail business, GEFI benefited from the privatisation of the country’s largest hypermarket, Jumbo, in Luanda. GEFI formed a partnership with the third-biggest French company in the sector, the Auchan group, GEFI taking 51 per cent of the shares while the French company has since 1996 owned 30 per cent of Jumbo’s capital. Other partners, including the current secretary of the council of ministers, Joaquim Reis Júnior, and others linked to the regime control 19 per cent of the shares.
In the construction sector, the biggest growth area of the last few years, GEFI gained 20 per cent ownership of the metal structures factory set up by the Portuguese company Martifer in Viana, Luanda. Martifer is in turn a subsidiary of the Portuguese construction firm Mota-Engil, which is expanding its business interests in Angola through establishing partnerships with influential figures in the regime. This type of investment pattern is the secret of the success of most of the Portuguese and other foreign companies that are doing well in the Angolan market.
On the other hand, when it is unable to attract a foreign investor and manager, GEFI’s day-to-day management capacity is notable. Its subsidiary Sengoservice, which manages Feira Popular (People’s Fair), in Luanda, has turned the country’s biggest amusement park into an informal market selling clothes and household goods. The MPLA’s accumulation of private property, through the privatisation of state assets, also includes the fixed and mobile assets of the old button factory that is currently out of use, and bookshops in the city of Luanda. GEFI also sold thousands of Christmas hampers to state and private institutions, through its subsidiary Dilog, managed by a foreign national by the name of Amin Herji.
GEFI has negotiated with the ministry of fisheries over the management of the Kapiandalo fish-processing factory in Benguela as well as receiving 60 per cent of the company’s shares, with no public consultation, and no consideration to what benefit the deal might have for the state. Still in the fishing sector, GEFI co-owns Epata Fishing, which is licensed to fish in Nambian waters, as well as having shares in other fishing companies.
The MPLA’s incursions into the private security business are also worth noting. GEFI is the sole owner of Socorro, which protects the party headquarters and other buildings as well as its leaders. Sambiente, another GEFI company, is also involved in industrial security despite current problems.
On 16 March 2006, GEFI formed a partnership with the state businesses Sonangol (petroleum), Endiama (diamonds), Porto de Luanda (harbour), Fundo de Desenvolvimento Económico e Social (social and economic development fund), Grupo Ensa (insurance) and a further 18 private entities, as founding partners in the Angolan Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Valores e Derivativos de Angola), which was constituted as a limited company and is expected to start operating soon.
CONCLUSIONS
Despite various enquiries to people close to the government about the MPLA’s businesses, all that emerges is a consensus about the lack of information, even by the party’s central committee and political bureau, about the amount of capital that GEFI has acquired, how it is managed, its annual profits and where the money ends up. After the party’s fifth congress in 2003, its chairman, José Eduardo dos Santos, put Manuel Vicente, a central committee member and chairman of the board and CEO of state oil company Sonangol, to audit the MPLA’s business interests with a view to better management and better returns. Yet what happens to the profits remains a mystery, as does the question of financial management.
In contrast, some figures in the MPLA speak of the exemplary way in which Maboque, another holding company created by the party, has presented its accounts and duly contributed to the MPLA’s coffers. Maboque is a company that has secured its reputation in Angolan society by offering an annual journalism prize worth US$100,000. João Melo, an MPLA parliamentarian and the director of the magazine África 21, won the prize in 2009. Still, the way in which the MPLA uses the contributions from Maboque raises other questions, which will have to be the subject of a future article on Maka Angola.
The transfer of state assets to GEFI must be understood in the institutional context of the dividing up of state resources among certain figures: The families of the political elite and their Angolan and foreign associates. From the research that I have been doing in the past three years, I have learnt of the workings of an office in the External Intelligence Services (SIE) which has been involved in the allocation of business privileges to political leaders, their families, associates and people co-opted. The office in question sets up companies, chooses their shareholders and suggests which state assets should be given to them, and which foreign investors should be brought on board as partners. The final decision in this regard always rests with the president of the republic.
During an extraordinary party congress in 1980, the MPLA’s biggest decision was the ‘subordination of the state and all economic and social activity’ under the party’s leadership. The subsequent liberalisation of the economy has been used to bring about a system even more perverse than the one created by the MPLA 30 years ago. Nowadays, the state, all economic and social activity in the country, not to mention the MPLA’s own structures, have been brought under the absolute private control of the business interests that benefit the ruling families.
With respect to the MPLA’s role as a party of the left, concerned with the situation of the most disadvantaged members of society, reaffirmed in its sixth congress, in December 2009, the reality is different and the ideology is irrelevant. The concept of social solidarity and equal opportunity applies only to select members of the ruling elite who have been given the task of looting the country.
NOTES
[1] MPLA is the Portuguese acronym for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola.
[2] In 2001, dos Santos appointed the then MPLA parliamentarian, Julião António, for a three-year term as Presiding Judge of the Tribunal de Contas. On 28 December 2008, José Magalhães, another judge of the tribunal, wrote a letter to the newspaper Seminário Angolense, complaining that Julião António had been occupying his position illegally since 2004 when his mandate ended. Since then, Julião António had not been reappointed in terms of the relevant legislation, which also imposes a two-term limit on incumbency as Presiding Judge. Magalhães notes that any decisions signed by Julião António therefore have no legal force.
[3] For more information on who benefited from the brewery privatisations, see http://makaangola.com/wp-content/uploads/O-trafico-de-influencias-do-grupo-gema.pdf

- CASE No. 18 -Case No.18 has been moved to the List of The Official List of the Henchmen of the MPLA Regime

Criminal state of affairs, and wide spread Endemic Corruption MPLA Regime Bribery, Money Laundry and Corruption  Daylight theft and pillage of the state assets

 

- CASE No. 19 -

In 1983, 70 South African university students, who had joined the ANC struggle, were executed in the municipality of Cacuso, in the Northern province of Malanje. According to some sources, the ANC men were executed by the regime because they refused to fight against UNITA. The sources stated that the students believed that they were in Angola to receive military training and then to be sent back home to fight in their own struggle, and not to join another country's civil war.

- CASE No. 20 -

The assassination of the King of the Bailundo King Utondossi II

The orchestrated Assassination of Utondossi II King of the Bailundos, who was physically assassinated by the Political Police of the MPLA Regime, with the go ahead from the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos and of Augusto Kachytiopololo the death of King Utondossi II of the Bailundos People happened 2008 after an attempt to his life made on the 30 of May of 2007 at 18:30 hours in the village of Lunge where he resided.
In the occasion of the Assassination attempt which resulted a few months in the cause of the Kings death, the Secretary of UNITA issued the following statement concerning the assassination attempt suffered by the King.
REI DO BAILUNDO "UTONDOSSI II" FOI VÍTIMA DE TENTATIVA DE ASSASSINATO
31 de Maio de 2007
Bailundo - Um comunicado da Direcção da UNITA, que publicamos na integra, informa que o Rei UTONDOSSI II, do Reino do Bailundo foi vítima de tentativa de assassinato e apela a intervensão das autoridades competentes.
COMUNICADO
We give notice to the national and international public opinion the following facts:
1. Sua Majestade, o Rei UTONDOSSI II, do Reino do Bailundo foi vítima de tentativa de assassinato ocorrido ontem, dia 30 de Maio de 2007, por volta das 18 horas e 30 minutos na comuna do Lunge, área da Tunda, quando se encontrava na sua residência.
2. Sua Majestade, Rei UTONDOSSI II, encontra-se ferido em consequência dos disparos de armas de fogo de que foi alvo.
3. Esforços estão a ser envidados para a sua evacuação para o Hospital Municipal do Bailundo.
4. A Direcção da UNITA lamenta o facto de a criminalidade estar a alastrar-se e atingir índices alarmantes de tal sorte que também os cidadãos das longínquas áreas do País terem as suas vidas permanentemente em perigo.
5. Apelamos e solicitamos que as autoridades competentes investiguem com urgência mais este caso e que os actores deste hediondo crime sejam levados à justiça.

Luanda, 31 de Maio de 2007, Secretário-Geral, UNITA, Mário Vasco Miguel Vatuva

- CASE No. 21 -

Don Muatxihina Chamumbala

Death in the Prisons of the unelected and corrupt Regime of the MPLA, the
First Martyr of the struggle of the Lunda Tchokwe People

Don Muatxihina Chamumbala Prisoner of the Communist MPLA Regime in the MPLA Prison of Condueje in Lunda North

3 October 2010

Dom Muatxihina Chamumbala 56 years old died on Monday 3 October 2010, around 20 hours in the Provincial Hospital of North Lunda, a member of the Manifesto and Son of the Lunda Tchokwe.
The first martyr to die in defence of the natural rights of the people of the Lunda Tchokwe. He was detained for 18 months since April 2009. Earlier this year became ill and was denied all forms of medical attention.
On 12 October 2010, the First Martyr in the defence of the Lunda Tchokwe people would be tried together with Dr Philip Malakito Jota and 33 other members of the Lunda Tchokwe Manifesto, however, illegally imprisoned by the unelected MPLA Regime which in its 35 years in power has only brought misery and death to the People of the Lunda.
The CMJSPLT Renders homage to this hero and son of Lunda Tchokwe People.
Follow up: On the 5th of October the MPLA unelected and Brutal Regime disposed of the Body of Dom Muatxihina in a common grave, not allowing the Family that where present to make a proper burial. 

O Ditador Fulano José Eduardo dos Santos e o seu Regime de Terror do MPLA

Cobardemente enterram o Primeiro Mártir da Lunda Tchokwe
sem consentimento da Família e tão pouco respeitou as normas e costumes africanos.

6 October 2010

Dom Muatxihina Chamumbala Bonifacio, Primeiro Martir da Lunda Tchokwe tinha 56 anos de idade, era pai de 7 filhos e 19 netos morto pelo Regime Criminoso do Jose Eduardo dos Santos e a quadrilha de mMalandros do MPLA.
Ainda assim foi ontem (5 Outubro 2010) a enterrar no Dundo sem o consentimento da sua família, nem respeito as normas e os costumes Africanos.

A Família Muatxihina Chamumbala Bonifacio, Primeiro Martir da Lunda Tchokwe chegou pela noite as 23 horas, vindo do Município do Cuango, na localidade de Cafunfo sua zona natal e foi surpreendida com a notícia, segundo a qual o corpo do Muatxihina Chamumbala Bonifacio, Primeiro Martir da Lunda Tchokwe foi enterrado pela Policia do MPLA em Dundo na vala comum, como de um Bandido ou de um forasteiro desconhecido se tratasse.

Don Muatxihina, foi raptado no Cafunfo na operação caça as "Bruxas" do Manifesto do Protectorado da Lunda Tchokwe, no dia 4 de Abril de 2009 conjuntamente com outros 270 pessoas acusadas de estarem a fazerem manifestações de um partido desconhecido. Posteriormente havia sido inventada outra calunia, segundo a qual haviam rasgado Bandeiras do Regime Criminoso e não eleito do MPLA, acusações estúpidas como é costume dos partidos Marxistas Leninistas.

Na triagem feita no Cuango, ele ficou entre os 34 elementos enviados ao Dundo com o Processo N.º 3450 - B/2009, que seria julgado este dia 12 de Outubro de 2010.

- CASE No. 22 -

THE KILLING OF THE BAKONGO BY THE MPLA, THE GENOCIDE OF THE BAKONGO
By the  MPLA unelected Communist Regime

22 January 1993: The MPLA Military forces and the Angolan national police have massacred civilians, mostly Bakongo in several cities.
Several reports suggest that this was a deliberate attempt by the MPLA (composed of Kimbundo & Sao Tomense ethnic tribes) to deliberately destroy the Bakongo Tribe, Ethnic Cleansing. The number of dead is confirmed to be in the hundreds, most reports suggest between 100 to 150 dead. Some Ovimbundu were also killed. This massacre, is called "Bloody Friday" perpetuated.
A N'Kongo, is a son of this land bequeathed by our ancestors which presently is annexed to something called angola.
In this non existent country product of the ignorant Portuguese colonial mind we find the Kimbundu tribe overruling the Ovimbundu and other tribes, in this fictitious Country referred form now on as angola. The capital of this fictitious state is called Sao Pedro de Luanda to give its full portuguese colonial name and was established as the fictitious angolan country's capital by the Constitution; no one knows who voted for such a constitution.
It is funny that a city that occupies an area in Kimbundu's tribe was chosen as the capital. In this fake state called angola if you are from Luanda or knowing the Kimbundu language makes you a true angolan, or "more" angolan than others, we Bakongos are not angolans and we wish nothing to do with the angolans if the Kimbundu and the Ovimbundu wish one another so mote it be but we Bakongos wish neither.
We would like to remind the International Community of our feelings, just as BEN GURION extolled for the creation of today's State of Israel.
Consult history, it is written by men, we, Bakongos, already had our State, we do not need to create it again because it already existed, and it still exists.
We are not "Zairians", the name Zairian comes from the Zaire River that was written by Diogo Cao because he did not know, how to pronounce the word "N'zadi". We do not belong to the colonial invention of angola, or anybody. We have our history and culture, and we will never succumb to its destruction, no matter who that would be, kinfua nfua kimpinga m'pinga vo ka mu ntekelo ko, mu muana.
Let it be known that we are Bakongos, children of King N'Zinga a N'Kuvu, from the Kongo, and neither murderers nor public infractions will make us turn our backs to our African and Bakongo dignity.
It is terrible to die just for being Mukongo. Who is the native that cannot live in the capital of his country? Why is it a crime being a Kikongo? No one will be able to say that this oil that angola is so proud of comes from the Kikongos land. Have we ever asked for compensation? Or put this in a check? Who are the ones that kill us? And why do they kill us? Aren't we humans?
We demand an explicit action by the unelected State Government of the fictitious state of angola and the religious authorities, and the unelected political parties, without pretexts or hidden motives. Shall we continue to watch impatiently our brothers die just because they do not know how to speak Portuguese well? What is the official national language, portuguese or Kikongo? Who is angolan, Paulo Dias de Novais or Nimi a Lukeni? What's the crime for wearing the cloth? In Africa, only the "exiled" wear the cloth. In Togo, Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroon, Congo, Zaire, and even Mozambique, has anyone ever killed a person for wearing the cloth? We are all tired of knowing that during Carnival in Victoria, angolan traditional party, people dance with cloths in the parades. Why don't they dance with wearing pants, which is considered other people's culture? Is this African? Let's think about the ones that are against the cloth...
Why are people in this fake state of angola killed because they don’t speak portuguese and they only speak kikongo? What's the reason for this sacrilege? Why are we the ones to be sacrificed? Is it because we are weak? Less fanatic? The ones that like the Bible?
During the fight against the European coloners the Bakongo people where at the forefront of the fight and the list of Kicongo great heroes is long. But let's remember only the leaders Benedito, Bufa, M'Bidi Emilio, N'donda and others... in the so called second war of liberation; no one remembers commandant Mawete, and Moni mambu. In the end our contribution was nil. And now, talking about the exiled ones who during the colonial oppression did not go to Brazil, Portugal, Zambia, Zaire or Congo looking for tranquillity?
Nevertheless, whomever is the exiled will be also the next category of innocent children that escaping this month in Soyo to Zaire, as well as in the Lundas to the same destination? Why aren't we understood in the countries where we went looking for asylum?
Does any portuguese suffer retaliation at the beach? Or is any angolan exiled from Portugal told to stop the taxi and be forced to speak Kimbundu as a life saving test? This is hatred and surpasses the justification for power and people's rage, after all, what people, the same ones that we are part of, and no one help us during that bloody Friday, nor protected us from the crazy policemen. IT'S ALL A LIE, no victim in this world is able to forget his aggressor; we saw a police car (Nissan) using speakers at the Asa Branca square saying: "Let's get rid of all exiled ones, it's not by accident nor is the people the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes inspired by our democratic press, the popular educator that since 1976 has never been able to see the difference between a Mucongo and a Zairian, consequently, some of the dead (N'Simba Antonio...) did not know where Zaire's border was, they were born in colonial ruled Mbanza Congo Angolan and killed in Mbanza Congo MPLA Angolan Army controlled territory, therefore, where were they exiled from? But the MPLA unelected Deputy Minister of Communication that controls everything is not passed just because he is not from Uige, was never in Zaire, even in FNLA and afterwards USA? Only if he is "zaza" not American nor Uncle Sam nor Yankee. This is dangerous. Would it be a vendetta against the Bakongos? We cannot continue to cry, they attack us Bakongos everyday. There's not a day that goes by that an exiled person is not beaten and people get money in the Kwanzaas and Congolese’s.
Why do the policemen that patrol Mabor and Palenca walk around with pockets filled with money? We do not have a newspaper to help us Bakongos.
Why? Is it fear? Or familiarity and crime complicity? Who could accept seeing a dead woman with a knife in her vagina? Where are the human rights? Just because she wore the cloth? Unfortunately, besides the accidents that cannot be helped in Bakongo territory, there are also incomprehensible murders. An exiled man was cut up just because decided to sell his things at the "Roque". Where is the crime?
What happened to the public peace? When the MPLA police in plain view of the Congolese shot a young lady because she pronounced the letter “R” with a stronger accent while pronouncing the word Rice (Arroz).
At lgreja Evangelica Baptista de Neves Bendinha (Neves Bendinha Baptist Church), our bibles were burned by the MPLA. Why throw rocks at the worshipers at lgreja da Samba (Samba Church), when all of us heard the MPLA unelected government's “commitment” during the Pope's visit to Angola? If you want to see for yourself go to Neves Bendinha and you will see that the church's lot was divided by people that built their houses with parts of the church, and all of this was done without the unelected MPLA government's interference.
Why all this anger, the vote? Dr. Savimbi won the elections in Uige and Zaire provinces or was UNITA the winner? But, who are the ones that accuse us of voting for UNITA, and why should this be a crime?
Today, in the artificial country of Angola newspaper, they have in the past printed and accusing us from coming to their capital Luanda wearing slippers and today we have homes and video.
These same newspapers remain silence in reference to the origin of the money of many, foreign cars, and houses repaired with foreign money, and also by foreign companies.
After all, who owns the apartment in the City of Porto in Europe where the unelected MPLA Deputy Minister of Education goes during is repeated vacations? Is she also an exiled? Has the press ever told the people about the punishment received by Monty that watched a warehouse burn during the South African march, and afterward became the Minister of Oil and left the Bakongos land? Stole money and went to France, the whole press heard that, but now with his reappearance in Luanda, he is remodelling his mansion along with Dnefa, right in front of that same Angolan newspaper.
We are Bakongos; they force us to consider ourselves as such because we do not see other crimes.
If it is the fact of being Zairians, why not invade the Zairian Embassy that is located in Vila Alice instead of looking for them at the square and surely not finding them. Getting them mixed up with Bakongos, 40 people dead is not the balance of the Blood Friday massacre, or three injured, we know the victims because the majority are our mothers, aunts and sisters: the grieve belongs to all Bakongos, you see in their sad faces.... It is not worth just crying, the democracy will come someday and we will have other journalists and certainly not the Kukas and Kokas, that the biographies are not interested in mentioning.
Everyone should seriously meditate about the jokes and caricatures shown in the Angola newspaper that insults and aims always at the Bakongos before the silence from all Bakongos.... If someone could lend us a Nelson Mandela instead of those that carry around diplomatic passports, each and everyone should seriously ponder at home, work, street, church, beach, and everywhere, about the next massacre, are we going to be alive? Despite the police being well equipped like any modern police force in the planet and without UNITA in Luanda, they displayed inaptitude, and even helped to kill. It is not a coincidence nor a crime committed by the "lumpanos" as they intend to claim. How can it be explained the crimes taking place at the same time, during the same time frame, in the same day, miraculously coinciding with the siege of Palanca, Petrangol, and Mabor to Rocha Pinto where traffic police were seen armed with AK machine gun.
We have our land, our towns Landa, Soyo, M'Banza Congo, Kimbele, Sanza Pombo, Zombo, Damba, Bembe, Negage, Cangola, and others are Bakongo land, and there we were never considered foreigners. We would like to question ourselves and to have an explanation regarding the oil that is taken from Cabinda and from Soyo, Bakongos land. How can we be victims of this oil? Or victims of the arms purchased with the money from this oil? We heard the civil defence people say: let's get rid of all Zairians. Everyone knows that in Luanda there is no distinction between the two categories, despite the fact that the second ones were also victims of the first ones during the exile in Zaire and in Congo. Where should we go? We will be in agreement to evacuate Luanda, but the Government of the national unit must comply with the following conditions:
1. The dismissal of all Bakongos from the FAA (MPLA Armed Forces) because no foreigner dies in a foreign land and in no country of the world a foreigner is admitted into the armed forces;
2. Provide means of transportation: planes, trucks and boats to be leased with money from our oil and from our coffee so we can return to our native provinces;
3. Registration of the ones who do not wish to return to the provinces, with resident alien cards, with the process in DNEFA, so they can also earn compensation like others we cannot mention here.
We do not want to play with the soul of our loved ones. We have religion and culture. Because of this, any Mucongo in Angola, wherever you are, should always remember Bloody Friday as a day of Remembrance; another massacre just took place in the country, the strongly desired to exterminate Bakongos has started due to the austerity of our Culture and Traditions. They consider us passe... the massacres in Malanje, in Lubango (neighbourhood of Mitcha), and in Kuito (Girao Hotel), where it is understood that the victims were associated with UNITA, a grey war zone, but there is no justification for 22 January1993 massacre of the Bakongos, because, for a long time now, the unelected government has been in control of the public order in the town. Each one should draw his own conclusions.
Who wants to exterminate us? Who do we bother? Do not sleep brothers.
UNITA members are not the only one that can fire a gun. We can crown our King because the heir to the Bakongo Throne still exists and we know him we have with us a copy of the letter sent by Eduardo Pinnock, the father, not the famous son Johnny Pinnock, to the State Department of the United States on May 20, 1956 and signed by Barros Nekaka and others this does imply us with UPA. We also have the movement manifesto of Fuberto Youlou's regrouping the Congo people, and also the foundation of the Portuguese Congo in 1884 by the invading Portuguese colonial authorities which we did not invited.
We know where to start because history will not forgive our weakness. Congo existed once as a State and it can exist again.
The MPLA press only writing articles whenever a plane from Lisbon or Paris arrives in Luanda with suitcases filled with clothing, but look for "exiled ones" to sell in Roque and afterwards divide the money. We are not the ones; we cannot continue to die in silence.
After all who are the ones that deceive us, exiled or not? Who gets us killed? When the human rights problem encountered by Angola has caught the attention of the UN committee? Who are the ones that benefit with this? We cannot remain silent. There is not reason for slums in Luanda when everywhere you look in Luanda you can see cars that cost as much as a three bedroom house. After all who are the thieves, is it the exiled that condemn the people to live in this poverty? Have you ever met a "retro" that has purchased super stores in Alvalade or Miramar? Have you ever seen the name of one of them in lists that they are going to buy such factories, industries, pharmacies, etc.... that are for sale? What's the reason for such anger?
The Bakongo Nation, Mbanza-Kongo, January 26, 1993

- CASE No. 23 -

United Nations reports MPLA torture abuse in Cabinda

3 October 2007

United Nations Human Rights investigators say that they have found evidence of arbitrary detention, torture and other human rights abuses in Cabinda.

A working group led by Algerian lawyer Leila Zerrougui spent 10 days interviewing more than 400 detainees.

In a statement released to the media, Ms Zerrougui says they saw detainees who "showed visible signs of torture".
The statement from the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva says, "The present institutional and legal framework governing the aspect of deprivation of liberty is still flawed".
The working group found evidence that torture and ill treatment were used to extract confessions from suspects at two prisons.
The Cabinda question. The investigators also said there were credible allegations that civilians are held incommunicado at military facilities in the oil-rich nation of Cabinda.
"They are never produced before a judge," said Ms Zerrougui.
"The right to access to a lawyer and a corresponding legal aid system as guaranteed by the MPLA constitution, exists only in theory".
The group were denied access to Cabinda military prison where the alleged "secret detentions" take place.
Last month, a pro-independence Cabindan civic group complained that some of its members were arbitrarily arrested ahead of a visit to Cabinda by gang leader of the MPLA the well-known Bastard Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

- CASE No. 24 -

Child Slave Labour Camps in Angola

16 December 2010

Local villagers report to Voice of America that 200 underage children work in forced labour camps 15 hours per day in Communist Chinese run rice fields guarded under the eye of Presidential Armed Guard personnel. This children where kidnapped by the MPLA Regime in the provinces of Benguela, Kwanza-Sul and Huila, without access to any medical assistance.

- CASE No. 25 -

Pregnant Woman Assassinated by the MPLA Regime

The spokesperson of Mpalabanda the Cabinda Civil Association also denounced last Friday that the MPLA Regime army carried out “yet another violation of human rights” in Cabinda.
“It happened in Dinge, when a soldier opened fire on a lorry in which were several civilians, traveling to Ncutu (municipality of Mbucu-Nzau, Mayombe) to sell their products.” The source revealed that the shots wounded two civilians, “Elisée Khonde Muanda, 28 years old and eight months pregnant, and Paulo Conde, 25 years old”. The pregnant lady did not survive; she finally died Saturday at dawn. “Elisé Muanda leaves behind her husband Panfilo, from Ncutu, and little Elisabeth Conde, who is eight years old”.
Paulo Conde “is still struggling between life and death, in the intensive care unit of Cabinda Central Hospital, where the two victims were transported to, following these acts of barbarism carried out by MPLA Regime soldiers, whose identity and whereabouts are as yet unknown.”
“Even so, the unelected MPLA Regime maintain there are no human rights violations in Cabinda”, concluded the Mpalabanda the Cabinda Civil Association spokesperson.

Elisée Khonde Muanda28 years old , 8 months pregnant
assassinated by the MPLA Regime on the 28 January 2006 in Cabinda

13 February 2006 Cabinda: WS on Human Rights Situation in Cabinda
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-second session Item 9 of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD
Written statement* submitted by the International Federation for the Protection of the Rights of Ethnic, Religious, Linguistic and Other Minorities (IFPRERLOM), a non-governmental organization on the Roster
The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
Cabinda,The human rights situation in Cabinda is characterised by a heavy army presence, following the earlier military offensives launched by the Government. The army presence is extended to all localities and is largely interpreted as having the intent to control and intimidate the population. The Angolan Government has done little to address the resulting human rights violations, which have been compiled in several reports, produced by the civil society association Mpalabanda.
The report of Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, 21 February 2005, states that representatives of state prosecution and judiciary in Cabinda claimed they had not received any cases of human rights abuses and merely alluded to instances of “overzealous” action by the police. The report concludes that either the judiciary does not receive the cases or chooses not to address them.3
Harassment and intimidation in the territory continue on a daily basis. A strong contingent of “anti-riot” police is present in the capital and has been used to prevent civil society meetings and initiatives. The anniversary of the treaties signed between Portugal and Cabinda are always a time of particular tension. On the anniversary of the Treaty of Chinfuno, a visit to the monument commemorating the treaty was marred by police intervention. Twenty five people were detained, Anselmo Conde Nzau, deputy secretary of Mpalabanda, was beaten by police officers. Mpalabanda’s conference during human rights day was similarly forbidden. On 10 December 2005, fifty youths who went to the conference at Landana, were surrounded by police and military and temporarily detained.
Six members of Mpalabanda were criminally prosecuted; the court absolved them of any wrongdoing.
A march for peace programmed for the 29 January 2006, to commemorate anniversary of the Treaty of Simulambuco was banned. The houses of the main Mpalabanda activists were surrounded by police and riot police were stationed throughout the capital. Two days earlier, on 27 January, Angolan soldiers opened fire on a truck, killing Elisée Khonde Muanda, who was eight months pregnant and wounding another youth, Paulo Conde. This act was preceded on 2 January by the killing of Francisco Banheva, 40 years, old from Mbucu-Chivava. He was working on his land in Mbata-Missinga when he was surprised by a group of soldiers who beat him to death. He had been working on a Monday; a curfew had been imposed in the area whereby people are only allowed to go to their work in the fields on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Concerned at recent development in Cabinda, and alarmed by rising levels of violence, IFPRERLOM calls upon the Commission on Human Rights:
to condemn the use of lethal force by security forces of the government;
to ensure that all extra-judicial acts of killings be investigated thoroughly and impartially
by an independent international body in accordance with international standards;
to put pressure on the government of Angola to stop ongoing human rights violations; and
to request standing invitations of the Commissions thematic mandates to visit the regions in question.

- CASE No. 26 -

Crimes Against Humanity committed by the MPLA Regime

One of the most outstanding facets of the conflict in Cabinda is the consistent violation of human rights. This report intends to call to the attention of the authorities and governmental army, the guerrillas and the national and international public opinion the urgency of putting an end to the barbarism that is happening in Cabinda.
For that purpose, we present, in this first report, as summarized as possible, some cases as an illustration of the actual reality in Cabinda. A more exhausting and detailed report will be presented in due course, with the title of “Cabinda: The Bloody Oil”.
3.1. Summary executions, shootings and murders
October 3, 2003 – FAA soldiers killed two citizens of the DR Congo who were fishing in the Chiloango River on the Angola-DR Congo border, on the outskirts of the village of Massamba, 70 km east of the town of Belize. The two Congolese were in their canoes when the soldiers ordered them over to the riverbank. According to local witnesses, the soldiers tried to interrogate the Congolese, but failed because of the language barrier. Villagers say that the soldiers then shot each man in the head and pushed the canoes back into the river where they drifted with the two bodies.
August 24, 2003 – Joel Bumba, 80, and Joana Maiandi, 77, killed by an FAA corporal, in the village of Maluango-Zau, commune of Quissoki, municipality of Belize. The corporal returned to his unit drunk on “kaporroto,” a homemade drink. He grabbed a weapon and began to fire into the air. A colleague disarmed him, but several hours after the incident, the corporal grabbed the weapon again, and went into the village. He found Bumba and Maiandi seated around a small fire talking. The corporal approached the elderly couple and, without saying word, began shooting at them. On returning to the unit, the corporal told witnesses that he had killed the couple because he thought they were witches.
August 23, 2003 - Faustino Nvindo, 36, a father of six, and Mateus Nsaco, 31 years old, a father of three, shot and killed by FLEC guerrillas. The two men worked as tractor operators and were clearing trails and secondary roads in the village of Caio-Lintene, Necuto commune, when FLEC guerrillas attacked them. The guerrillas shot Nvindo in the back as he fled into the bush. Nsaco was killed sitting on his tractor. FLEC has been trying to interrupt government projects to open trails and grade tertiary roads by attacking civilian workers. In response to the shootings, FAA soldiers raided the area and detained Pascoal Ngoma, 27, and João Codia, 19. The soldiers accused the two men of masterminding the attack, and tortured them by placing heavy beams of timber on their chests as punishment. Ngoma and Codia were released several hours later. The men reported the incident to the area coordinator, and after three days Codia died of injuries resulting from the abuse he received from the soldiers.
July 31, 2003 – FLEC Guerrilla fighters indiscriminately attacked a group of civilians, and shot and killed a woman and two children in the Caio-Guembo–Alto Sundi section, between Vaku I and Luango Kimbama. Mavungo, 25, a resident of Luali, Belize, and Daniel Mabiala, 40, a Congolese citizen, were wounded as a result of this action.
July 16, 2003 – Paulo Mambo João, 40, a coordinator of Micuma I village, was killed by FAA soldiers. Joao and most of the men from his village were hunting for food when, according to a report from a former FLEC soldier and participant in the FAA’s “cleansing operations” in Micuma I, the military ambushed the victim at dawn as he returned from the hunt. The guide for the operation, “Decidido,” a former FLEC officer, recognised Joao and thought leaving him alive might lead to accusations of treason and bring shame upon his family. According to the same witness, João was tied to a tree, interrogated by “Decidido” and, at approximately 05:30, killed with two shots to the chest by the former FLEC officer. The victim was found six days later, tied to the tree and rotting, according to the testimony of one witness. The family identified Joao's body from the clothes and a rosary around his neck. João’s mother, Ruth Tombo, died from cardiac arrest at the Central Hospital of Cabinda on July 24, 2003 after receiving confirmation of her son's death.
July 16, 2003 – Nicolau Nkula Macumbo, 40, and Artur Kinangi were found dead and beaten close to Rio Luali, Belize, three days after their detention at the Iona Commando base. Witnesses said the two victims, both from the Democratic Republic of Congo, met at the river to talk. A soldier, known as “Chorão,” overheard the conversation and sought reinforcements to arrest them. Macumbo and Kinangi spent two days at the Iona base. Their bodies were found on the third day and a village chaplain presided over their burial. The two had lived in Iona village since 1999.
July 14, 2003 – FLEC killed three woodcutters and one child and injured two others, in Vaku, Belize municipality. Maria Nkulukua, 39, whose jaw and teeth were shattered by a bullet, continues to be fed by a tube. The victims were cutting timber when several shots surprised them at around 10:00. One woodcutter was hit in the chest and saw his two colleagues next to him die instantly. The wounded child, a girl about 12 years old, recognised one of the guerrilla fighters and spoke to him in Ibinda (the Cabindan indigenous language). The guerrilla fighter fired at her head. The harvesting and exploitation of timber is a source of great conflict in the area. FLEC demands payment of a “revolutionary tax” from the woodcutters, while members of the military in areas controlled by government forces often exploit the timber resources for their own businesses and personal gain.
June 17, 2003 – Sebastião Lelo, 60, and Teresa Nzati, 47, were killed by FAA soldiers in the village of Buco-Cango around 02:00 during a search operation conducted in some residences. The military began the search at 20:00 to find guerrillas presumed to be hiding in the village. The victims resisted the soldiers’ efforts to search their residence, accusing them of being saboteurs. Confronted by a number of villagers angered by the search, the soldiers withdrew and returned at 02:00. For an hour, soldiers continuously fired their weapons and terrorized the village. During this time, they took Lelo and Nzati from their houses and killed them a few meters outside the village. At daybreak, Nzati's husband, André Mabiala, found his wife dead, lying in her torn clothes with two shots in the chest. Lelo's body lay a few steps beyond, with a shot to the head. At approximately 08:00, an FAA officer, identified as Major Tomás of the 115th Battalion, ordered the detention of André Mabiala, José Nhimi, and Marcelino Baquissi, coordinator of Buco Cango, because they had presented a complaint to the town administrator about the deaths of Sebastião Lelo and Teresa Nzati. After a long interrogation they were released. At about 11:00 the three men were authorized by officers identified as Lieutenant Colonel Estanilau da Conceição “Lacrau” and Major Tomás to remove and bury the bodies.
June 05, 2003 – Afonso Bulo, 20, a native of Ncoi, served as a guide for FAA soldiers who massacred several families taking refuge in the forests during a “cleansing operation.” Bulo recounted seeing helicopters flying over the area weeks before. On June 1, people displaced from other villages travelled through Ncoi on their way to the border. They described the impact of “cleansing operations” on their villages and advised Ncoi residents to take refuge in the Congo. On June 4, the residents of Ncoi also decided to leave the village. Bulo said the villagers walked about 6 km to a nearby village and intended to continue the march early the next morning. Bulo decided to return to the village and on the way was stopped by the FAA. They interrogated him and forced him to indicate the whereabouts of the people who had abandoned the village. Once Bulo had guided the FAA to the villagers, soldiers tied him to a tree. Although Bulo had repeatedly told the soldiers that the villagers were civilians, the FAA troops surrounded them and fired indiscriminately at the group, which consisted of about 14 families. Bulo managed to escape when one of his captors was distracted by the gunfire and the arrival of army helicopters. Bulo is wracked by guilt because he was forced to disclose the villagers' location and hopes that the remains of his lost friends and neighbors will eventually be recovered and properly buried.
May 17, 2003 – Cornélio Albino Macosso, 41, son of Cornélio Macosso and Cecília Malonda, born in Conde-Bumba, Buco-Zau, was found dead on the path between his house and the River Chiloango, in the administrative centre of Necuto commune. The victim had been detained at the 115th Battalion headquarters, on suspicion of supplying fuel to FLEC. Villagers found his body three days after his detention.
May 10, 2003 – Joaquim Machienga, coordinator of the village of Buco-Cango, was killed in his home for supposedly disobeying the orders of FAA soldiers. During a “cleansing operation” in the area, FAA soldiers used various catechists and village coordinators as guides. On May 7, FAA soldiers detained Machienga, also known as “Velho (Old) Kim,” in his field and forced him to identify people supposedly linked to FLEC. When Machienga did not return home, his family notified the traditional village authorities and were informed by the civil education official at the 115th Battalion that Machienga had been detained and would be released soon. The next day, Machienga came home without any physical injuries. Witnesses said Machienga had been ordered to report to the battalion on May 9, but did not do so. On May 10, a sergeant went to Machienga's home and informed his wife that a commanding officer had ordered Machienga to report to the base by 17:00. His wife said she told her husband to follow the officer’s order. At about 18:45, several soldiers surrounded the house, ordered anyone inside to come out, and then started shooting in all directions. When the family returned home later, they found Machienga alive but lying on the floor with bullet wounds in his back. He died shortly afterwards.
May 2, 2003 – Samuel Bumba, 60, son of Samuel Bumba and Pelágia Conde, born in Cungo Butuno, Necuto, was shot dead by FAA soldiers while working his land.
April 25, 2003 – Inácio José Joreca, 38, son of Sebastião Batche and Maria Pola, born in Tando-Caio, Necuto , was accused by FAA soldiers of belonging to FLEC-FAC and summarily executed.
April 20, 2003 – Martinho Buange, 50, son of André Massanga and Cecília Simba, was shot dead by an FAA soldier because he refused to accept his daughter's relationship with the soldier.
April 19, 2003 – David Macaia, 54, son of Abraão Quionga and Ruth Bumba, born in the commune of Miconje, was shot dead in his home in the presence of his family by FAA soldiers at 06:00 on suspicion of having links to guerrillas.
April 5, 2003 – Luís Massanga, 44, son of Bernardo Batsimba and Pascoalina Cumba, born in the village of Buco-Cango, Necuto, was shot dead by an FAA soldier in the early hours of the morning after an argument between them.
April 4, 2003 – Lourenço Gomes Pitra came across a group of 18 civilian prisoners, including an elderly man, being transported from Zala-Ngó to Talibeca, Cabinda. Pitra testified that the prisoners had been taken out of several pits located in the military base for questioning. He identified a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the group who did not know how to speak Portuguese. According to Pitra’s account, an officer identified as Major Nelo from the 124th Commando Battalion, said he was not prepared “to keep Zairians,” tied the foreigner's arms, and ordered him to run. According to Pitra, the man ran several meters and then the officer discharged a burst from his automatic rifle, which hit the man directly. The man took a few steps and collapsed into the tall grass where his body was left to rot.
April 3, 2003 – Vicente Ngoma, born in Mongo-Conde, Belize, and his son-in-law, Filipe Maiúlo, of Pângala, were picked up by FAA soldiers and tortured while traveling from Ngoma's village to the neighboring village of Sindi. After being beaten, Ngoma was stabbed and his corpse abandoned. The soldiers also tortured Maiulo, but spared his life.
April 3, 2003 – Fredyck Ntoma, 40, a male nurse, was killed by FAA soldiers in Alto-Sundi. Ntoma had lived in the village for five years and was the only nurse in the district. On April 3, six soldiers from a detachment of the 709th Battalion, operating in Alto-Sundi, Miconje commune (municipality of Belize) came to Ntoma's clinic. Ntoma's assistant, Palmira Bungo, 27, witnessed the event. She said some soldiers engaged her in conversation, while others entered Ntoma's one room clinic. They found Ntoma and dragged him into the yard, ordered him to take off his shirt and interrogated him about why he had provided first aid to a FLEC guerrilla fighter. Ntoma admitted attending to the wounded person in the course of his “professional duty.” One soldier told the others not to waste time with the “Zairian” and fired at his right thigh. Another fired a lethal shot to Ntoma's chest and the soldiers quickly left the area.
April 2, 2003 – Anselmo Bonge II, 35, son of Anselmo Bonge I of Pelágia Keuque, from the village of Buco-Cango, Necuto commune, was shot down by FAA soldiers while he was hunting in the forest, between the Litis and Buco-Cango.
March 31, 2003 – Estêvão Puna, 47 years old, son of Paulo Puna and Rebeca Yelo, born in Cungo Xionzo, Necuto commune, was killed in the village of Buco-Cango by FAA soldiers from the 115th Battalion who were operating in the area. Puna was one of the dozens of local people who had previously sought refuge in the bush during intense military operations but later heeded calls by local officials for people to return to their areas of origin. After returning, Puna was frequently summoned to the battalion command and interrogated. On March 31, he tried to run away from the village. FAA soldiers found him and arrested him on suspicion of belonging to FLEC-FAC. The soldiers bound Puna up in front of his wife and took him away. His body was later found about 9 km from the village.
March 17, 2003 – António Félix, 45, son of António Félix and Mónica Ndumba, born in the village of Cungo Butunu, Necuto commune, was shot dead at midday by the FAA while cultivating his land in Buco-Cango.
March 15, 2003 – Valério Pereira, 33, and João Maria “Diata- Bau”, 36, were found dead in the village of Ncungutadi, after a week of detention in the “Dragoons” unit of the FAA battalion stationed in Caio-Guembo. FAA soldiers arrested the two in their residence, after finding a hunting gun without a license. Helena Malonda, 55, discovered the victims' bodies, with weapons beside each one. She informed the village coordinator who contacted the local military command. The military said that Pereira and Diata-Bau had escaped from the military jail and probably died during the army's efforts to recapture them.
March 11, 2003 – Jorge Macaia, a.k.a. “Mais Velho Chikoti,” 70, born in Caio-Poba, municipality of Buco-Zau, was decapitated by FLEC. Macaia, a retail merchant, was regarded with suspicion by FLEC because of his possible business relations with soldiers and elements of the MPLA. After an FAA operation, FLEC accused Macaia of being an informer and kidnapped him from his business at about 10:00. The following day, the villagers found his headless body in the bush. March 08, 2003 – João Félix Mavungo, 36, of the village of Dinge, was abducted from his property by four soldiers at approximately 17:00. The soldiers accused him of violating legal restrictions concerning work on the land, beat him in front of his wife, Maria Simba, and then took him away. Simba alerted the traditional authorities who pressured the Military Command to release Mavungo. In response to this pressure, the military returned Mavunga's body to his family. Army officials claimed he had died from illness, but his corpse showed clear signs of torture and beating. In addition to his wife, Mavunga left behind three children.
February 2, 2003 – Joaquim Bonifácio, 60, also known as “João Mibali,” was killed by the FAA in the village of Buco-Cango during a military “cleansing operation” there. He was trying to escape along with a group of villagers when the soldiers shot him in the back. His cousin Afonso Vidal witnessed the shooting, and said that he himself was lucky to have escaped.
January 31, 2003 – Gervásio Ngulu, 40, was killed by FAA commandos while hunting with several residents of Keba Diela, Belize municipal district. Commando fighters stationed nearby had trailed the group as they hunted on the outskirts of the village, on the right bank of the River Lufu, which divides the village of Belize. The commandos fired several bursts and the group dispersed. After some time, the other hunters returned to the area of the shooting and found Ngulu's bullet-riddled body. They informed local authorities about the incident, but received no response.
December 8, 2002 – André Mavungo, 12, and his brother Joaquim Mavungo, 10, children of Rafael Mavungo and Suzana Buanga, were shot dead by an FAA patrol in the village of Micuma III while they harvested fruit from the papaya trees in their mother's plantation. It appears that the soldiers used the children for target practice. The head of the MPLA Parliamentary Bench, Bornito de Sousa, happened to be stopping over at the main town in the district for an MPLA anniversary event on December 10. The State Security and the National Police prevented the parents of the dead children from presenting their bodies to the visiting official.
December 2, 2002 – Erdionia Meno, 14, and Delfina Mbuiti, 16, daughters of André Baza and Rebeca Bilala, residents in Mongo Mbuku, were killed by a Special Forces corporal, identified as Michel Guga. Guga was part of a group of soldiers who were billeted in the residence of church worker André Baza. It is a practice in several regions of Cabinda to billet soldiers in villagers’ residences against their wishes. Guga appears to have been enraged by Mbuiti's rejection of his advances. After noticing Mbuiti and Meno heading toward the village to shop, Guga followed them and set up an ambush in the area between Mongo Mbuku and Penekakata. Three women working in the fields nearby fled as he approached, but Guga managed to catch and rape a woman known as Dona Teresa, who had remained in the area. He then waited for the two girls to arrive at his ambush point and led them off the main path. Once out of view, Guga killed Meno by shooting her in the arm and stomach. He grabbed Delfina, who had tried to flee, and raped her and then shot her to death. Guga finished his spree of cruelty and violence by hiding the bodies under some leaves and calmly returning to the girls' home. Because of the trauma suffered by Dona Teresa, she did not identify the location of the incident, and the bodies were only recovered on December 5 by a hunter. According to the girls' father, the FAA has only acknowledged the extent of its responsibility by flying in two coffins from the city of Cabinda. (see Disappearances, Arbitrary Detentions and Torture, September, 3 2003, André Baza)
Perpetrators Unidentified
December 3, 2002 – Six people were found in the area of Buco-Cango, Cata-Massela and Vemba Siala in Necuto commune. Four of the bodies were buried up to the neck while two other bodies were half-buried. All showed signs of having been shot.
November 26, 2002 – Four bodies were found in the village of Buco-Cango and Quicuango at approximately 05:00. Filomela Munto, 12, discovered the weighted down bodies in the Missengui River as she was doing her laundry. When she took hold of what looked like a piece of abandoned cloth, she spotted a corpse. Frightened, she told adults in the village who then recovered the decomposing bodies of two men and two women.
November 22, 2002 – João Rodrigues Lourenço, 53 years old, church worker, was brutally beaten his village, Cochiloango, municipal district of Cacongo, by elements of the military police, that demanded information on the guerrilla movements in the zone. The FLEC men had ambushed a vehicle of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and, as a consequence, some villagers were forced to give leads. Pedro Rodrigues was found dead, by his relatives, three days later, in the forest close to the village.

November 12, 2002 – Chisselena Muaca, 50 years old, farmer, witnessed the death of 30 villagers, in a field close to the village of Caio Segundo, Necuto commune, from the bombardment action of a FAA helicopter. According to the villager, the helicopter detected the concentrated presence of people in the fields and fired several projectiles. These forces were operating in pursuit of FLEC-FAC headquarters, which were in the vicinity of the village. In the disordered escape, Chisselena Muaca had seen tens of dead dispersed in the forest and along the route she took to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with her family. She managed to reach Tchela-Mbata Phangui, Lower Congo, in DRC, with her daughter Dorina Kango, 23 years old, and her one and half year old grandson, José Malonda. In the hospital there, they became aware of the official ban on rendering any medical assistance and medication to the people from Cabinda. Thanks to a priest's assistance, her grandson was saved from his illness, due to the journey under rain and lack of food. In turn, Dorina Kango reported the destruction of crops by FAA and the execution of several civilians that took a risk of seeking food, during the escape and at night, in some fields.
October 20, 2002 – A FAA soldier killed Amélia Teco Luemba, a.k.a. Arlete, 16 years old, in the village of Cata-Chivava, Necuto commune, with a salvo in the back, when she was trying to escape rape. Soldiers entered her house and when they took off her clothes, Arlete managed to flee half-naked outside the house, where she was shot.
September 19, 2002 – Tiago Macosso, born in 1976, son of João Ngola and Ismali Mpassi, was killed in the Necuto Garrison, when he tried to flee after several torture sessions. According to eye-witnesses, Tiago Macosso, from the village of Piandinge, was shot and later burned with a tire that was placed around his neck and then set on fire with gasoline. FAA soldiers had detained him, in the company of other six fellows, when they were at a wake. Three of the detainees were released while the whereabouts of the other two remain uncertain, as will be explained further on.
August 27, 2002 – FAA soldiers detained Vaba, from the village of Mbamanga, by the River Chiloango. He was beaten, tied to a stone and his body thrown into the river. His body was later recovered. The young man was hunting, in the company of a woman, who was released by the military, while he was accused of spying for FLEC.
In June of 2002, three youths were killed by a FAA military patrol in Micuma village (Buco-Zau). The villagers were prevented from burying them, and the bodies were already in decomposition when the municipal authority obtained authorization to do so.
February 18, 2002 – A police officer shot dead Francisco Malesso Buca, 32 years old, from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the middle of the S. Pedro Market, in the city of Cabinda. The police officer was patrolling the market, along with two other colleagues, asked for the victim’s identification card. According to eye-witnesses, upon realizing that the DRC citizen had no legal status in Cabinda, he demanded 1,000.00 kwanzas (less than US$10), to release Mr. Buca. As the victim could only make an offer of 400.00 Kwanzas and, for lack of an agreement, the police officer pointed the gun at the Congolese citizen's head and fired. ? February 05, 2002–Maria Builo, 32 years, mother of four, was shot dead at point blank range by police officers that were pursuing a group of civil demonstrators from the Gika market. She was in the backyard of her residence. Two stray bullets penetrated the backyard directly and they hit Maria Builo in the chest and in the abdomen. The demonstrators were protesting against their forced resettlement, from Gika market, in the center of the city, to another market outside the city.

February 02, 2002 – Lourenço Nkoko, 20 years, was killed with a shot to the stomach by a police officer, named Francisco Paulo, of the Cabinda Provincial Command. The youth tried to pass through a cordon placed around the Gika Market, a plastic tape, and was shot immediately without protest or appeal. The local police command thereafter granted a press conference announcing that the agent would be held to justice and that the deceased had disobeyed orders from the authority. Nothing is known about the result of the reports; neither did the family receive any apologies or offer of compensation.
January 20, 2002 – Male nurse Artur do Carmo responded to Voice of America on the existence of six unidentified bodies in the morgue of the Central Hospital of Cabinda. According to the male nurse, the bodies were taken there early one morning, six months ago, by a FAA military vehicle, Ural, without the military personnel ever returning to recover the bodies. The case came to public through another employee of the morgue who saw the bodies and informed Cabinda Commercial Radio. The doctors placed the bodies on display to see if locals could identify them, some of who affirmed that the corpses were unclothed and showed signs of beating and bullet wounds. The cadavers ended up being buried in a mass grave.
November 20, 2000 – the correspondent of Voice of America in Cabinda reported the death, by a FAA soldier, of a 16 year-old youth during the discovery of an arms cache, located in the village of Luango, municipal district of Cacongo. According to the Voice of America, the cache was discovered by a group of people who, thereafter, communicated it to the FAA. But in addition, according to VOA, the people who revealed the existence of the cache were forced to give names on the ownership of the arms found there. The dissatisfaction of some FAA soldiers on the lack of expected answers, led one soldier to fire at the youth in question.
September 26, 2000 – The Tatoss brothers, Afonso (42 years old) Melo Tatoss, Francisco (40 years old), Lourenço Mazungo (35 years old), Lua Pedro (33 years old) were shot by firing squad in the FAA Military Instruction Center, in Villa Lândana, Municipal district of Cacongo, on suspicion of collaboration with the FLEC. The shooting took place as a consequence of an attack by the FLEC on the referenced center, which happened on the same day. The unfortunates happened to live close to the center. The military raided their respective residences. After the shooting the bodies were handed over to the families for burial.
January 29, 1999 - Filipe Cuanga Mamputu Vemba, son of David Mavendebele, was killed in Chimongo (Cacongo), by FAA soldiers, around 15:00 hours. He was 45 years old. ? December 04, 1998–António Sumbo, 37 years old, resident of Chapa (Cacongo), son of Luís Bayakana (Vuda-Vuda) and Maria was shot dead by the military from Dinge.
September 10, 1998 – Pedro Zacarias Lello, born in 1957, was kidnapped in the city center and tortured at the Plains Military Unit, of Malembo, attached to the commandos. Recently an old hunter reconfirmed his description of what happened since he watched the military at a distance (the unit went into the forest and it is only fenced with a few strings of barb wire) an act of torture. As the soldiers interrogated Pedro Zacarias Lello, they cut the fingers off the hands and afterwards the toes off the feet, then the feet themselves. The eye-witness did not have the strength to endure the barbarism to the end. Before that, according to the hunter, the victim was beaten in such a way that his nephew, António Zacarias, 14 years, kidnapped with the uncle, tried to escape and was killed with a shot in the back. Once again, the mere suspicion of collaboration with the FLEC justified the behavior and the total impunity of the military.
December 19, 1997 - Casimiro Dunge, also a resident of Lico, son of Luciano Tati and Ermelinda Issita, was killed, at 27 years old, by the FAA military in Dinge. ? December 12, 1997—FAA soldiers, from the Dinge garrison, killed, in Lico (Cacongo), Luís Nguba, born in 1946, son of Tiago Bundo and Inês Minga,
April 10, 1997 – Dominique Puabo, 30 years old, resident of Viede (Belize), a village in which he was also a church worker, was killed by FAA soldiers in his village. He was son of Alberto and Tela Bacâmbana.

- CASE No. 27 -

3.2. Disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture
October 7, 2003 – FAA soldiers travelling in two trucks arrived before dawn in the village of Tandu-Bulazi and began a manhunt. The deputy coordinator of the village, Januário Ngola, 49, son of Afonso Futi and Isabel Chibumba, suffered the most during the manhunt operation. Soldiers entered his house and beat him and his wife, Elize Mavungo, 45. According to her testimony, the soldiers kicked Ngola in the area of an existing intestinal hernia and ordered Mavungo to prepare a change of clothing for her husband. The soldiers also seized all the agricultural tools they could find, stole 10, 000 CFA francs (U.S. $10), and threw the family out of the house, while continuing to beat Ngola. His older sister, Virgínia Bumba, was also beaten by the soldiers. Ngola was not protected by his status as an active member in the MPLA (he joined the party on December 13, 1997). The soldiers took him away with other villagers, and his whereabouts remain unknown at the time of publication. Soldiers also entered the house of Ivo Cubola, 25, and beat him, his mother, Charlote Macosso, and her younger daughter, Mataia Macosso, 7. Macosso tried to protect her daughter, but said that she and her daughter were held so a soldier could slap both of them. She also said her son was tied up and thrown to the floor and then taken by the soldiers to an unknown place. The soldiers took Cubola’s official documents and all the farming tools they could find. António Gimbi, 60, and António Camilo, who neighbors say was at least 50, were also taken away after soldiers beat them and various family members. After the manhunt, the remaining men in the village feared for their lives and left their families in the village to take refuge in the city of Cabinda.
October 7, 2003 – Ivo Cubola, 25, son of Jacinto Macosso and Charlote Macosso, born in Piandinge, was accused of being the son of a high-ranking officer in FLEC-FAC and tortured for 12 days by an army officer identified as “Lacrau,” Cubola was tied up in the “rabbit position” (elbows behind the back and tied to the heels, and knees to the chest). He described three pits at the 708th Battalion's base, for three categories of prisoners: one for the “least criminal” suspects – those accused of collaborating or sympathising with FLEC; another for “criminal” suspects – former FLEC soldiers who had given up guerrilla warfare but continue to live in villages without notifying authorities and are suspected of providing logistical support to the guerrillas); and a third pit for suspects considered “highly criminal” – those captured in combat as well as known activists and other individuals involved in the armed movement. The depth of the hole and the treatment meted out to the captives varies according to their status. Cubola said he was part of the “least criminal” group and of the 13 individuals rounded up that morning, six were in the same pit as Cubola. He endured three sessions of interrogation and beatings before convincing the soldiers that he was not the son of a guerrilla commander. Three other men from Cubola's pit were released on the same day he was.
October 7, 2003 – FAA soldiers attacked the village of Tandu-Macuco, Necuto commune, Buco-Zau, in an operation in which women and children suffered the worst of the soldiers’ violence. Alexandre Maluvo managed to escape despite the soldiers laying siege to his house. As a result, his daughter Sofia Landu, 30, received a blow with a rifle butt to her left side which knocked her to the ground, while his two wives, Albertina Futi and Maria Mbumba were repeatedly punched by the soldiers. Rafael Puati, 37, son of Alice Pena and André Puati, was absent from the village during the attack. Soldiers used their hands, feet, and rifle butts to beat his wives, Inês Landu and Magarida Baza. Puati’s son, Joaquim Puati, 8, was also beaten. The soldiers found, beat and detained Jerónimo Conde and Adriano Pedro Suami. Suami’s wife Maria Landu, 22, was also beaten by the soldiers. Soldiers entered the house of Catarina Nvulu and asked for her husband. She told the soldiers she was not married. The soldiers beat her and seized all the money in her possession, 1, 600 kwanzas (U.S. $20).
October 5, 2003 – Following a landmine attack on a military truck between the villages of Talicuma and Talibeca, government soldiers from the battalion stationed at Chinguinguili captured Lourenço Gomes Tibúrcio, 27, son of Joaquim Tibúrcio and Beatriz Lando; António Francisco Tati Tomás, 33, João Batumba, 30, António Willy, 25 (born in Mazengo, Tando-Zinze commune) and José Capita, 28, born in Talibeca (Subantando traditional authority). The soldiers threatened the men with death and used them for five days as guides during military operations. According to the men, the soldiers fed them only salted biscuits. They were not allowed to show any signs of fatigue during the operation, on pain of death. There were no military confrontations during the patrols and the soldiers released the men once the operations ended.
October 3, 2003 – At approximately 01:00, soldiers surrounded the village of Panga-Mongo, Necuto commune and made their way to the homes of half-brothers José Massiala Ngoma, 23, André Simão Luemba, 27, and Bernado António Yambi, 30, the sons of Helena Simba with, respectively, José Massiala, João Khondi and Marcos Afonso. The soldiers alternately beat the three men and hit them with rifle butts in the presence of their families, and then took them to the military command in Necuto, a few kilometers away. On the same day, some of the villagers found out that their neighbors were at the military command. Since then, villagers and the relatives of the detainees have had no information of their whereabouts and fear the worst. According to the few men who decided to remain in the village after the soldiers’ activities, the soldiers acted according to a list containing the names of villagers to be beaten and detained.
October 2, 2003 – Bernardo António, 30, António Simão, 29, and José Massiala, 23, the sons of Marcos Afonso and Helena Simba, born in Panga-Mongo, in the traditional authority of Panga-Mongo, Necuto commune, were rounded up by the FAA at 02:00 at their parents’ home, tortured and taken to the 708th Battalion base. There they were accused of being former FLEC-FAC combatants. They were questioned by a military security official who had come from the city of Cabinda, and before whom they had appeared seven times. They were then cross-examined by General Luís Mendes who had travelled by helicopter from the city of Cabinda to the pits at Necuto. They were released on October 17. While in detention, they met 17 other captives. Based on their experience Antonio and Simao have confirmed testimony about the 708th Battalion provided by another detainee, Ivo Cubola.
October 2, 2003 – Unknown numbers of FAA soldiers surrounded the village of Tandu-Macuco, Necuto commune. They detained and beat Alfredo Mbuemba, Kembo Lelo (a citizen of DR Congo) and Alexandre Tati. The soldiers carried off their families’ meager belongings. It is still unknown where the three men were taken. The soldiers grabbed Mbeua Tati, the two year old daughter of Tati’s wife, Maria Ndele, 22, and threw the child to the floor where they kicked and slapped her. Her mother however, said that the child was not seriously injured. Pedro António, 8, was also thrown to the ground by a soldier. The soldiers did not find his father, also called Pedro António, 40, at home. His wife, Matilde Builo, 40, said the soldiers stole two sheets from the house. She also described daily attacks by soldiers looking for money, chickens or food. The soldiers also assaulted Nataniel Gimbi, 50, a small man who was in bed with his wife when the soldiers arrived. They dragged him out of the house, beat him, and then left him. In the village of Sevo da Buala, Necuto commune, soldiers went looking for Felipe Manuelino at his house. They did not find him home and proceeded to beat his wife, Maria Pedro, 33, with their rifle butts. They also stole whatever money they could find, about 600 kwanzas (U.S. $7).
September 28, 2003 – During the night, FAA soldiers carried out an operation in the village of Panga-Mongo, brutally beating and imprisoning villagers João Duda, 30, Buange Dunge, 23, and a DR Congo citizen known only as Duda. The detainees were accused of supporting FLEC. Since the incident, men and women from the village have stopped going to their fields. According to an elderly man, anyone found in the fields is accused of being the enemy, an accusation that carries serious consequences. The villagers have suffered from hunger as a result.
September 24, 2003 – José Buimi II, 45, was captured by FAA soldiers in the village of Vite Nove, Buco-Zau while on his way to the fields. Soldiers used Buimi for one week as a guide during military operations in the area. He returned home safely once the operations concluded.
September 11, 2003 – Paulo Bilundo, 18, 6th grade pupil, born in Chivula, was forced to eat chilli peppers to the point where he could no longer breathe. Around 09:00 he was confronted by soldiers on the road between Necuto and the village of Necuto, while gathering palm fruit to eat. The soldiers suspected he was on a mission for FLEC, and that his explanation about collecting palm fruit was an alibi for carrying out guerrilla activity. They forced Bilundo to go with them. When they arrived at a field where chilli peppers were being grown, they forced the youth to eat all the peppers he could find, threatening to kill him if he stopped. The young man continued eating until the strength of the chilli started to affect his breathing, at which point the soldiers gave him a green banana to try and neutralise the effect. He was left to “recover” in a pit, and remains in detention at the time of writing.
September 3, 2003 – André Baza, 38, was beaten by police from the municipal command of Buco-Zau. Baza was returning from the dowry ceremony of his daughter when he was picked up by a sergeant known as “Kito”. Kito interrogated Baza about the hunting rifle he was carrying. Kito was unsatisfied with Baza’s explanation and transferred him to the village of Buco-Zau, where an sergeant named Mateus received him and gave him a beating. Mateus then had Baza tied up and began firing into the ground near him. Baza, whose two daughters were raped and killed by an FAA commando in December, begged them to kill him, due to his indescribable suffering. Sergeant Mateus promised to mete out the same treatment reserved for Baza’s “FLEC brothers” but was disarmed by his fellow soldiers who pointed out that the witnesses to Baza’s detention might cause problems he was killed. A parish priest, Father Andre, secured Baza’s release by begging the soldiers and describing all the pain and suffering he had endured due to the murder of his daughters. Baza’s life continues to be in danger because he has outspokenly attributed his daughters’ deaths to Corporal Michel Guga.
September 2, 2003 – João Paulo Paiado, a 34-year old father of nine, was beaten in the village of Pove by soldiers from Zala-Ngó. A group of about 20 commandos, guided by a former FLEC guerrilla fighter known as “Manuelino,” went to Paiado’s residence at dawn. They knocked on the door and then broke it down. The soldiers dragged him in his underwear outside the house, and beat him in front of his family. Later, the soldiers took Paiado in a truck to a field, where they accused him of having contacts with FLEC. The soldiers conducted a “summary judgement” and dug a grave to bury Paiado. However, due to lack of “incriminating evidence,” the military tied up João Paulo Paiado with wire and kept him like that for two days. Paiado’s father and brother, Paulo, 58, and Lourenço Mambuco Paulo, 23, were tortured by FAA soldiers after they attempted to defend Paiado. Ngoma Gabriel, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo working on João Paiado's farm, received five bayonet wounds from Corporal Pedro Piedoso. Gabriel was suspected as being a FLEC collaborator. Two soldiers, known as Baptista and Zé António, from the battalion in Chinguinguil, intervened and prevented Piedoso from stabbing Gabriel to death.
August 30, 2003 – Paulo Macuaco, 19, son of Enoque Macuaco and Alice Lilendo was beaten and stabbed in the abdomen at 14:30 in Binga-Pequeno, municipality of Buco-Zau. Macuaco was bathing in the River Luali, in an area reserved exclusively for men, when a girl known as Alice appeared. Paulo demanded she leave. After an exchange of words, three soldiers from the Alzira da Fonseca unit arrived and ordered the girl to leave. Sergeant Mateus Buio, without asking what happened, pointed his AKM weapon at the youth and threatened to kill him. Another soldier broke Macuaco’s hunting rifle by beating it against his naked body. Because the youth Macuaco continued to resist and the sergeant interrupted the beating session and began to stab Macuaco to avoid the sound of gunfire. Eventually, a number of Macuaco's friends who witnessed the attack were able to help him. The soldiers' unit commander ordered first aid for Macuaco, but it was insufficient relative to the seriousness of his wounds. The sergeant continues to freely walk around Buco-Zau, indicating that no disciplinary measures have been taken against him.
August 28, 2003 – Alberto Bungo, 36, was detained and stabbed with a bayonet by junior FAA officer, known as “Rasgado.” FAA soldiers from the BIQ-708 Battalion had detained Bungo after raiding the village of Conde-Lintene, Necuto, in response to an attack by FLEC. According to Bungo, "Rasgado" interrogated and threatened him with a bayonet in an effort to make Bungo confess to participating in the FLEC attack. During the interrogation, "Rasgado" stabbed Bungo in the foot and the back. "Rasgado" then ordered medical personnel to administer first aid to Bungo and detain him until further notice. Three days later, Alberto Bungo was freed and he returned home.
August 28, 2003 – Afonso Vidal Paca, 41, married with seven children, was tied up and beaten with a piece of timber and with a rifle butt by FAA soldiers in the village of Caio-Lintene, Buco-Zau. In response to a call from the government, he had recently returned to Caio-Lintene after living in the bush. The soldiers accused him of being a FLEC collaborator and beat him in their attempt to extract a confession.
August 24, 2003 – Alberto Nhimi, 31, son of Benjamim Alfredo and Maria da Conceição, born in Necuto, was detained and held for five days in a pit at the Necuto military base during FAA reprisals after an FLEC attack. Soldiers stationed in the village of Cata Chivava began rounding people up in an effort to find anyone who might have been involved in the attack. In the village of Caio-Contene, they detained Nhimi, who was found on the road leading to the location of the attack. He was accused of being a FLEC spy, beaten, and taken to the military base for interrogation by an officer identified as Lieutenant Colonel “Lacrau.” Nhimi’s Portuguese is limited, and several times he responded “yes” to questions when he meant “no”. The commander ordered Nhimi to be placed in a pit, where he remained for five days. Nhimi said he was only let out of the pit twice to drink water. He slept in the pit as well as performed his bodily functions there, until the commander released him after five days. During his captivity, Nhimi was beaten and stabbed with a bayonet and received no medical treatment. The conditions for his release were not specified. José Kumbo, also known as “Willy”, son of Alberto Mango and Josefina Bumba and born in Bembica, was also detained during the FAA reprisal. Like Nhimi, Kumbo was also abused and put into a pit by soldiers apparently acting on the orders from “Lacrau." Kumbo was tied up with his elbows bound together behind his back, his hands in front, and his knees bound to his chest. He remained tied up like this for several days, and almost lost his limbs as a result.
August 23, 2003 – Lúcia Mbéua, 45, tried to prevent the abuse of her son by the FAA following a FLEC attack on the FAA base at Necuto, which resulted in the death of a civilian and a soldier. Tired of seeing youths being tortured with no response from the traditional or local authorities, Mbeua decided to save her son, Lourenço Barnabé, 22, and several other who were being held by the FAA. Upon witnessing her son being maltreated by a soldier known as “Rasta,” the mother hit the soldier over the head with a bamboo cane. The soldier reacted by reaching for his knife and striking Mbeua on the head, knocking her to the ground. Soaked with blood, she was helped by local people who were passing by. She said she would sooner die at the hands of the soldiers than see youths being tortured in her presence. Due to her intervention, her son managed to escape and survive, unlike his friend who did not. She advised her son to leave the village and go to the city until the local FAA commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel “Lacrau,” was transferred.
August 23, 2003 – Berta Umbelina Estanislau, 23, a primary school teacher in Bata-Sosso, was beaten with a machete along with a number of her collegues, by FAA soliders. Civilians in the area said that a group of FLEC guerrillas attacked an FAA position in the village of Bata-Lembe, around 07:30. The FAA soldiers then surrounded Bata-Lembe and the neighboring village of Bata-Sosso. Teachers and pupils, hearing gunfire, tried to leave the area. The soldiers accused them of being complicit in the attack. They forced the teachers and pupils to undress and lie down, and then beat them.
August 20, 2003 – Manuel Gomes, 22, and Alfredo Buza, 20, both born in Caio-Poba, and the sons, respectively, of Manuel Gomes and Eliona Laura, and of Pedro Simão and Maria, were beaten by FAA soldiers who also stole a number of their possessions. In an attempt to protect their possessions from looting by the FAA, Gomes and Buza hid them in the bush, where FAA soldiers found them and collected them during their operations. The two young men went to the Caio-Poba military base to try and claim their possessions. They were suspected of being FLEC soldiers because they had hidden their goods in a place that the FAA thought was a FLEC hideout. The two young men were tied up and beaten and then sent home without their possessions.
August 18, 2003 – Two FAA soldiers belonging to the Buco-Cango Unit went to the home of village coordinator João Matoco in Cata-Liti, Buco-Zau and demanded that he allow them to date his daughter Maria Conceição, 15, and his niece Mónica Matoco, 15. Matoco rejected the soldiers request and asked them to get out of his house. One of the soldiers threatened Matoco. Three days after the encounter, the girls went to school and never returned.
August 14, 2003 – Maria de Fátima, a widow in her forties, daughter of Simão da Costa and Julieta Simba, born in Chivata I in the traditional authority of Caio-Contene, Necuto commune, was suspected of having two sons in FLEC and was detained at about 20:00 by a group of soldiers from the 708th Battalion who were patrolling near Yema Lintene, 3 km from Caio Contene. The soldiers took her to their base, where she was interrogated by an officer believed to be Lieutenant Colonel “Lacrau,” who accused her children of being FLEC soldiers, and of organising various meetings at her house. Fatima still bears scars from when "Lacrau" hit her during the interrogation. Fatima remainded at the base awaiting further interrogation from General Luís Mendes. When Mendes arrived he decided that Fatima was innocent and ordered her release on August 15, 2003, on condition that she persuade her relatives who might be fighting with FLEC to give up the guerrilla war and hand themselves over to the FAA. The village coordinator of Yema Lintene, who witnessed what happened, condemned it and expressed regret that the commune administrator had not spoken out against “Lacrau.”
August 4, 2003 – Luís Capita, 60, also known as Cento e Cinquenta (“One Hundred and Fifty”), son of Capita Chibundo and Celina Futy, native of Chivata I in the traditional authority of Caio-Contene, was tied up and beaten by soldiers from the 708th Battalion, based in the commune of Necuto. FLEC guerrillas had attacked an FAA position in the village of Chivata, injuring several soldiers earlier in the day and Capita was suspected by the FAA of being involved in the attack. Capita, one of the few people who still inhabited his village, was dragged from his home by soldiers and kicked and hit with rifle butts during the 8 km journey to the military base. At the base, soldiers were ordered to tie Capita up in the “rabbit position” – an excruciatingly painful and potentially fatal punishment technique in which the person is tied up with the elbows and heels bound together behind the back, while the knees are pulled up to the chest. The soldiers also beat Capita. An officer identified as Lieutenant Colonel “Lacrau” pronounced summary judgement on Capita and he remained tied up for five hours, before being released for lack of evidence of his involvement in the FLEC attacks.
July 27, 2003 – João Paulo Mavungo, 75, was hit in the leg by shots from an FAA soldier just before midnight in the village of Mbundo, municipality of Belize. Mavungo heard his chickens cackling loudly and looked out his door and found a soldier known as Mário with two chickens in his hand. The apparent thief threw Mavungo to the ground and fired several shots toward his leg and in the air. The Mbundo coordinator took Mavungo to the hospital shortly after the incident.
July 24, 2003 – Joaquim Mibinda (age unknown), José Ngoma, 77, and Tomás Macaia, 72, residents of the village of Micuma II, were ambushed by an FAA patrol close to the village and forced to walk for two days with the FAA patrol in search of FLEC guerrilla hideouts. The soldiers intimidated the men by placing them before a firing squad and interrogating them about the locations of FLEC hiding places. The men were released in the village of Pângala, Ganda-Cango, municipality of Belize, after local authorities intervened and convinced the soldiers to let the men go.
July 4, 2003 – João Kumbo, 24, son of Alberto Tomás and Helena Buanga, born in Bembica, was kept prisoner for one day in a pit at the 708th Battalion base in Necuto, for being a relative of César Pemba, a man wanted by the FAA who had moved to the city of Cabinda. Kumbo was captured by soldiers from the 708th Battalion who wanted information about Pemba's whereabouts. Kumbo had not seen Pemba for more than a year and was unable to provide enough information to the soldiers who beat him until he lost consciousness and put him in the pit for almost 24 hours. He was released on condition that he was expected to supply the FAA with any information about Pemba and FLEC activities.
June 16, 2003 – Hilário Kinahimbo, 33, was beaten by FAA soldiers in the village of Mbombo-Pene while working as a driver for the administrator of Belize municipality, Kinahimbo was driving a white Ford vehicle, registration number CBA-44-42, from the municipality of Buco-Zau to Belize. Three soldiers belonging to the special unit of the Belize 2nd Battalion stopped him to ask for a ride. Kinahimbo told them he could not take them because the vehicle was fully loaded and it would be dangerous to mix civilians and soldiers in the same vehicle. One of the soldiers asked him if the separation between military and civilians was a guideline from "his FLEC bosses.” The soldiers then pulled Kinahimbo out of the vehicle and beat him mercilessly with their rifle butts. One blow hit him in the head and required 12 stitches.
May 22, 2003 – Lando Muaca, 36, and Josefate Luemba, 67 years, were found by a group of FAA soldiers on Muaca's land in the village of Conde Lintene. Muaca and Luemba were inspecting palm trees that were being used to produce palm wine. The men were stopped because they were on the land at 17:20, in violation of the Army's 16:00 curfew. The soldiers beat the farmers, undressed them, and forced Muaca to tie up Luemba. While drinking manjenvo (palm wine), the soldiers humiliated Luemba by “playing” with his genitals. The soldiers released Luemba after four hours but brought Muanca to the Necuto Battalion for four days of forced labor carrying water, washing uniforms, and cooking.
May 14, 2003 – Carlos Luís Dunge, 31, also known as Edó, was beaten by six FAA military stationed in the village of Necuto. Dunge was involved in a number of business ventures in Buco-Zau. Soldiers approached Dunge as he was unloading merchandise into his mother-in-law's house in the village of Caio Contena. The soldiers' commanding officer, Commandant Lacrado, ordered them to confiscate Dunge's goods, claiming that they were used to feed the FLEC guerrilla fighters. The soldiers then proceed to beat Dunge. After the beating, the soldiers tied up Dunge and his teenage assistant and took them to the Necuto Battalion Command, where they placed Dunge and his assistant into a hole covered by a military tarpaulin. They ate, slept, and defecated in the hole for 15 days and were briefly removed only three times for interrogation. On May 23, the military freed Dunge and his assistant, but kept the confiscated goods.
May 6, 2003 – Ana Maria Chilanda Bula, 16, was beaten by a corporal identified as Fernando from the 708th Battalion (the comandos caçadores). According to Bula, she went to the soldiers to collect money the corporal owed for cigarettes and wine he had purchased from her. The Fernando denied ever incurring such a debt. When Bula explained she needed the payment to cover her household expenses, Fernando began to beat her. He warned that anyone who tried to intervene in the matter would be shot. The corporal stopped beating Bula after he hit her in the head with his rifle butt and knocked her unconscious.
May 5, 2003 –- Ernesto Dumbi, 27, Vicente Sunda, 31, Dinis Simba (age unknown), and a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo known as Kakoko, went missing after they were taken in by soldiers of the Belize 709th Battalion. The young men were travelling from the village of Quissoqui, went to Caio-Guembo, with a few kilograms of bean, rice, sugar, salt and a few litres of cooking oil. During the trip they were stopped and interrogated by soldiers who suspected they might be supplying the guerrillas. An old man who knew the men well and lived in the same village as they did, tried to intervene and win the men's release. The soldiers told him that the men would be escorted to the Ganda-Cango military detachment for investigation and then released. The men have not been seen since and their relatives have presented a complaint to the local administrator and to the local authorities in an effort to obtain information about their loved ones.
May 3, 2003 – FAA Corporal Lázaro Canhongo, 24, shot by a colonel named Nzau Toco “Encomence,” in charge of the troops stationed in the Miconje commune. Canhongo tried to desert and to return to his home in Benguela province in southern Angola. The corporal had arrived in Cabinda on September 20, 2002, under the impression that he would wind up in Luanda, a reward promised to his unit by their commander to celebrate the end of the war against UNITA. After receiving three months wages late, Canhongo and two colleagues bought civilian clothes and tried to desert. The military police captured them in the municipality of Buco-Zau. They made the return trip tied up with electric wire. As punishment, they had to weed large tracts of land. One day, Toco took out his pistol and, to set an example of his authority, shot Canhongo in the calf. Canhongo was last described as walking on crutches living in fearing because of his disobedience in trying to return home. His current whereabouts are unknown.
April 14, 2003 – At approximately 17:00, an officer identified as Lieutenant Colonel Santos, of the 704th Battalion, used his rifle butt to violently beat Corporal Frederico Canganjo of the Kissamano garrison, because Santos found him chatting with a young girl from the Buco-Zau municipal administrative center. After beating him, Santos, in full view of several witnesses, tied Canganjo to his vehicle and dragged him across the asphalt to the barracks, several meters away. According to his colleagues, Canganjo was sent to the Military Hospital in Cabinda. They have since lost track of him.
April 21, 2003– Marcos Macosso, 60, was kidnapped at 17:00 from his children's residence in the Tchiweca district near the Cabinda Airport by eight FAA soldiers, including a major and a captain from the military police's regional command in Cabinda. Macosso had been in the city for two days, after arriving from the war-torn Mayombe Forest, Buco-Zau, where he lived. Macosso would travel to the municipal centre to sell his agricultural products and stay with his children. Macosso's eldest daughter, Carolina Macosso, 36, reported the kidnapping to Cabinda Commercial Radio some hours after it happened. She described how soldiers had beaten her and her five siblings and she said the leader of the military operation had assured her that her father would be returned soon. According to Macosso, the operation leader told her that her father was only going to be interrogated about people in his village and nothing else. Macosso filed a complaint with the Police Command who told her that the case was “a problem for the Regional Military Headquarters.”
April 15, 2003 - Tomás Lelo, a former FAA soldier, said he acted as a guide for FAA commandos deployed in Belize to locate a supposed FLEC hideout in the traditional authority of Alto-Sundi, South of the Miconge commune. According to Lelo, the hiding place turned out to be occupied by civilians who offered no armed resistance to the commandos' operations. Nevertheless, after securing control over the area at approximately 07:00, soldiers fired on one of the area's 37 settlements for nearly two hours. Lelo said that about 50 civilians were killed or wounded. Several villagers were arrested and forced to dig holes to bury the dead as well as some villagers who were seriously injured but still alive. After the operation, the military blamed the survivors for bringing the carnage upon themselves because they had supposedly given refuge to FLEC guerrilla fighters. Lelo could not account for a number of the wounded because they were removed from the area in helicopters.
April 9, 2003 – Carolina Mataia, 29, Marta Tchelika, 41, Essingo Goma, 36, Paula Mambuco, 40, Valéria Maia, 33, Ariete Jorge, Maria Quitexe, and Maria Pólo, 39, were attacked in the village of Tando-Zinze.by members of the Fiscal Police. The women were travelling in a truck carrying wood and charcoal that they had acquired for resale. Inspectors at a control point demanded 500 kwanzas (about U.S. $7) from each passenger in order for them to proceed and avoid confiscation of their goods. As the group was negotiating their payment, one of the inspectors dragged Pólo from the truck and tried to rape her several meters away. Polo resisted and the inspector fired several shots, tore her clothes, and beat her. Pólo's resistance infuriated the other inspectors who drew their guns, forced the women to lie down on the ground, and beat them with clubs.
April 3, 2003 – José Vindo, also known as Tudo Passa, a former FLEC guerrilla turned FAA soldier, moved from Sinde to Muanza, in the municipal district of Buco-Zau, with his two wives and his children. In Muanza, FAA commandos accused him of still belonging to FLEC and beat him in front of his family.
April 1, 2003 – Filipe Dembe Jesus, 23, and Samuel Cando, 43, both teachers, were on their way from Buco-Zau to their workplace in the village of Muanza when, in the Sinde-Muanza area, they were stopped by “red beret” Special Forces. The commandos accused the men of belonging to FLEC and beat them severely. Jesus and Cando said that the commandos do not recognise authorities in the municipal district, and only obey orders from their commander in Cabinda. Thus, there are virtually no constraints on their use of violence and abuse of human rights.
March 29, 2003 – Following internal pressures, the FAA released about 260 civilians held captive for three months in a warehouse in the municipality of Buco-Zau. Most of the detainees were women and children who had returned from the forests during the FAA offensive against FLEC-FAC military bases.
March 27, 2003 – Alexandre Bula Victor, 43, a father of 18, was taken at midnight from his house in the village of Caio Contene, Necuto by a group of FAA soldiers. The soldiers arrested Victor in front of his wife and children and took him to the Vitrina barracks, near the Catholic church and the rectory. At the barracks, the soldiers showed Vitor a sketch of FLEC base locations and asked him to guide them to FLEC-FAC hideouts. At 02:00, the military tried to force Víctor to dress in an FAA uniform for the search operation. He refused and proposed that they take him to the house to dress in civilian clothes for the operation. The soldiers agreed and, over the next couple of days, made several incursions into Tando-Caio and other difficult to access areas of the Mayombe forest. After three days of fruitless campaigns, the military beat Víctor and then released him. As a consequence, he abandoned his family to seek refuge and safety in Cabinda.
March 24, 2003 – Paulo Tati, was detained by an officer known as Captain Cambinda, in the village of Isúsu, about 20 km from the municipal district capital of Cabinda. Tati was accused by FAA soldiers of being a FLEC-Renovada informant. The army first took him to the Sintu Makanda barracks. From there, they led Tati on foot to the Nzala-Ngó camp for political prisoners, located a few kilometres from the Democratic Republic of Congo border. On March 25, one of the military chiefs beat Tati. He was also forced to work cutting and transporting wood with the other prisoners, at the army’s private lumber business. After his release Tati returned to Isúsu. Cambinda went to Tati's house several times to insult him and his wife and threaten them with a pistol. Tati has taken refuge in the center of Cabinda town and has, so far unsuccessfully, appealed to General Luís Mendes to resolve his case.
March 24, 2003 – Vicente Matias Mbuiti, 37, a teacher from Cata-Chivava, Necuto – Buco-Zau, Caio Contene, was arrested and tied up by soldiers in front of his students at school while teaching. Mbuiti was subjected to this humiliating and degrading treatment because he is the nephew of Alexandre Bachi (aka “Stick”), ex-Chief of Staff of FLEC-FAC. The military accused Mbuiti of maintaining contacts with his uncle. After soldiers took Mbuiti prisoner, his students spread the news of his arrest, which eventually reached the administrator of the commune and the commander of the Border Police, who were already aware that Mbuiti had been targeted for persecution. According to local witnesses, the police commander reacted quickly, obtained Mbuiti's release, and took him to his unit. For safety reasons, the commander kept him there for two days, after which he assured Mbuiti that the situation had passed and he could carry on with his normal activities. On the day of his release, Mbuiti was interviewed by an official of the FAA counter-intelligence who reminded him of his relationship with Stick and demanded that he collaborate with the special services. Fearing for his safety, Mbuiti abandoned the commune and took refuge in the city. His wife, who remained in the commune, has been harassed by the military.
March 16, 2003 – Januário Dembe, 55, administrator of Bembe Mbote, village of Caio-Contene, Necuto commune, was driving to the UNECA saw mill, when he was stopped by an FAA soldier who demanded a ride in the opposite direction of where Dembe was going. When Dembe objected to changing his route, the soldier ordered Dembe and his two children to get out of the vehicle. The soldier then began to discharge his AK-47, point blank at Dembe, hitting him in the ankle and damaging his vehicle. The soldier also fired at the victim's children but they escaped unhurt. The soldier only stopped firing when he had emptied the ammunition clip.
March 3, 2003 – Feliciano Conde, 21, son of José Duca and Marta Pambo, and grandson of Chief Conde Abiniel Malonda of Chienzi-Liti, was beaten at a military base at Cata-Buanga. According to Conde, a first corporal, whom he knew only as Mário, contacted him and asked him to direct him to a witchdoctor with the power to protect him from bullets. Conde was reluctant to get involved in such matters, but nonetheless tried to locate a witchdoctor who could protect the corporal. When Conde failed to find a witchdoctor, he was taken to the base where he was kept in a pit for three days and beaten and forced to dig ditches.
March 2, 2003 - Joana Macaia, 55, from the village of Ntsaca, was beaten and imprisoned in a pit for three days at the military's special Belize unit. The military accused Macaia, a well-known healer, of performing prayers for the FLEC. Macaia acknowledged that she had two brothers who were guerrillas and, did pray for their safety. The military placed Macaia in a deep pit, for three days, without any break. During this time, Macaia prayed aloud continuously in Ibinda (the Cabindan native language). On the fourth day of her captivity, soldiers removed her from the pit and forced her to dress in an FAA uniform to serve as a guide to lead the army to her brothers. Macaia refused to guide the soldiers and an officer punished her by slapping her 80 times on the hand with the side of a machete. A short time later, a priest, Gabriel Nzau, successfully appealed to the soldiers to release Macaia.
February 26, 2003 – André Quibindo, 26, employed at the Serrano service station in the city of Cabinda, had arrived at work early in the morning before the start of the business day. The provincial prosecutor, Pascoal Joaquim, arrived to fill up his vehicle. Although the station was not yet open, Quibindo made an exception for Joaquim and filled up his vehicle. Joaquim paid for the gas but Quibindo said that did not have the 10 kwanzas (less than U.S. $0.15) owed as change, because he had not served anybody beforehand. The prosecutor's bodyguard and his two nephews who were in the vehicle, asked Quibindo if he knew with whom he was dealing. He answered that he did not care whether he was Eduardo dos Santos (Angola's president) or anybody else. With this reply, the bodyguard and nephews began to beat Quibindo. One of his colleagues tried to help him, but was set upon in turn. The station supervisor asked the bodyguard and nephews to release his colleagues and they told him they would do so only if they kissed the prosecutor’s feet. None of the men agreed to this and Quibindo was taken to the Municipal Police Command and placed in an isolation cell where he spent five days without food and without visitation rights.
February 18, 2003 - Gabriel Buku, 46, a father of eight, was travelling on a bus from São Pedro, Povo Grande, a municipal market in Cabinda. Some soldiers were on the bus as well and before they reached their destination, the soldiers made threatening and offensive gestures to the passengers in the front of the bus. Buku, asked the passengers to remain calm and wait for the bus stop so they could get off. Sergeant Sete Vidas was one of several soldiers who then attacked Buku. The soldiers took his identity card and driver's licence. Buku filed a complaint with the Ntó Battalion, where his attackers were stationed, but has yet to receive a response.
January 21, 2003 – FAA sergeants Sebastião Matange Luemba and José Guima Franque, after performing military service in the south of the country, went to Tando-Zinze to visit their relatives. The soldiers had not seen their relatives for three years and were warmly greeted upon their return. Their colleagues, stationed in the area, however, immediately accused the sergeants of sympathizing with FLEC, beat them, and then placed each of them in a 200 liter drum of water, where they stayed for two days before an officer known as Petróleo ordered their release.
January 20, 2003 – Ivo Macaia, 44, son of Estanislau Baxi Codo and Matilde Yoca, born in Ganda Cango in Belize municipality, was released after being arrested at his home in the city of Cabinda on November 30, 2002 by FAA soldiers. Macaia's arrest was documented in the Terror in Cabinda human rights report published on December 10, 2002, at which time his whereabouts were unknown. After his release in January 2003, Macaia was accused of being the secret, local representative for the FLEC-Renovada guerrilla group. After his arrest, Macaia was taken to the regional military headquarters in Cabinda, where he stayed for three days. He was then taken by helicopter to a military base in the village of Prata, to the south of the city, where he stayed for 15 days. On his second day there, he was visited by General Luís Mendes, the regional commander for Cabinda, who wanted to see whether the detainee was being kept “in conditions that would take him to Hell.” The next day, another senior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Delfim, seemed to contradict Mendes and told Macaia not to panic and that no one was going to kill him. During the entire period of detention, Macaia was kept in a pit, along with insects and a scorpion that stung him. He said that after five days of rain, the water in the pit came up to his neck. He was later taken back to the regional military headquarters where he remained another 20 days. On January 8, the Attorney General of the Republic ordered Macaia to court and the provincial prosecutor sent him to the police's Criminal Investigation Department. Macaia then went to a civilian prison, where he received his release order after more than seven weeks’ detention. He later returned to his job with ChevronTexaco.
January 6, 2003 – Twenty three FAA soldiers were beaten, with some wounded by gunshots from their colleagues, when they supposedly tried to desert by sea. Two vehicles containing military police surprised the alleged deserters at about 09:45 on the quays of Cabinda. As soon as they arrived at the quay, the soldiers started firing causing panic among the workers and civilian on the quay. After several minutes, 23 alleged deserters were arrested, with two lying on the ground with gunshot wounds to the legs. A captain reassured quayside workers telling them that the arrested soldiers were “deserters who betrayed the homeland and will be executed, but relax, carry on working, everything is under control.” A young deserter, about 22 years old, tried to escape, but soldiers caught him and thrust his head under the water. He struggled for about 15 minutes, but eventually stopped moving. The soldiers took him out of the water and straight to the police vehicle. The wounded soldiers lying on the ground were kicked in the head, beaten with rifle butts and clubs, and tied with their own shoelaces.
December 15, 2002 – The inhabitants of the village of Ncaca, Tando-Zinze commune, were returning to their homes after having fled to the bush, when soldiers surrounded the village at about 23:00, made the villagers sit on the ground outside their houses, and interrogated them about FLEC. The soldiers arrested Francisco António Brás Taty, 52, and Rafael Ngaca Gomes, 37. The soldiers told the district administrator that they would take him with the two men and would release them as soon as they finished questioning them. The soldiers put the men in military trucks and departed.

FAA soldiers also arrested Verónica Ntoto, 33, and demanded that she explain where her husband was. She answered that her husband had moved to the city of Cabinda. Ntoto was taken to the FAA unit, where she was questioned about her husband's possible connection with FLEC. Ntoto remained at the barracks and was separated from her three young children for three days. When she was released, soldiers fordade her from communicating with anyone. The following day at 20:00, Ntoto was taken by soldiers to a waiting helicopter, which transported her to the city of Cabinda, where she remained for two days in the Military Police Unit. Again, she was interrogated about her husband's whereabouts and told them that she did not know where he was in the city. The police also took Ntoto to a jail pit to see if she recognised any people who had visited her husband. The police released Ntoto two days later.
December 14, 2002 – At approximately 02:00, FAA soldiers arbitrarily detained the village coordinator, the village secretary, and eight youths from the village of Seva, commune of Nekutu. Soldiers tied the coordinator and the secretary with ropes and tortured them in an effort to confirm accusations that they belonged to FLEC. Meanwhile, the eight youths were transported by helicopter to the Tafi barracks, in the city of Cabinda for interrogation. The army released the coordinator and the secretary after their interrogation. According to the youths, General Luís Mendes ordered their release and they were flown back to the village by two military helicopters.
December 12, 2002 – António Custódio, 34, Francisco Sardinha, 39, José Bento, 32, Paulo Sassa, 29, and Papi Samba, 22, were captured by the FAA, in the Champuto-Rico forests, a timber production zone. The FAA accused them of being FLEC collaborators and helping exploit timber resources to benefit the guerrillas. The accused were bound and gagged and transported by helicopter to the Prata zone, an area used by the military as a large detention camp. Sassa managed to escape from the Prata zone and said he had witnessed the shooting of 12 young men aged between 20 and 35. According to Sassa, the youths were prisoners in one of the many pits that had been dug there for the detainees' captivity. Sassa recounted seeing officers using women prisoners as cooks and laundresses. Sassa said he had escaped when the military took him to the village of Nkaka, to show them the house of Verónica Ntoto’s husband, whom the military presumed to be a FLEC guerrilla fighter. Soldiers began shooting at villagers and Sassa said he escaped in the ensuing panic and confusion. Sassa continues to live underground out of fear of being detained again and possibly killed.
December 6, 2002 – José Simarro 28, disappeared, and Gabriel Malonda, 32 years, was mutilated when the two men were detained by five soldiers from the Alzira Unit, 704th Battalion, Buco-Zau. The army suspected the two men of being FLEC collaborators and soldiers apprehended the two men in their residences in the village of Conde-Liti. The soldiers beat the two suspects to the point where Simarro lost control of his bowels. The soldiers focused on Simarro because they thought he knew the location of the FLEC bases in the area. Based on Simarro's information, the army went to Nsoquimina the next day but found no indications of FLEC activity in the area. The army then ordered Malonda to return to the village as an informant and told him they would kill Simarro if Malonda fled or provided incorrect information. After eight days, Malonda had not provided any information and he was rearrested and mutilated by a gunshot wound to his foot.
November 23, 2002 – Sebastião Lembe, 71, was beaten violently by FAA soldiers in the village of Mbata Bungo, Buco-Zau for not knowing how to speak Portuguese. The incident started when soldiers noticed that a mattress had disappeared from the area where they stored items they had plundered from the local population. They suspected Lembe and began interogating him in Portugese, which Lembe does not speak, and the soldiers became frustrated with his inability to answer their questions. They bound him to the column of a hut and beat him. The soldiers then untied him and left him lying unconscious in the dirt.
November 19, 2002 – Maria Rosa, 26, was shot in the left leg during an FAA attack against the village of Mbata-Bungo. The intensity of the attack drove Rosa's relatives into the forest and she was left wounded with her one year old son Sebastião for five days without medical help.
November 18, 2002 – During operations in the village of Ncaca, FAA soldiers captured Francisco Liberal, 31. At approximately 19:30, government troops secretly entered the village and positioned themselves behind an elementary school. After several minutes, the soldiers opened fire on villagers who were out socializing and going about their daily business. Most of the villagers immediately fled to the neighboring village of Papela. The soldiers, accompanied by a civilian, then arrested Liberal, beat him, and took him to an unknown destination.
October 18, 2002 – Lourenço Gomes Pitra, 34, a father of five, was detained in the Military Unit of Matondo. At approximately 12:00, three soldiers in civilian clothes approached Pitra's house, in the village of Mazengo, south of the city of Cabinda, where he was supervising bricklayers working on his home. The soldiers engaged Pitra, who owns a small tavern and restaurant, under the pretense of trying to sell him a case of canned sardines for 1,500 kwanzas (U.S. $20). Pitra agreed to the sale and the three soldiers asked him to accompany them to their place of business, in the Matondo Military Unit of the 118th Battalion (the commandos-caçadores) based near Nzala Ngo. At Matondo, Pitra was received by General Luís Mendes, who slapped him three times in the face. The soldiers then beat Pitra, tied him up, and threw him in a military vehicle. They took him to the Chinguinguili base, alternately interrogating and beating him on the way. A strong downpour interupted the beating and the soldiers left Pitra tied to the truck, while they took shelter inside the base. Once the rain stopped, the soldiers blindfolded Pitra and removed him from the truck. He was then interrogated about what he knew about a number of local priests, businessmen, and local officials.. According Pitra, Mendes conducted the interrogation and told him that if he did not talk he would "die like a dog, like so many others.” Pitra told Mendes that he did not know what any of this was about and would be willing to die because he was no different from the others. Mendes became furious and ordered Pitra to be taken to the back of the unit to be executed. While the weapons were being loaded, another commander suspended the execution because he wanted to try other methods to make Pitra talk. Pitra was then lowered by a rope into a deep pit. The following day he was given an FAA uniform and sandals and was used as guide in a military operation in Caio-Caliado. The operation was a failure and Mendes declared that it was Pitra's last day alive. Mendes had his men lay Pitra at his feet and then tie wooden splints to his head which were tightened as Pitra was interrogated, causing him extreme pain. Pitra said he eventually lost consciousness and does not remember the remainder of the interrogation. At the end of the day, Mendes ordered Pitra to be thrown into a river from an army helicopter. During the flight, Mendes shoved Pitra’s head out of the helicopter and interrogated him about FLEC members and base locations. These methods failed to yield any valuable information and, instead of throwing Pitra from the helicopter, Mendes tried offering him a car, a house, and a job if he helped in forthcoming antiguerilla operations. On April 23, 2003, Pitra managed to escape and is currently in hiding.
October 24, 2002 – Lourenço Pitra Gomes, an escaped army detainee, witnessed a particularly cruel execution. On October 24, Gomes saw FAA soldiers with a prisoner about 40 years old who was wearing shorts and had a head bandage. Gomes knew that the man – a FLEC guerrilla who had been involved in an attack against an FAA patrol – had been captured in the Mayombe forest and had been shot in the head. The prisoner did not speak Portuguese and Gomes was asked to act as an Ibinda (Fiote) interpreter. General Luís Mendes was present and, according to Gomes, Mendes ordered Lieutenant Colonel Tussen to send the prisoner to hell. A soldier stabbed the prisoner several times, rubbed him with salt and “gindungo” (chilli peppers) and then buried him alive. According to Gomes, the general reminded him that he faced a similar fate if he did not collaborate.
December 02, 2002 – FAA soldiers, stationed in Mazengo plains, subjected António Francisco (18 years old), António Lelo (29 years old) and João Ngoma to public torture, in the commune of Tando –Zinze. The military beat the individuals in front of the population with the goal of obtaining information about FLEC. November 30, 2002–Ivo Macaia, 41, was detained, about 18H00, at the home of his second wife, Sedona, without any arrest warrant. The agents beat on the door and asked to speak with “Uncle Ivo”, with whom they had set up a meeting. The family called him and he was immediately arrested and taken to a vehicle. He is still missing. On October 25, 2002, “ninjas”, from the 11th Unit, were, at dawn, at the house, of his first wife, Silvana Zinga, with an arrest warrant. In Ivo Macaia's absence, who was in Luanda, the special police detained his children as hostages. Gilberto Dias Macaia, 18, Vale Bernardo Macaia, 17, and a nephew named Pety all of whom had to answer for the father. Around 10H00 a.m., they were released from the 11th Unit, after the return of the father to Cabinda, on the same day.

On November 12, 2002, investigator Oliveira, from the Provincial Direction of Criminal Investigation (DPIC) left a warning-notification “by order of the chief” at Ivo Macaia’s house. On November 13, Ivo Macaia went to the DPIC for questioning. For six hours, according to his wife’s accounts, Ivo Macaia was repeatedly accused of being a FLEC member. However, on the back of the warning-notification, now in the hands of the researchers of this report, investigator Oliveira wrote that the suspect was entitled to return to his work place and to earn wages for the day that he had passed in DPIC.

Ivo Macaia is a ChevronTexaco employee at Malongo Oil Base. In her accounts, the wife stressed the presence of a security officer in Malongo, who went to her husband’s section to know of his whereabouts from his immediate superior Anselmo Duda. The wife ventured that the agent would have received information, at that time, from Anselmo Duda on Ivo Macaia's time off. He works in a rotation of 21 days on duty in Malongo and 21 days off. Since October 25, Ivo Macaia did not sleep at home, as he explained to the to the researchers, who were already following his case, fearing for his disappearance. The fear is confirmed now. On December 04, FAA soldiers arrested mechanic Zito, a friend of Ivo Macaia, who regularly accompanied his wife in the efforts to search for his whereabouts. He was at work in his workshop, in Rua das Forças Armadas, in the center of the city, when he was detained. The military, according to witnesses, led him to the vehicle at gunpoint. He is also missing.
November 26, 2002 – José Mbachi, 37 years old, and Casimiro Maluango, 29 years old, a.k.a Queimado, under suspicion of being FLEC collaborators were detained by elements of FAA military police in the village of Pove, commune of Tando-Zinze. Only the military authorities know the final destination of the two citizens.

November 23, 2002 – Maria Itula, 32 years, nurse from the Military Hospital of Cabinda, disappeared from her place of work, after resolutely refusing to render assistance to wounded soldiers, coming from Buco-Zau municipality. According to the victim's friends, the nurse was crying alleging that she could not care for soldiers who were killing her relatives. At the end of her shift, she was called to the office of the Hospital’s clinical director, where she was directed to the Military Regional Command of Cabinda, from whence her whereabouts are unknown. The family contacted the clinical director of the hospital, Dr. Bungo, to learn of Maria Itula's whereabouts, and received the information that she was detained to respond to criminal proceedings. Her relatives continued without any information on the nurse's whereabouts and, obviously, unable to make any contact.

November 23, 2002 (6H00 a.m.) – António Fortuna, 33 years, employee of ChevronTexaco, resident in the Amílcar Cabral neighborhood, city of Cabinda, saw the windows of his house broken into by eight elements of the Rapid Intervention Police (Ninjas). The agents thrashed António Fortuna, causing wounds over his entire body. Only after the beating did they tell him they were beating the wrong man, because they sought the owner of the residence and not the tenant. The victim was abandoned there, and was helped by the neighbors who took him to the hospital.

November 23, 2002 – Vicente Gomes, 36 years, was approached, in Mazengo village, commune of Tando-Zinze, by two plain-clothes elements, who requested indications as to the houses that sold “kaporroto” (Angolan cane liquor). After they left the place of the encounter, the two civilians gave a sign to the military police patrol. Subsequently, some townsfolk observed Vicente Gomes being transported by a helicopter, which was a certain distance away, in a field used for soccer practice. His relatives do not know his whereabouts.

November 22, 2002 – Agents of the Information Services (Sinfo) arrested Lourenço Ngoma Pitra, 33 years old, son of André Pitra and Maria da Conceição Buca, father of five, at his house. According to witnesses, he was taken to Mazengo military garrison, where he was tortured. Since then, his status remains unknown.

November 20, 2002 – Bacumbo Bessa, Vicente Barros Buingui, António Barros, Joco, Gime Brás, Michel Sumbo, Miguel Feliciano, Eduardo Mbiona, José Tino Chinguende, Begami Macunde, André Tati Ntendekele and Filipe Lueia Casimiro were detained by FAA soldiers in the villages of Kungu and Chipita, up to now their whereabouts and the reasons for their detention are unknown.

November 19, 2002 – FAA soldiers arrested Francisco António Brás Tati, 54 years old, son of Alberto Mbila and Carlota Zola, in Nkaka, municipality of Cabinda. He has gone missing.

November 18, 2002 – Francisco Toco, 37, José Tigre, 33, old and Luís Poba, 36, did not escape the practices of FAA. The military removed them by force, at dawn, from their residences under the suspicion they had leads to the FLEC bases. Missing persons. November 15, 2002 (16H00)– Estevão Buinji, 42, son of João Tibúrcio and Maria Nzúmbala, resident of Lelo Mau, was arbitrarily detained by the military of the Recognition Unit, when he was driving through that unit, towards the city. He was stopped under the allegation of knowing where the bases and the guerrilla fighters of FLEC are located. Estevão Buinji is secretary of Papela community, in the village of Liambo, in the municipal district of Cabinda, and a catechist.

November 14, 2002 – Joaquim Tiemuna, driver, suffered a beating session at Ganda Cango FAA checkpoint, when he was transporting civilians. These were removed from the vehicle and the driver found himself forced to transport military personnel in his vehicle, for a military operation in a nearby village, of Viede.

November 13, 2002 – Alexandre Nhati, 34, presumed member of FLEC-FAC was detained, in the city of Cabinda, by members of the Rapid Intervention Police "ninjas", of the 11th Unit, accused of having participated in a subversive meeting. For two days he was tortured with shock sticks, in morning and afternoon sessions. Interrogations were reserved for the nights with a pistol pointed at his head, in sessions of about 30 minutes each. The detention of the referred separatist, in the 11th Unit, consisted of being on his feet, arms shackled around a thick and high tree trunk. He slept like this and was not entitled to food or water for two days. He was freed afterwards. Alexandre Nhati, was in the bush, with FLEC-FAC, up to 1985, at which time he abandoned the forest and went to live in the city. From 1992 to 1994 he was imprisoned due to his implication in the purchase of weapons from government troops to supply the separatist guerrillas.

November 07, 2002 – Bento Banvu, 65, son of Estanislau da Costa Mamboma and Catarina Malalu, was detained by FAA soldiers, in the village of Susso, for harboring Fernando Mbele, accused of supplying FLEC guerrillas. On November 11, the military took Bento Banvu to the Iliongo Lake, where he usually goes fishing, through the placement of “zindika” traps, in search of possible leads that might confirm his logistical support to FLEC. The fisherman had the opportunity to pick up the fish from the traps, and was subsequently escorted to the village of São José Ngongo (close to the village of Susso). At that time the village was occupied practically only by military, due to the displacement of the local population, caused by the constant military confrontations. The following day, November 12, 2002, the same military drove him to his pineapple plantation, with the same purpose. After the mission, the military escorted him to the neighbouring village of Chamaze, to contact some family members, having asked for some clothes and sent a message to his wife, who was in the city of Cabinda, so the she would send him his identity card, because, according to him, “he would shortly be sent to the city”. The commandant of the troops that accompanied him told the nephew (bearing the requested clothes) that his “problem” had been investigated and nothing had been confirmed, but that he would shortly be freed. Up till now, the family does not know of his actual whereabouts. He has gone missing.

November 05, 2002 – João Barros Yenga, 32 years old, son of João Yenga and Teresa Malalo, was detained, by military, in the village of Susso, for leaving his house at dawn. Under suspicion that his departure at that hour implied he was with FLEC, he was taken to an unknown location, up till now, his whereabouts are unknown or indeed if he is still alive.
October 29 (9H00 a.m.) 2002 – A patrol of 10 “Ninjas”, without a search warrant, invaded the house of the widow Cândida Pena, 47, resident in the Uneca quarter, of Cabinda’s city. Her house was ransacked, in search of documents. The Ninjas took the entire documentation of her late husband, an ex-FLEC activist, in the refugee camps in DRC, in the seventies. Since early eighties her late husband used to work for the provincial government of Cabinda. Cândida Pena, a teacher, is well known in the province, for having led a march of 500 women against the drafting of their children into the army and for her mobilizing capacity on behalf of the citizens’ rights in Cabinda. For her activism she was once detained, with more 20 women. “They keep me under strict control, I never went into the forests, I never took up a weapon and I do not know why they persecute me so much”. The activist complained bitterly.

October 06, 2002 – Minutes after disembarking at the Cabinda Military Terminal, as part of a battalion returning from Zambia, a sergeant was beaten on parade, by his commandant, a colonel, for protesting against the disembarkation in Cabinda. According to the soldier, they were destined to disembark in Luanda, and to leave from the capital, to meet up with their families, as a reward for their efforts in the siege of the late political leader Jonas Savimbi. The act was witnessed both by the people that were in the civil terminal and in the military terminal.
September 23, 2002 – FAA soldiers shot António Tebe, 39, in the legs. He was hunting in the village of Champuto-Rico, and after a brief interrogation session and a beating the soldiers took aim at him. Earlier in the morning, FLEC had carried out an attack against a FAA detachment that guaranteed the security for a visit by Governor Aníbal Rocha to the village of Subantando. The military accused the hunter of being a FLEC messenger, they tortured him and, when he tried to flee, he was shot and abandoned there. The villagers helped him a little while after the shots. António Tebe remains with his lower limbs immobilized and with no means to support his wife and six children, because he lived from hunting.
September 19, 2002 – Celestino Manduvo, 52, son of Agostinho Dembe and Inês Simba; Celestino Coelho, 22, son of António Ngimbi and Maria Sassa; Simão Carlos, 22, son of Carlos Babala and Suzana Bumba; and Tiago Macosso, 26 years old, son of João Ngola and Esmali Mpassi were detained by a military patrol, at a wake, in the village of Piandinge, and taken to the Necuto Garrison. Three other citizens, also taken at the same time were released while the stated persons were submitted to interrogation and torture. Tiago Macosso was shot dead and burnt with a necklace tire as above explained. Celestino Manduvo, Celestino Coelho and Simão Carlos continued in jail until October 04, 2002, at which time they were seen, for the last time, by traditional authorities called in by the commander of that military unit. According to the traditional authorities, the prisoners were in a pitiful state: they displayed visible signs of tortures, appeared very physically debilitated and were visibly despondent. It is not know whether such individuals are still alive or already dead. In the sequence of these events, the villages of Piandinge, Tando Caio, Conde Li Ntumbi I, Conde Li Ntumbi II and Tando Ibulassi were depopulated. The communities were displaced, in sub-human conditions, on the Piandinge cut-off, close to Panga-Mongo.
September 17, 2002 (24:00 Hr) – About 15 “ninjas” knocked on the door of Domingos Luciano Francisco’s house, in the neighborhood of Luvasse, in the city of Cabinda, demanding that he hand over his son, a former combatant of FLEC. Manuel dos Santos Custódio Francisco, born to January 31, 1980, served in FLEC from age 16 to 21, in his area of origin, in the Necuto commune. In December of last year, along with 14 other guerrillas, he surrendered to the government forces in the city of Cabinda. After that, he joined his family in the city. Up till now, it is unknown the whereabouts of the young man. His father has lodged a formal complaint to the authorities, on his son's disappearance. In answer, according to the father, the authorities just gave him the hope that in case they had some leads on the whereabouts of Manuel dos Santos C. Francisco, they would inform the family.

September 12, 2002 –FAA soldiers surrounded the village of Terra Nova, and opened fire on the residents, wounding 12 people and taking four men as prisoners namely, Domingos Tadeu, 33, farmer, José Mavinga, 29, driver, António Chocolate, 17, student and Manuel Fingo, 29, unemployed. FAA soldiers entered the home of José Imba, 26, and dragged him outside the house. He was interrogated about a FLEC attack and then they fired 6 shots into his legs and abandoned him there. This action took place in reprisal for a FLEC in the vicinity.

September 06, 2002 – The brothers Alexandre Sumbo, teacher, and Manuel Barros, children of João Maria Tembo and Maria Perpétua Nhongo, and a friend Luís Fernando, suffered severe beatings, in the village of Mbamanga (Cacongo), from FAA elements of the Massabi Military Unit. Motive: They were suspected of collaboration with the FLEC. To their relief, they were just beaten. They did not disappear.
July 22, 2002 - In the sequel of a guerrilla attack at Rio Lulondo, the closest village, Champuto-Rico, suffered reprisals: it was besieged and some of the populace taken to the barracks, where they were tortured and suffered abuses, among them António Teba, with a fractured leg; Vicente Brás, with a fractured pelvis and Paulo Tembo, with a broken arm. The village, which had been pillaged and destroyed in 1993 - the consequences of which are still visible – is now militarized, with a FAA garrison.
June 22, 2002 (10:00) – FAA soldiers arrested Francisco Maneta, 42, and Cosme Brás, 51, in their residences, in Tando Zinze commune. The arrests happened as a sequel to an attack in the area by FLEC against three vehicles of FAA. The men were taken to the barracks of the Tando-Zinze Battalion, where they remained under torture and interrogation for three days. During the interrogations, Francisco Maneta was forced to sit down on the ground with legs stretched, and thus the soldiers kept on pounding on his legs, with a heavy wooden stick, while the interrogations took place. Francisco Maneta’s legs are paralyzed.
June 2002 – When operating in the area of São José Ngongo and Cinto Macanda, the FAA captured two villagers: Pedro, from Cinto Macanda, a hunter, was suspended by his genitals from a tree, while the military enjoyed the spoils of his hunting. Then, they pierced his legs with knives; the other companion, whose name remains unknown, was brutally beaten.
August 27, 2001 – José Zeferino Puaty, 31, was detained without charges. Spent 11 months in Yabi Jail. He was arrested, during labor hours, Malongo oil and gas compound of ChevronTexaco. Mr. Fialho, one of the security officials of Malongo, called José Zeferino Puaty, who was in English classes, to his office. ChevronTexaco security officials held a private conversation with the agents for about 10 minutes and, soon thereafter, handed over the employee in question to Mr. Oliveira, DPIC investigator (See Media, Manuel da Costa) and to Mr. Miúdo, of SINFO. The detention occurred with no exhibit of any arrest warrant or any other document. Once in jail, the agents fired into the ground, in his direction, to force him to enter the cell, which had human excrement all over, without any formal charges. Mr. Puaty was verbally denounced as the “head” of a political organization, with ideals contrary to the Government's policies. On September 04 and November 13, 2001, the prisoner suffered death threats at gunpoint, under the accusation of being a FLEC member. In February 2002, José Zeferino Puaty became seriously ill with malaria, he had to be evacuated at night to the hospital, in the shovel loader of a tractor, over a route of about 12 kilometres from the jail to the Central Hospital of Cabinda. The reason presented by the prison authorities that they did not transport him by car, was simply his political conduct. He spent 10 days in hospital, before returning to his cell. On July 04, 2002, on the eve of a visit by an official delegation, from the capital Luanda, to verify the situation of political prisoners in Cabinda, the supposed “leader” plus two other political prisoners received a visit from officials of the provincial court, who announced their trial for the following day. When confronted with the detainees’ protests about such a sudden decision and their lack of lawyers, the official explained that it was just a formality. The following day, they were released after signing a document granting them amnesty. One of the companions, Paulo Mavungo, 33, was the first to be detained, on July 07, 2001, with a public session of beating and transported to prison, in the trunk of a civil vehicle. The third André Mabedo, 29 years old, was detained on August 24 2001. ChevronTexaco readmitted José Zeferino Puaty without, however, compensating him, for the fact of having handed him over directly, in its Malongo compound, without any legal justification. The referenced employee saw his wages reduced from about a thousand dollars/month to about US$600/month and he is prohibited from entering Malongo oil compound. He now works at the clinic, located in the city. According to the referenced employee's declarations, during his detention, the police confiscated his computer and five diskettes and took the material to ChevronTexaco IT specialists, in Malongo, for investigation.
May 13, 2002 – Bernardo Buela, 52, farmer, was ex-father-in-law of an FLEC element. In a raid against Chipito, a community of Liambo village, FAA soldiers acting on a tip off from the local populace, tied the farmer by his legs and suspended him head downwards by his legs from a tree. He spent the interrogation like this, accompanied by stabbings over his whole body, an act carried out by several soldiers. Satisfied, the military untied him and they returned him to the community. When he learned about the news, Fr. Casimiro Congo sent a vehicle to pick up the victim and to provide him with assistance. The military preferred to deliver medicines to a local male nurse so that he could treat Bernardo Buela in Chipito.
March 12, 2001 – Rafael Gime, 39 years old, leader of a potential demonstration of demobilized soldiers, suffered the arbitrary power of “ninjas”. Beaten to the point of receiving 12 stitches to his head. He talked to the Voice of America about holding the demonstration against the Provincial Government of Cabinda, to demand payment of their pensions, which were three years in arrears and, before this could happen, the “ninjas” crushed his intentions.
December 24, 2000 – Police officers, detached in Tando-Zinze commune, approached the pre-deacon of the Catholic Church, Joaquim Bumba, who was traveling in a car accompanied by some church workers. The passengers were accused of collaborating with FLEC and tortured. The pre-deacon was shot in his right leg. He received medical attention in Luanda, at the Endiama Clinic. The Catholic Church sent the surgery bill to the provincial government of Cabinda that, subsequently, settled it. Joaquim Bumba, today, has steel pins in his right leg.
January 15, 1998 – Alexandre Télica, 22, son of Gabriel Gomes and Albertina Bindele, was wounded by a shot from FAA.
March 03, 1997 – In Kissoqui do Luali, Municipal district of Belize, the FAA military carried out a series of outrages against the population. The minor André Simba Macundo, born August 02, 1990, son of José Mancundo and Alice Conde, was shot.

- CASE No. 28 -

3.3. Victims of sexual abuse
August 11, 2003 – Catarina Colo, 15, the daughter of Fernando Ntove and Maria Luengo was forced into becoming the mistress of Captain Félix Valentino, who commands an FAA detachment in Cata-Buanga, Buco-Zau. On August 11, Luengo sent her daughter out to find bananas. When her daughter failed to return, Luengo searched for her for several hours and then informed the traditional authorities who contacted the military. On the third day of Colo's disappearance, they learned that Colo was being held by the Cata-Buanga detachment. Colo's family contacted the commanding officer who refused to free Catarina. Instead, Valentino demanded a family meeting in the presence of the traditional authorities. According to the family, Valentino said he wished to marry their daughter, acknowledged that he had already violated her, and that he now wanted her to stay with him. Colo's family demanded that they be allowed to take their daughter home. Valentino accused the family of being sympathetic toward the FLEC, offered them a dowry, and concluded by threatening their lives and the life of their daughter. Although she has repeatedly demanded her freedom, Colo remains Valentino's mistress.
August 10, 2003 – Alice Nzuzi, 18. Nzuzi, the wife of a teacher, was raped by a corporal known as “Caiongo,” of the 704th Battalion stationed in Buco-Zau. Caiongo found Nzuzi washing clothes in the Luali River and asked her some questions of an intimate nature, which she refused to answer. Caiongo ordered his men to leave the area. Suspicious of the move, Nzuzi tried to escape. Caiongo caught her, threw her into the water and attempted to drown her. He then dragged her to the bank and asked his friends to help and take part in raping her. One villager, Dona Rosa, called other villagers to help Nzuzi. The soldiers fired several shots to drive away the villagers and then fled.
June 23, 2003 – Catarina Pemba, 16, was raped by four soldiers from the 115th Battalion. Pemba was coming out of the Catholic Mission Parish School when she was confronted by soldiers who were responding to an earlier FLEC guerrilla attack outside the village. The soldiers accused Pemba of being related to a FLEC member. One soldier quickly loaded his gun and threatened to kill her if she did not admit to the accusation. Terrified, Pemba was forced to admit that she was related to a FLEC guerrilla. According to Pemba, another soldier offered her freedom in exchange for sex. She refused and received a violent blow to the head. When she recovered consciousness, the soldiers were raping her. They left her naked and bleeding. Pemba still suffers pain and occasionally finds blood in her urine.
May 31, 2003 – Alice Matsuela, 11, daughter of Gabriel Muanda and Zorzete de Fátima, was raped by FAA soldiers near the village of Panga Mongo. She continues to suffer after the attack and her physical and mental health require careful monitoring.
May 26, 2003 – Odília Muanda, 12, daughter of João Muanda and Marta Teresa, was raped, along with her mother, Marta Teresa, by FAA soldiers in the municipality of Buco-Zau.
May 25, 2003 – Teresa Simba, 10, daughter of João Mateus Puati and Maria Pemba, was raped by an FAA officer, identified as Captain Mário in the village of Conde-Malonda, Buco-Zau.
May 14, 2003 – Marta Pedro, 11, daughter of Pedro Paca and Verónica Sassa, was raped by an army officer, identified as Commandant Tomás.
May 07, 2003 – Maria Lourdes Mataia, 12, daughter of Alberto Matoco and Lourdes Mataia, was raped by an FAA soldier in the municipality of Buco-Zau.
April 24, 2003 – Lúcia Puati, 13, daughter of Mateus Puati and Maria Pemba, was gang-raped by FAA soldiers in the municipality of Buco-Zau.
March 15, 2003 – Angelina de Maio, 12, daughter of Carlos Tomé and Margarida Bumba, was raped by FAA soldiers in the village of Caio Nguala, Buco-Zau.
February 20, 2003 – Maria de Fátima Lelo Kuaku, 16, daughter of Bernardo Kuaku and Helena Masanga; Susana Kibinga, 13, daughter of Rafael Télika and Rosa Mvumbi; Joana Kibinga Marcos, 12, daughter of Marcos Pólo and Rosa Kibinda; Inês Buanga, 11, daughter of Jorge Macaia and Isabel Matuba. The four girls were returning from the municipal capital of Buco-Zau to the village of Muanza when they were questioned at approximately 15:00 by four FAA soldiers from the Kata Buanga barracks. The soldiers stole the girls' money and the items they had acquired in Buco-Zau. After this, three of the soldiers, one of whom was identified as Tony, each chose a girl. The fourth soldier refused to touch Buanga since she was so young and too thin. The other three soldiers tore the three older girls' clothes off and gagged and raped them.
January 24, 2003 – 1st Sergeant João António Garcia, from the 118th Battalion, 2nd Company, 3rd Platoon, head of the 1st Section (stationed in Tando-Zinze) filed a written report that his 13-year old daughter, Ana, had been sexually abused by his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ricardo Elias Pitra Petróleo. Garcia sent the report to the commander of the 2nd Military Area, General Luís Mendes. According to Garcia, Petroleo came and asked him to give him custody of his daughter so he could “educate her and make her study.” Garcia refused and Petroleo took the girl on July 4, 2002, and forced her to spend nights with him. Petroleo kept her for about 20 days until she healed from the injuries caused by the loss of her virginity. On November 10, 2002, Garcia and his wife discovered that Ana was pregnant and they requested a meeting with the commandant. Petroleo repeatedly told the Garcias that he could “neither admit nor deny” responsibility for the girl’s pregnancy. According to Garcia, Petróleo mentioned the possibility of the child being born with his features but that the baby’s inability to communicate would absolve him of responsibility and legal penalties. A week after the meeting, Petroleo, ordered the construction of a small house in the battalion’s recreation area and had his guards bring Ana to live with him. On December 29, Garcia demanded a meeting at Petroleo’s home. In response, Petróleo insisted that Garcia address the matter to him in writing, because he did not want to directly deal with “lice” like Garcia. Garcia concluded his account of Petroleo’s actions with the following question: “Worthy sirs, this happened to my daughter ...But what if I were to impregnate his (the commandant’s) underage daughter, what would happen to me?” In May 2003, Ana gave birth to a deformed stillborn baby (without cranium), in the Central Hospital of Cabinda. The local press focused on the unusual birth of a child without a cranium, without mentioning the circumstances in which the child had been conceived. As of the publication of this report, the family continues to wait for justice, while Commandant Petróleo enjoys all the privileges of a high ranking officer.
January 2, 2003 – An elderly woman, Maria Verónica, received an early morning visit at her home in Terra Nova, Necuto commune from soldiers, identified as belonging to the 115th Battalion. The visit seemed to be part of a routine operation and involved various residences. However, after the operation concluded, Veronica, who lived alone, was found close to death, and showed signs of having been raped. According to witnesses, two soldiers entered Veronica’s house and remained there for more than an hour without arousing any suspicions. At around 16:30, the victim’s neighbor, Dona Rosalinda, realised she had not seen Veronica all day. Rosalinda went over to her neighbor’s house and found her lying naked on the floor in blood-soaked sheets. According to the neighbours, the old woman told them she had been raped by the soldiers. Veronica’s neighbors’ efforts to get her medical assistance were in vain and she died the following week.
December 28, 2002 – Maria Pemba was among the many people who started to return to their villages in Buco-Zau with the conclusion of military operations in the area. When Pemba returned to her home, Lieutenant Colonel Santos Mainga, commandant of the 704th Battalion, accused her of being involved with FLEC, and had her taken for interrogation at the battalion command, where she was used as a sexual “slave.” Pemba was released three days later. Military officials warned her that she would be dead if she told the traditional authorities anything about what had happened to her. Nonetheless, news of Pemba’s abduction spread and many women who had taken refuge in the forests refused to return to their villages, for fear of being raped.
December 7, 2002– Pirska, 29, an Angolan refugee from the Republic of Congo, was raped by a group of FAA soldiers in the Mananga area on the border between Ponta-Negra, Republic of Congo, and Cabinda, Angola. Pirska was seven months pregnant. The soldiers took turns raping Pirska in the presence of her husband. The soldiers also took 120,000 CFA francs (about $120) from Pirska’s husband. Shortly after the attack, Pirska went into premature labor, and the baby died at birth. Pirska was part of a group that had volunteered to work with government authorities in an effort to return to their country. Pirska and her husband were held by the military for 15 days. They rarely saw each other and Pirska was forced to work as a cook and laundress. Pirska was also forced to sleep with the group leader, known by the nom de guerre of Violência. Pirska and her husband are just two of the many citizens in the area who have been abused by the military because they were suspected of belonging to the troops of the deposed Congolese leader Pascal Lissouba and supporting FLEC.
December 24, 2002 – Inês Cadi, 50, the ex-wife of FLEC-FAC’s military adviser, “Trator,” was sexually abused by military personnel belonging to the Luvege Unit. A group of 15 FAA soldiers, accompanied by a civilian named Mayeye, detained Cadi, in her residence in the village of Micuma II, Buco-Zau. The soldiers took her 8 km away to an officer in charge of the Luvege Unit. Cadi was questioned about the whereabouts of “Trator.” Cadi told her interrogators that she had been separated from her husband for three years. Then, Cadi said, the commander raped her, followed by several soldiers who guarded her during the six days she was detained at the unit.
- November 28, 2002 – Maria Luendo, 46,, and Marta Conde, 40, were raped by FAA soldiers on the main road of Piandinge, Necuto commune, in the presence of their minor children. With the trauma they did not manage to count how many soldiers took turns to rape them. Maria Luendo had her children João Maria Cumbo, 7, and Maria Dembe, 5, while her companion had a minor whose name was not identified. Both were waiting for transport heading for the city of Cabinda, about 90 km. distant. Maria Luendo was evacuated, in a serious state, by her relatives, to the Central Hospital of Muanda in DRC where, according to information learned from family and close friends, she had to go into surgery due to the mutilation of her genitals.
November 08, 2002 –“Commander Decidido (Decisive)” raped Tina Passi, 16, at Ganda Cango village (municipality of Belize), who, after satisfaction of his sexual appetite, gave her to his men for the same purpose. According to information provided by the villagers, more than 14 FAA soldiers raped Tina. Two local witnesses, who left the village on December 05, confirmed the serious health condition of Tina, with the mutilation of her genitals, displaying various signs of beating. She is under the care of traditional healers, due to the lack of means by the relatives to provide better treatment. Tina is fatherless, and the mother, Dona Abi, fears for her life and that of her family. Witnesses refer to the constant practice of raping women by the “Commander Decidido”. According to these witnesses, in the absence of military operations that justify such acts, the women that do not present identity cards are the immediate victims of rape – with the label that they are wives or mistresses of FLEC guerrillas.
In the last few weeks, in Micumas, municipal district of Buco-Zau, several women have been systematically raped by military. The same military also forced the young males to dig their own holes, thereafter burying them more or less up to the tip of their noses. The victims are kept that way for some time until they provide information on the FLEC.
November 03, 2002– Three soldiers, from the unit stationed in Ganda Cango, raped Caty, 13, daughter of Alfredo Zau (deceased) and Maria, on the banks of the River Chibaca. Accounts from witnesses revealed that, a week earlier, soldiers had assaulted the girl’s residence, but unsuccessfully. The mother, upon protesting to the military command was accused of belonging to FLEC.
Two local young males have revealed to the researchers that it has become a high risk for them and his fellows to have any intimate relationship with local young women. “Jealous” soldiers can be subject them to abuses.
October 02, 2002 (18H00) – Three soldiers from the 20th Troop Battalion, detached to the N'tó unit, in the village of Subantando, raped Maria da Graça Fonseca Isabel, born August 04, 1975, in Cabinda. The woman, married and mother of three children left for the fields, in her mother's company, when she was questioned by the military. The mother, Isabel Suca, 45, when she put up a resistance to the pretensions of the military was beaten senseless, while the attackers took turns raping the daughter.
June 22, 2002 (10:00) – FAA soldiers arrested Josefina Liambo, 38, and Fátima Lito, 36, teachers by profession, in their residences, in Tando Zinze commune. The detentions happened as a consequence to a FLEC attack against a FAA supplying convoy. They were taken to the barracks of the Tando-Zinze military command, where they remained, under torture and interrogation, for three days. One of the women, who asked for confidentiality, admitted she was victim of various sexual abuses, and assumed the commitment to secrecy, to guarantee her release and that of her remaining suffering companions
June 19, 2001 (22H40) – Joana Ndobe Fita Padi, 20, daughter of António Padi and Suzana Fita, resident of Fortaleza, was approached at her house, by armed soldiers, while she slept with her husband, André Sambo Zau, 21. The military took her to one of the units of the military brigade deployed in N’tó, on the way to the border of Yema (DRC). Joana Padi, could not specify to which battalion she was taken to, from not knowing the specifics of the different battalions stationed in Fortaleza. Several soldiers raped her. About 4H00 a.m. of June 20 she was released.
Several reports tell about the rape or sexual exploitation, by the military stationed in Fortaleza, of the girls that find their income in picking mangos in the area. On December 04, 2002, two of the researchers of this report traveled to the border, and verified the undisciplined presence of military along the main road. Several were seen selling mangos, many drinking at the houses of the local villagers and several dozens strolling about, along the way, in state unworthy of a national army. The population point out that the military forcibly took over the mango business, taking responsibility for picking the fruit and leaving the women to carry it to the main road, for sale.
May 08, 2002 – A FAA soldier raped Inês Lelo Tiago, 52, while two others stood guard, when she was on her way to the Catholic Mission of Cabinda. She was heading to Church for the 6:00 morning mass, when she was approached by the military. She managed to reach the church, from where she was taken to hospital for assistance.
November 08, 1994 – More than 10 FAA soldiers raped Angelina Bumba, now 30 years old, who beat her father with his own crutches to force him to watch his daughter's rape. Gabriel Bumba, handicapped, seized by his hair and wrists, watched the gang rape of his daughter, in his own residence. To this date, Angelina Bumba only manages to move around with the help of a stick, with her three children (born) prior to the tragic event, in her brother's care. Her husband, a police officer, abandoned her afterwards.

- CASE No. 29 -

3.4. Destruction and looting
December 04, 2002 – Ernesto Nkesso, a farmer, saw his house destroyed, in the village of Mbuco-Luemba, by a FAA helicopter. FLEC guerrillas had attacked, at that time, a FAA column that marched in the direction of Viede. In retaliation, a helicopter fired at his house, about 22H00, destroying it completely. Fortunately, his family was in the kitchen, some meters distant from the main residence, at an evening meal. About eight children and five grandchildren thus escaped along with other family members.

November 23, 2002– FAA soldiers, stationed in Necuto commune prevented trade in the local market and occupied it, as a form of cutting off a possible source of supply to the FLEC. They thus imposed hunger as mechanism of applying pressure on the population. In the area of the great Maiombe forest, that covers the municipalities of Belize and Buco-Zau, the main staging area of the military actions, FAA soldiers are destroying the plantain plantations, the staple food for local populations. Farms also have the same fate, thereby generalizing, and the hunger in the area, which decimates particularly the children and the elderly.
November 11, 2002 – A group of six commandos forcibly took over the market of the municipality of Belize. In the armed attack, they took with them two radio-cassettes, bottles of wine, clothes, batteries and ointments. Beforehand, they beat the vendor Evelina and, at gunpoint, they emptied the pockets of the youth Bungo, who had 200 kwanzas on him, the equivalent of less than 4 dollars.
November 09, 2002 – A military group, of an unknown number, forced dozens of men, women and children, in a raid on Ntunga and Mandarin, municipality of Cacongo, to cut bunches of plantain (type of banana), from the surrounding plantations, and to carry them on their backs, to their posts, as part of their logistical supplies. On the other hand, the military burned all the canoes of the population that live on the banks of Lake Massabi, as well as all the fishing nets.
Before the major offensive currently in progress by the government forces, numerous villages were already uninhabited, in all the municipalities, such as Tali-Vista, Tali-Cuma, Tali-Beca, Zalangó, Prato, Chingundo and Nguelezo, in the municipality of Cabinda; Kissungo, Tando Massele, Tshaka, Viede, Mazinga, Bata Kango, Thanga, Keba Diela, Midumba, Bukongo, Diladi, Bata Kango, Masinga, Kingubi and M'bata Kingubi in the municipality of Belize, in addition to another twenty-four villages in the area of Miconje, off the main road. Many more villages have been destroyed, some repeatedly. The villages that are still inhabited live very precariously, the villagers have their scant belongings wrapped up and they are always ready to flee, at any sign of a serious threat.
October 24, 2002 – FAA burned three houses, a chapel of the Catholic Church, under responsibility of Fr. João de Brito Maiamba, in a raid carried out on the village of the Toma, in the Necuto commune.
October 17, 2002 – Joana Nzuzi, 52 years old, mother of seven children, was beaten in the military unit stationed on the Ranch, Ganda-Cango, along with five other farming women. Their crime: they went to the fields without military authorization. From 10H00 to 19H00 they suffered the worst instincts of the military from that unit. They were released without the cassava, firewood and other foodstuffs they had collected.
August 24, 2002 – FAA soldiers, from the Ntó Brigade, attacked the residences of the village of Fortaleza, in retaliation for the death of one of their colleagues, run over by a car. For thirty minutes, the military fired off rounds incessantly, dispersing the villagers and, consequently, looted the belonging of the population.
October 22, 1999 – As a consequence for an attack by the guerrillas, the population of Mbata Lemba's village was looted and all their houses were burned. The villagers were displaced empty handed.
January 05, 1999 – FAA soldiers, in retaliation for a surprise attack by the guerrillas on their position, burned 31 houses and looted all the belongings from the population, in the village of Benfica, municipality of Buco-Zau. The village was left uninhabited.
December 04, 1998 – Thirty-eight houses were plundered and burned to the ground in the village of Chapa. Eight oxen were killed and all the population’s worthy belongings. The population fled the village due to the rages of the military, stationed in the Dinge base.
April 13, 1998 – FAA soldiers burned all the houses from the village of Sassa-Zau Velho, municipality of Buco-Zau as a punishment for the killing of three soldiers in a guerrilla attack in the vicinity.
January 16, 1998 – Government forces plundered and burned eighteen houses in the village of Vitu, municipality of Buco-Zau.

January 06, 1998– In the aftermath of a military mutiny, in a FAA garrison, soldiers went on rampage to plunder the village of Fortaleza. Dozens of houses were burned and Priest Pedro Sevo was threatened with death, in presence of a Sister of Mercy and several ladies that were travelling in his vehicle.

- CASE No. 30 - 

29 August 2006 - A man of 19 year of age was shot dead in the village of Buco Zau, Cabinda on the 29 of August 209 because he went to the toilet which is located on the side of his house.

- CASE No. 31 -

Cabinda: Mpalabanda Human rights organization banned

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement AI Index: AFR 12/006/2006 (Public) News Service No: 203 4 August 2006
Amnesty International is gravely concerned about the ban of Mpalabanda (Associação Cívica de Cabinda), a human rights organization operating in Cabinda.
In a case instituted by the MPLA Regime against Mpalabanda, the Provincial Court of Cabinda ruled on Thursday 20 July that Mpalabanda should be banned. Mpalabanda is appealing against the decision, which was apparently based on the Law of Associations of May 1991 (Lei das Assosiações de Maio de 1991).
Mpalabanda is the only human rights organization operating in the province of Cabinda. Amnesty International considers its members to be human rights defenders. The organization has been involved in the documentation of human rights violations committed by both the government and members of the Front for the Liberation of the Cabindan Enclave (FLEC). Its closure will leave Cabinda, an area rife with egregious violations of human rights, without a human rights organisation to monitor and record violations of human rights.
Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the effect of the court ruling on Mpalabanda's and human rights defenders' freedoms of association and expression, and consequently, their ability to carry out human rights monitoring and evaluation. These freedoms are contained in the Constitution of Angola, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Angola is a party. Under international human rights law, no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of the right to freedom of association, other than those prescribed by law and strictly necessary in the interest of national security, public safety, public order, public health and morals or the protection of the rights and freedom of others.
Amnesty International calls upon the MPLA Regime to respect and protect the enjoyment of the right to freedom of association and expression.
In addition the organization urges the government to fulfil the principles contained in the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This Declaration recognizes the right of all, individually and in association with others, to promote and strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international level.
Background Mpalabanda was created in July 2003 in terms of the Law of Associations of May 1991 (Lei das Assosiações de Maio de 1991) and was officially registered in December 2003. In March 2004 the organization was allowed to hold its first meeting after two consecutive refusals by the provincial government to allow a meeting to take place. Since then it has been refused permission on several occasions to hold meetings and marches to commemorate Cabinda Day.
In 2004 FLEC, the Catholic Church, and Mpalabanda set up the Cabinda Forum for Dialogue (Forum Cabindese para o Dialogo, FDC) to enter into dialogue with the MPLA Regime for peace in Cabinda.
According to reports, on Monday 19 June 2006, Agostinho Chicaia the president of Mpalabanda was summoned to court (tribunal da comarca de Cabinda) where he was issued with a copy of a government application to ban Mpalabanda. The application alleged that Mpalabanda incited violence and hatred. It also accused Mpalabanda of carrying out political activities rather than being a civil society organization. The organization was given ten days to submit a responding affidavit, which it submitted within the given time.
On Thursday 20 July the Court decided to ban the organization. Mpalabanda was informed of this decision on Monday 24 July.
There is no mention in the judgement that Mpalabanda promoted violence and hatred. Nor were any of the cited witnesses called to give evidence to this effect.

- CASE No. 32 -

Human Right Violations during 2004 committed by the MPLA Regime
List of Torture, Persecutions, Assassinations and Rape in Cabinda during the year 2004

Full report on Human Right Violations in Cabinda committed by the MPLA unelected Regime in 2004 in PDF

- CASE No. 33 -

Human Right Violations during 2005 committed by the MPLA Regime
List of Torture, Persecutions, Assassinations and Rape in Cabinda during the year 2005

Full report on Human Right Violations in Cabinda committed by the MPLA unelected Regime in 2005 in PDF

- CASE No. 34 -

Human Right Violations during 2006 committed by the MPLA Regime

List of Torture, Persecutions, Assassinations and Rape in Cabinda during the year 2006

Full report on Human Right Violations in Cabinda committed by the MPLA unelected Regime in 2006 in PDF

- CASE No. 35 -

Military Detention, Torture, and Lack of Due Process in Cabinda 2009

Persons Arrested in Rural Areas, Abuses by the MPLA Armed Forces Arbitrary Arrests Incommunicado Detention Torture in Military Custody, Violations of Due Process Rights in Cabinda during the year 2009

Full Report on Human Rights Violations in Cabinda by the occupying MPLA unelected Regime in 2009 in PDF

- CASE No. 36 -
List of Crimes committed against the Lunda Tchokwe People
perpetrated by the MPLA Regime

Lundas – The stones of death Angola’s deadly diamonds: Human rights abuses in the Lunda 2004 Full Report in PDF

Rinsing the Blood from the MPLA Regime Diamonds Full Report in PDF

MPLA Regime: The New Blood Diamonds 2006 Full Report in PDF

Harvesting hunger in Angola's diamond fields 2008 Full report in PDF

Angola Diamonds and Human Security: Annual review 2009 Full Report in PDF
 

In 2009 the Armed Forces of Angola (the military armed branch of the MPLA Regime) buried 45 illegal miners alive in the Lundas. In February 2010, 22 illegal miners were executed by gunfire, in a mass extra-judicial killing. In 2011 guards from the security company Teleservice forced 15 miners at gunpoint to jump off a speeding truck at intervals so as to scatter the evidence of their deaths in the bush in the middle of the night. Routinely, illegal miners and villagers alike are stripped naked, and beaten with the flat side of a machete. In March 2011, a Teleservice guard used a heated machete to torture a miner by burning his back.
 

400 people have been murdered in the Lunda by the hands of the
MPLA Armed Forces

24 January 2011

It is estimated that more than 400 people have been murdered by the hands of the MPLA Armed Forces and the Private Security Firms owned by the MPLA Regime Generals the name of this High Ranking owned companies are:
Alfa5, Mamboji, Teleservice, K&P and a few others.
These people have disappeared and corpses being found in the mining exploration areas of Cuango, Cafunfo, Cacolo, Calonda and the Lundas during the year 2010.
Women in this areas apart form being killed are first sexually assaulted and systematically violated. The corpses found reveal that the preferred way of murder of this women is by a gun shot in their forehead, other corpses show the cause of death knife wounds. The female sex corpses recovered show the range of ages from adult to young child’s the death method was identical both in the adult females as in the young ones.
In the regions of Cuango, Cuilo and in Camaxilo bordering region with the DRC, in the vicinity of an estimated 3,000 individuals have been expelled by the MPLA Regime Armed Forces, and among this specially the women suffered sexual violations by the MPLA Regime Armed Forces.
Body parts and bones have appeared and been found in advanced state of decomposition laying down in the forests floor.
In this areas there is no Rule of Law, the only Rule is the MPLA Regime Border Guards. This border guards are not from any tribe in Angola they are recruited by the MPLA Regime from the impoverished region of Mbuji-Mayi in the DRC.
Due to the total lack of infrastructures the difficulties in this regions there is no ONG of Human Rights, all information is gathered by the Sobas the Traditional Village Elders and the members of the Commission of the Legal and Sociological Manifesto of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate

Mrs Napassa found murdered and with signs of having suffered violation in the month of May 2010

A young person found murdered in the month of June of 2010 no identity in the body was found

An epidemic of measles and cholera which is spreading in the regions of Cuango and Cafunfo
claimed the lives of 14 Children so far.

The local Traditional Village Elders and the civilian population have denounced the epidemic case of measles and cholera to the Commission of the Legal and Sociological Manifesto of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate, hoping that this epidemic is tackles by the MPLA Regime.
Since November 2010 the epidemic of measles and cholera have claimed the lives of 14 children who are now dead in consequence.
There are no hospitals and medical centres in the region without basic conditions to operate or to function in such a capacity, there are no doctors in the region either which is claiming and accelerating the number of deaths of youngsters in the region, an ethnic cleanse tactic perhaps in the part of the MPLA Regime.
The population of the Lunda Tchokwe are well aware of the state of total abandonment that this diamond rich area is in a state of total lack of concern by the unelected MPLA Regime.

Denial of work in the entire extension of the Lunda region to the Lunda Tchokwe Native Population.

The Lunda region from Kuando Kubango, up to the north of the Lunda called Lunda-North, 95% of the active population with ages between 18 to 40 years old are unemployed, the MPLA unelected Regime has provided nor allowed any employment activities to arise. This young population has no way to gain a living even to a basic sustain.
The only way they find is the mining of diamonds. The MPLA Regime is establishing (so they claim 80 factories in the region of Viana) but in the Lundas there are no factories, for example. How are we the People from the Lunda Tchokwe able to make a living? The MPLA is a Communist Regime and nothing can be done privately or governmentally without the consent of the unelected MPLA Regime.
So why is the Armed Forces of the MPLA Regime killing the Diamond Prospectors of the Lunda Tchokwe? If there is no alternative for them to gain a livelihood. The diamond mines are owned by the Daughter of the MPLA Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the MPLA Generals are partners in De Beers board or directors and they also are partners in all and every diamond mining company operating in the Lunda region.
They cut and polish the Lunda Diamonds in Talatona, Luanda. And in the Lunda they avoid employing the Natives.
Also the environment who is looking in the consequence of what is happening to the region natural environment and the impact of such digging in the local ecosystem?
In 2010 the diamond mining company ITM expelled and removed 667 farmers from their agriculture land in Calonda 20 km south of the Municipality of Lukapa, this forced removal of the native population happened during the recent months of September, October and November 2010
The same diamond mining company ITM promised to each farmer a compensation of $50 USD per harvest. A total abuse and disrespect for a yearly harvest of $50 USD.
From the diamond mining company ITM web site we read:
“RST was the mining company of ITM International SA, responsible for most of Angola's diamond production between 1986 and 1992. The annual levels of production during this period, made Angola the world's 3rd largest producer of diamonds by value. The RST mining operations were centred around the Cuango river. “

Uprising in Angola targets Leviev diamond mining company

by Adalah-NY

Oct 16th, 2008 

Though unreported in English media, portuguese-language reports from Angola document that a rebellion last week against diamond mining companies in the Cuango municipality in northeast Angola was repressed brutally by mining companies’ private security forces, police and military, resulting in at least one death and over 100 arrests. An Angolan human rights activist informed Adalah-NY that Luminas, a company owned partly by Lev Leviev and based near the town of Luremo in Cuango municipality, was one of mining companies targeted in the rebellion, though Luminas is not specifically named in the translated report below.
New York Magazine reported in 2007 that a security company contracted by Leviev “was accused… by a local human-rights monitor of participating in practices of ‘humiliation, whipping, torture, sexual abuse, and, in some cases, assassinations.’ Leviev’s formal response to the report did not directly address the abuses but touted his charitable activities in Angola.” (http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/31549/) Adalah-NY has been advocating a boycott of Leviev’s companies due to their construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in violation of international law, their human rights abuses in Angola and Namibia, and their destructive development practices in New York City.
A translation by Adalah-NY of a report from Angola on the rebellion is immediately below, followed by an additional report on the uprising, information on Leviev, Luminas and Cuango Municipality and links to other reports with background on human rights abuses in Angola’s diamond mining sector.
AngoNoticias - News of Angola in real time
Clash in Cuango Leaves One Dead - National Police Radio Ecclesia October 10, 2008 http://www.angonoticias.com/full_headlines_.php?id=21287
(Translation by Adalah-NY)
One dead and 120 detained, that is the National Police's tally, after attempts to contain a recent miners' uprising in the diamond-rich areas of Cuango in North Lunda province.
The incident occurred in the municipality of Cuango, in the northeast of North Lunda, according to the local police commander, Sub-Commissioner Estevao Delo, speaking to Radio Ecclesia.
According to him, everything began on October 3 after the expulsion of garimpeiros [unlicensed diamond miners] in the Luzamba area.
During the revolt, some members of the rebellion clashed with units from the ALFA-5 security company as well as with units from the police and military that had moved in to restore order.
The miners had also erected barricades, according to the Sub-Commissioner, who also pointed out the material damages of the uprising, including damaged military vehicles.
The officer also affirmed reports that the miners wore clothing associated with certain political parties. The officer did not go into detail at the time.
The confrontation resulted overall in one death and 120 arrests. The detained will be transferred from Kuango to Dundo for their court hearing.
Official Sources
The official sources in the area have argued that more people died than the number given by the police.
The president of the Social Renewal Party (PRS), Eduardo Kuangana, spoke of five deaths and more than 400 people detained. He denied that his party, which is influential in the region, had anything to do with the revolt. Kuangana attributed the origins of the uprising to the dominance of diamond mining companies in the area, as well as to their various abuses.
Kuangana demanded the country's president give attention to the situation to restore order.
According to Sapalo Mutayi, secretary-general for the Association of Social Development in Cuango (ADSC), speaking from their radio station, argued that the incident began from within the Society for Mining Development (SDM), which protects the security company, ALPHA 5.
ALPHA 5 agents had moved in against garimpeiros who refused to pay the percentage demanded by a regulator.
From Mutayi's point of view, "the problem in the diamond areas these days is this. The companies don't engage in initial exploration [of an area], but follow behind the garimpeiros and their product."
Untranslated article by Angolan political party on same events http://fpdangolaimprensa.blogspot.com/2008/10/nota-fpd-preocupada-com-notcias-de.html
Leviev’s ownership of Luminas, from Operation Kissonde, Rafael Marques, September, 2006 http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Operation-Kissonde-Rafael-Marques-Sep-2006.pdf
Angolan researcher Rafael Marques, reports that Lev Leviev owns a major stake in Luminas. Marques explains ownership of Luminas (Sociedade Miniera Luminas) in the following manner in Operation Kissonde: “According to the contract, signed on 31 October 2002, IDAS, the project backers, holds a 51% share of the capital, Endiama 38% and Twins Ltd, 11%... As a matter of fact, the third partner of the project, Nofar Mining B.V, is a private company created by the Lev Leviev Group and which holds the capital previously reserved for IDAS Resources, according to Endiama sources.”
Cuango Development Diagnostic and Feasibility Assessment, USAID, February 26, 2008 http://www.usaid.gov/ao/cuango_assnt_eng.pdf
Cuango municipality incorporates a geographic area in excess of 4,000 square kilometers in the province of Lunda Norte. There are three major towns in the municipality, located along the Cuango River Valley: Cuango Sede, Cafunfo, and Luremo. The town of Cuango Sede, the seat of the municipal administration, is estimated to have a population of approximately 24,000 persons, with Cafunfo estimated at 100,000 and Luremo at 16,800…
Luremo, the seat of Cuango Municipality’s only Comuna12 government, is located about 30 kilometers north of Cafunfo (80 kilometers north of Cuango Sede). There is little commercial activity in Luremo. A relatively new alluvial diamond mining operation, Luminas, is located a short distance from Luremo…
The two concessions of SDM and ITM (located immediately to the north of the SDM concession) occupy the Cuango River Valley between Cuango Sede and Cafunfo. With the third concession of Luminas, these diamond mining concessions dominate economic activities in Cuango Municipality. Their concession areas (3000 km2 each) occupy a vast proportion of the available land within the Cuango Municipality; thus, these are restricted areas, in keeping with the 1994 Act. This places restrictions on the movement of people, goods, and economic activity (see Annex 1 chapter 5), and the team saw checkpoints for restricting access to concession areas. However, public roads exist outside the concession areas and many residents are engaged in subsistence agriculture, with an unknown percentage of males engaged in small scale, illicit diamond mining.
Additional reports on human rights abuses in Angola’s diamond mining sector:
Rinsing the Blood from Angola’s Diamonds, Rafael Marques, January, 2007 http://198.170.85.29/Marques-lecture-Rinsing-Blood-from-Angola-Diamonds-26-Jan-2007.doc
The New Blood Diamonds, Rafael Marques, November, 2006 http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Marques-speech-Angola-The-New-Blood-Diamonds-28-Nov-2006.doc
Republic of Angola 2007: Diamond Industry Annual Review, Partnership Africa Canada http://www.pacweb.org/e/images/stories/documents/angola-ar2007-eng.pdf
Leviev and diamonds in Angola, Adalah-NY http://adalahny.org/index.php/boycott-against-land-developers-leviev?start=4

This photo shows an incident with the MPLA police in September 2002 where the individual is handcuff and 3 police are still beating him
 

"I was beaten until I fainted. When I return to consciousness it was dark. The next day I crawled back." Testimonies from the mine in which Leviev is a partner.

11 December 2008

Shooting at residents, murderous beatings with digging spades, whipping, and being thrown into the mud. Tough testimonies from Angola describe the treatment of the area's poor by security personnel at the mine in which Leviev is a partner. Associates deny this: "those were not our people." Leviev's spokesperson: "The group created a revolution in the diamond industry in Africa in general and in Angola in particular. We have widespread social and philanthropic programs there."
Globes (Israel’s Business Arena)
(Article translated from Hebrew for Adalah-NY by Rann Bar-on)
Itai Rom - Dec 4 2008 http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000403834&fid=2&nagish=1
Deloy Mpemba lives in Luremo, in Northern Angola. Nearby is mine operated by a company named Luminas - a partnership between Leviev, the Angola National Diamond Industry and a local retired general - a large mine. Leviev, according to his associates, owns 40%. Locals, who search for diamonds to avoid starvation are designated 'pirate miners'. They are easy prey for Luminas' security company.
On May 17, Mpemba was coming back home with some friends at the end of a day of searching. At a certain stage the group encountered a armed group of security guards hired by K&P Mineira, a private company hired to secure the mine.
"They beat me until my buttocks were swollen and I passed out," testified Mpemba, who required crutches after the incident. "When I came back to consciousness it was dark and I couldn't walk. I stayed in the place I fell until the next day. I crawled back to the neighborhood."
This testimony was published in a report a short while after the incident, in mid-2006 by Rafael Marques, an Angolan human-rights activist, who was been given many international prizes. Next to it in the report, titled 'Diamonds of Humiliation and Misery', are dozens of additional testimonies about abuse and human-right violations committed by the security personnel hired by the mine (as well as by companies serving other corporations).
The testimonies display a dark picture, far as can be from the gala dinners of the diamond mine owners: arbitrary shootings, beatings with rifle butts and digging tools, whippings with belts, violence to children, humiliation ceremonies that include forcing miners to strip, and sometimes to sing and dance naked - are a common occurrence, and that's only a partial list. The companies' activities have, according to Marques' report, a "deep sadistic streak."
The report raised attention around the world, but in Israel it was not even published. Even those interested find it hard to gather data on the events. Angolan journalists have been jailed after publishing critical reports, and local activists to whom Globes turned completely refused to talk on the whole, since "it isn't secure." Marques, who agreed to be interviewed, said that since the publication of his report "the incidents of arbitrary violence have decreased in number, but the problems with the illegal miners continue. I have information about new cases of people who have been killed and of people abused."
"It's very dirty business in Angola," he added this week. "There is no such thing as being clean in the diamond business there, and there is nothing ethical in it. Only those able to swim in mud succeed in this industry"
This is How it Looks in Angola
Today the diamond mines in Angola are controlled by foreign corporations- from Russia, Brazil, South Africa and also from Israel - with the help of the security companies whose tactics have been described above. "A milestone in negligence and lawlessness," Marques says in his report. He adds that the diamonds, that could be a blessing for the area, have turned, from the residents' point of view, into a "curse that is destroying their lives."
The corporations' activities are in partnership with the government, and billions of dollars flow into the latter's purse. Surprisingly, though, the area - that is so rich in resources - remains poor even by Angolan standards. More than a tenth of the children die before the age of five due to lack of health services; most of the villages have no schools; running water is rare resource.
The great poverty is also reflected in some of the cases of abuse documented by Marques. For example, in the story of Antonio Eliseu,14. The teenager looked for diamonds in the river with a friend, until K&P's security men arrived. "The ordered us to come out of the water, and one of them slapped by face," testified Eliseu. When his words failed to find favour with the security personnel they continued to beat him, and when his friend tried to intervene, he was shot and began to bleed into the river. "The security man," said Eliseu, "asked me how come a child is already mining diamonds. I told him I have no way of paying for my education since my father does not work and there is no work in town."
Even when the miners find diamonds that will be worth a fortune in the West, it is doubtful whether they get adequate compensation for them, and this is where Leviev enters the picture. Since 1999 the Israeli tycoon has been in partnership with the Angolan government in a company called Ascorp (Angola Selling Corporation): until 2003 the company held the exclusive rights to purchase unprocessed diamonds from pirate miners, and since then it operates alongside a second company. According to past publications, Leviev holds 49% of the company. His people deny this, saying that his ownership stake is smaller, but refuse to say what it actually is.
Where do the Diamonds Come From? Good Question
The lack of documentation referred to by Marques is just one part of the long list of problems in the management of the buying houses - problems that contradict the Kimberley Treaty that the diamond bosses, Leviev among them, love to gloat about. "Leviev was Angola's chief consultant during the Kimberly process," say his associates, "and Angola is among the leaders in implementing the process."
Really? While the central part of the process is the implementation of means of control and monitoring that will verify where each and every diamond comes from and who profits from its sale, the purchasing houses in which Ascorp buys it diamonds do not ask the seller for details, do not inquire as to the origin on the diamonds, and do not document the transactions. The payment, by the way, takes place in 'black' - without receipts or documentation.
And who in Angola grants the certification that these are not blood diamonds? Sodiam, the governmental corporation that is Leviev's partner in Ascorp, that of course has an interest in certifying as many diamonds as possible for sale.
Some of these unprocessed diamonds have reached Israel in the past few years. When Leviev received the license for world-wide distribution of Angolan diamonds, the response in the markets in Ramat Gan has highly satisfied, since now unprocessed diamonds could come directly to Israel and skip all the middlemen. In July 2004, 'Sodiam International' was incorporated - another partnership between Leviev and the Angolan government. The new company sells Angola's diamonds on the world market.
The company, whose founding ceremony was attended by the minister of finance Benjamin Netanyahu, was registered in Israel. Its offices are on Betzal'el Street in the Ramat Gan diamond market. The company states that none of its diamonds are blood diamonds, and when the Ministry of Trade sees the Angolan stamp, it adds its own as well.
But do the representatives of the Ministry of Trade really know whose pockets were lined with money due to those diamonds? Not really. The PAC [Partnership Africa Canada] report from about a year ago states: "The origin of the stones, and the deals and businessmen through whom they passed before arriving at the purchasing houses - remain a mystery [...] The system is clearly sufficiently loose to allow a huge quantity of blood diamonds to get through, if disputes were occurring in nearby areas [...] If a new conflict breaks out, the Angolan system will be wide open for exploitation [...] There is nothing in the system that will prevent widespread laundering of unprocessed diamonds from war-torn areas of Angola or elsewhere, in case a new war breaks out." In a report published a month ago the organization states that nothing has changed.
The warnings are not theoretical: in adjacent Congo a brutal civil war has been raging for years and has cost the lives of millions. In January, a peace agreement was signed between the rebels and the government and a ceasefire was declared. However, the battles have recently resumed, including massacres and brutal rapes. "If the situation in Congo worsens and it becomes impossible to export diamonds from the country," says Blor, "they will easily get to Angola and from there outwards. The diamond companies are talking about how much they have done so that the Kimberly process would work, and the governments always say how proud they are of the process. But when the civil organizations point out that they really have no idea where the diamonds come from, and that the system is broken, they just ignore their words completely."
"The Kimberly process in Angola is a farce," adds Marques, "it does not assist in defining which are truly clean diamonds and which are dirty. The only people who really profit from the Kimberly process are Leviev and Morris Templesman [another diamond man who purchases unprocessed diamonds] who use it for their own purposes and who get a cover for exploiting workers from the Kimberly process."
Associated of Leviev agree that they in fact have no idea where the diamonds that Ascorp purchases from the unlicensed miners come from. "We don't have much to say regarding this claim," they say, "not everything is rosy."
- They could be diamonds that originate in the Congo, for example.
"It is true that it is possible that diamonds are passed on from Congo. What happens in the field today is that smuggling takes place the other way. Anyway, the buyer knows what is a diamond from Congo and what is a diamond from Angola."
- And you can promise that the buyer will not buy a diamond if it appears that it came from Congo?
"Not everything is rosy."
Associates of Leviev Respond: "We Created a Revolution in Angola"
On the cases of abuse: Initially, associates of the private Leviev group (that is not associated with Africa-Israel) claimed that the report did not include any cases attributed to their security company and said that "we respect the report. We do not take it lightly. Send us the report and we will check." A few days after Globes sent the report the same associated stated that "The incidents were investigated and were found to never have occurred. The incidents were not committed by the security company. If they did happen, perhaps they were carried out by Angolan security forces."
On the claims that transactions take place without documentation and in cash: "The state runs the business. We do not know who the purchasers are and do not pay those responsible. The state produces the certificates that enable trade in diamonds. The group does not intervene in day-to-day management. From checks that we ran, we see that only those certified carry out transactions, according to the regulations."
The group's spokesman wished to add that the group "created a revolution in the African diamond industry in general and specifically in Angola. While in the past the industry only exported the diamonds, the group now cooperates with governments by raising entire industries dedicated to the processing of diamonds, including training local workers and the creation of thousands of jobs. This socioeconomic revolution is of great added value."
The associated also said that the group carries out extensive social and philanthropic activities, however they did not respond to Globe's request to give exact specification of these activities: "getting into accounting for a million here or a million there is not the point," they said.

The 'Blood Diamond' Resurfaces

By MICHAEL ALLEN

19 JUNE 2010

CAFUNFO, Angola—On paper, Angola is a poster child for the global effort to keep "blood diamonds" out of the world's jewellery stores.
International pressure helped end a vicious civil war a decade ago by strangling the ability of rebels to trade diamonds for weapons. Angola is now a leading member of the so-called Kimberley Process, an industry-wide effort to prevent commerce in rough diamonds by insurgent groups. Today, Angola is the world's fifth-largest diamond producer by value, and its gems are coveted for their size and purity.
But a visit to Angola's diamond heartland reveals that plenty of blood still spills over those precious stones. Here in the sprawling jungle of northeast Angola, a violent economy prevails in which thousands of peasant miners eke out a living searching for diamonds with shovels and sieves. Because they lack government permits, miners and their families say they are routinely beaten and shaken down for bribes by soldiers and private security guards—and, in extreme cases, killed.
This sort of violence, which has made headlines in nearby Zimbabwe, is threatening to tear the Kimberley Process apart. Diamond retailers can ill afford more bad publicity about tainted stones. But many of Africa's diamond-producing nations are wary about any effort to beef up the industry's policing of human rights.
Around Angola's mines, tales of confrontation abound. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Linda Moisés da Rosa, 55 years old, denounced the killings of her two sons, both diamond miners. In September, she said, Angolan soldiers descended on a large mine near here to chase away diggers. When some refused to leave, she said, the soldiers caved in the mine, burying alive around 45 men, including her son Pereira Eduardo Antonio, 21. "These kids were stubborn," she said, adding that the soldiers said that the killings "should serve as a lesson to anyone who wants to come dig here again."
In February, she said, her oldest son, 33-year-old Tito Eduardo, the family's sole breadwinner, got into a dispute with private security guards at another mining site. She said the guards had agreed to let local diggers sift gravel for diamonds in exchange for around $30 a day. They accused her son of failing to pay the bribe, and when he argued back, she said, "they killed him with a machete."
Military officials didn't respond to requests for comment. Angola's secretary of state for human rights, António Bento Bembe, blames his nation's long civil war for creating a climate of abuse. "I know lots of these cases happen, and I know of many other cases you haven't heard of yet," he said in an interview in Luanda, Angola's capital. "It is urgent to cultivate a culture of human rights."
The issue has plunged the Kimberley Process into the worst crisis in its brief history. Born at a time of great bloodshed on the African continent, the 75-nation Kimberley Process was initially lauded for its commitment to human rights. Rebel movements had seized control of diamond regions in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo and used the gems to finance marauding guerrilla armies. Facing a public-relations nightmare, world diamond companies agreed to buy rough stones only if they are certified by internationally recognized governments. The Kimberley Process says well over 99% of the world's rough-diamond trade is now "conflict-free."
But critics say there's a big loophole in that definition: It doesn't take into account human-rights abuses in diamond territory controlled by governments themselves. "The Kimberley Process cut the financial lifeline of rebels, but at the same time it gave legitimacy to corrupt governments that abuse their own people," says Rafael Marques, a human-rights activist who has worked extensively in northeastern Angola.
Much of the recent controversy is focused on Zimbabwe, where the group Human Rights Watch last year reported that government soldiers massacred over 200 people in a fight to control diamond fields in the east of the country, raped local women and press-ganged peasants into mining work. The Kimberley Process temporarily suspended exports from the area on the grounds that the turmoil was allowing undocumented stones to be smuggled into the world market. Last month, a monitor installed by the Kimberley Process recommended that the ban be lifted, kicking off a fierce debate. A Kimberley Process committee has been deliberating the recommendation and the issue will be taken up in a meeting of the entire group in Tel Aviv starting Monday.
Global Witness, a human-rights organization that helped conceive the Kimberley Process, called for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the group. "Thanks to the impunity and violence in Zimbabwe, blood diamonds are back on the international market," said Elly Harrowell, a Global Witness activist.
Jewellers are starting to worry that the bad publicity could spook consumers. Matthew Runci, chief executive of Jewellers of America, a trade group which represents jewellery chains from Tiffany & Co. to Zale Corp., says the Kimberley Process should either figure out a way to incorporate human-rights monitoring into its oversight of member countries or invite an outside organization to do it for them. "It's essential that the public's confidence in diamonds be maintained at a high level," he says. Once a diamond has been cut and polished, it's virtually impossible for the consumer to tell its country of origin.
Cecilia Gardner, a former New York federal prosecutor who serves as the general counsel of the World Diamond Council, says the Kimberley Process is a voluntary organization and isn't equipped to enforce human-rights compliance. "We don't have an army, we don't have a police force," she says.
In Angola, which far overshadows Zimbabwe in importance to the jewellery market, the Kimberley Process appears to have little appetite for human-rights issues. Last August, when a Kimberley Process peer-review team arrived to check the country's compliance procedures, Angolan forces were just mopping up a major operation to expel some 30,000 illegal Congolese miners from Angolan territory near here. According to a U.S. State Department report citing local media and nongovernmental organizations, military and police "arbitrarily beat and raped detainees" and forced them to march to the border without food or water. The government has denied committing abuses and says the army was merely securing the nation's borders.
A confidential Kimberley Process report on the review visit makes no mention of alleged human-rights abuses, although it criticizes Angola for failing to present a plan to better document the output of peasant mining. The group spent just two days in Lunda Norte, an area near the Congo border that has become a flashpoint for clashes between diggers and security forces. According to a draft of the internal report, the delegation intended to visit the site of a large illegal mining operation but was thwarted by "a last-minute decision to participate in a graduation ceremony for new border patrol security officers." As the team was preparing to depart, the chairman of the Kimberley Process at the time, Namibian politician Bernhard Esau, pronounced the visit a success and brushed off questions about alleged abuses of peasant miners. "The Kimberley Process is not a human-rights organization," he told reporters.
The roots of Angola's current blood-diamond problems have much to do with geology. Unlike in Botswana and South Africa, where multinational corporations use heavy machinery to extract diamonds out of deep shafts, much of Angola's diamond reserves are alluvial, meaning the stones have been washed out of the earth and scattered across the countryside. They're available to anyone with a shovel and wood-framed sieve, and are difficult for mining companies to secure. More than a million people world-wide earn a living from artisanal mining in alluvial fields, including tens of thousands in Angola alone.
Angola's artisanal miners, known in Portuguese as garimpeiros, played a pivotal role in the country's civil war, which lasted for 27 years and left at least a half-million people dead. U.S.-backed troops of the Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, fighting to depose a Soviet-supported socialist government, controlled much of the country's diamond territory. To fund their war effort, they enlisted peasant diggers from here as well as neighbouring Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
While UNITA forces committed plenty of atrocities, some people here in Cafunfo say they generally treated garimpeiros fairly. They allowed diggers to keep a percentage of the diamonds they found and established an immigration policy to bring in Congolese workers on 30-day permits, says Enoque Jeremias, a local human-rights investigator. "It was a fair system," he adds.
The war's end led to a surge in diamond production, as large mining companies dusted off old claims and launched new operations. Among the players are Odebrecht SA of Brazil, Russia's state-owned Alrosa; and a company controlled by Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev, all of which operate in joint ventures with the government diamond company Endiama.
But the garimpeiros were hardly prepared to put away their shovels. There's little agriculture here and almost no jobs outside of the mining sector. Plus, vast parts of the countryside haven't even been explored yet, much less mined. The peasants proved adept at finding diamond deposits that the big companies missed, and this so-called informal production continued to account for more than one-quarter of the country's diamond exports, according to the Partnership Africa Canada, an Ottawa-based nongovernmental agency that deals with mining issues.
To soak up those diamonds, Angola authorized foreign-run buying operations to be established in the bush. U.S. diamond giant Lazare Kaplan International Inc. became a fixture in the area, signing a technical agreement with the government to set up buying houses. Lazare Kaplan says it let the agreement expire in 2008, when world diamond prices collapsed, and is now winding down operations in Angola. Lazare Kaplan Chairman Maurice Tempelsman, the late-life companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, says the company was trying to bring development to the area and help strengthen Angola's Kimberley Process controls. "I am strongly committed to the protection of human rights," Mr. Tempelsman says, adding: "I believe in this imperfect world, involvement in trying to bring about constructive change is the best course."
Lazare Kaplan's withdrawal has left a wide-open field for other buyers, including a company controlled by Israel's Mr. Leviev, as well as a flood of newcomers from West Africa and the Middle East. Their storefronts line the muddy streets of Cafunfo, trying to outdo each other with mirror-signed bling.
For Ahmad Mouein, a Lebanese buyer who bills himself as "Boss Mouein," it's a great business opportunity despite the recession in the diamond market. "Sometimes a digger here can sell you a $500,000 stone for $5,000, $10,000," he marvels. He says the Kimberley Process hasn't succeeded in its primary mission of halting smuggling. "Kimberley or not Kimberley, my friend, for the diamond, you can do what you want."
By many accounts, the presence of these buying houses has only fanned the violence by encouraging more peasants to get into the mining business at the same time that government security forces have been tasked with stopping them.
At one such illegal mine, an hour's motorcycle ride over trails outside of Cafunfo, a Dantesque scene unfolds. Perhaps 500 young men are clambering over a vast pit dug deep into the red earth. They've been at it for a year now, and figure they have months to go until they hit a vein of gravel they believe will contain diamonds. Their tools are rudimentary—pikes and shovels—and the work is backbreaking, alleviated only by the homegrown marijuana many smoke and the small sachets of alcohol that can be had everywhere for a dollar.
They live on the site in homemade tents and work in shifts. To support themselves, they say, they make agreements with buyers, especially the West Africans, to split the take.
Caxaculo Milonga, 44, says he's on the hook with a man he knows as Boss Ibrahim from Senegal. Although Boss Ibrahim paid medical expenses when a run-in with police and soldiers sent him to the hospital, Mr. Milonga complains that the deal is unfair because he has to give Boss Ibrahim 50% of all production, then sell the rest to him at a rock-bottom price. "We work like slaves and they're cheating us," he says. "You can't argue or he'll call the police." Another garimpeiro says his sponsor at one time was a police investigator in Cafunfo, making any negotiation pointless.
Concerns about security forces are never far away. Last year, as part of the latest effort to expel Congolese diggers, the Angolan army moved into the area in force. In recent months patrols have paid a visit to the mine, harassing miners and slapping them with the flat side of their machetes, the miners say. The diggers worry that the army is just waiting until they hit gravel so they can move in and take the diamonds for themselves.
Near another illegal mining site, peasants described a similar scenario. In December, an army patrol swept through the village of Bundo in search of mining tools, says Cazanguia Andre, the 60-year-old deputy chief of the village. He says he ran into them on the way back from tilling his field, and they accused him of being a garimpeiro. They then hit him twice in the head with a rifle butt and struck him with a pole, he adds, breaking his arm. Later, after they discovered shovels at the local church, which Mr. Andre says were being used for construction, they arrested three people.
A lieutenant at a nearby temporary army encampment declined to be interviewed but said his squad hasn't committed any abuses of the local population and isn't involved in any mining activities.
Back in Bundo, four garimpeiros give a different story. They say when soldiers swept through they discovered the garimpeiros working with a water pump in a pit. The soldiers confiscated the pump. Then a negotiation ensued, says one garimpeiro, and the soldiers agreed to give back the pump in exchange for $54—as well as a split of the action. "When we hit the gravel, the soldiers will be present to get their share," he says.
Write to Michael Allen at mike.allen@wsj.com

Operation Kissonde: the diamonds of humiliation and misery

Index:
Goals of the Report
Expected Outcomes
1 Executive Summary
2 The Government
3 The National Police
3.1 Improvements
3.2 Comparison
3.3 Conversations, Promises and Reality
3.4 The Bridge of Discord
3.5 The Subsidiaries of the National Police
3.6 Ping-pong
4 The Angolan Armed Forces
5 Sodiam and Ascorp: the head and tail of garimpo
5.1 Sodiam Sarl
5.2 Sodiam International
5.3 Ascorp and the Law of the Powerful
6 The Exploiter
6.1 Endiama
6.2 Sociedade de Desenvolvimento Mineiro
6.3 Sociedade Mineira do Cuango (SMC)
6.4 Sociedade Mineira Luminas
7 The Agents of the New Order: systematic practices of sadism and cruelty
7.1 Alfa–5
7.1.1 Brief Annotation on Alfa–5
7.1.2 Description of Violations in 2006
7.1.3 Description of Violations in 2005
7.1.4 The Response from the General Manager of Alfa-5
7.2 K&P Mineira
7.2.1 Brief Annotation on K&P Mineira
7.2.2 Description of violations in 2006
7.2.3 Description of Violations in 2005
7.2.4 The Response from the General Manager of K&P Mineira
7.3 Teleservice
7.3.1 Brief Annotation of Teleservice
7.3.2 Description of Violations in 2006
7.3.3 The Response from the General Manager of Teleservice
8 Conclusions
8.1 The Strategy and the Resignation of the Government
8.2 Carte Blanche to Demonstrate Power and to Humiliate
9 Annexes
9.1 The Tale of a Brave Woman
9.2 Justice
9.3 Odebrecht and the Angolan Rulers: the samba of promiscuity
Goals of the Report
Defend humans rights in an unequivocal and uncompromising fashion.
Give the victims a voice.
Break away from the culture of fear and impunity.
Denounce the maintenance of blood diamonds, in Angola, by other methods and other protagonists, with tragic human and social consequences.
Promote citizenship and a sense of justice
Expected Outcomes
Discussion, in the National Assembly, of the Diamonds Law, currently used to justify the pillaging and violence, so as to transform it into a legal instrument of protection, also protection of the interests of the local population. Putting an end to practices of sadism, cruelty and humiliation by private security companies and mining operators against the people of Cuango.

Raising of national and international public opinion awareness on the neo-colonialist conduct of the diamond industry in Angola.
Adoption, by the government, of specific and public measures, for respect and protection of human life, in the diamond bearing areas.
Broader public discussions for the diversification of the singular economy centered on diamonds, so as to promote the creation of employment, for social and political stability of the area.
Executive Summary
"Angola is a foreign country to us.
We, Angolans, are treated worse than animals"
José Bartolomeu, miner
This report is a follow-up to Lundas: The Stones of Death[1] (2005). It looks at the tragic impact that diamond extraction has on the lives of local populations, the institutional incentives to permanently violate human rights, the privatisation of violence, and the unchecked plundering of these resources.
Due to financial and logistical limitations, this work only covers the hydrographic basin of the Cuango, in other words, Cuango municipality. The first report covered a wider area, both northeastern provinces of Lunda-Norte and Lunda-Sul, of almost 200,000km2 with over a million inhabitants.
Cuango has a surface area of 6,818.8km2 and is situated in the south-west of Lunda-Norte province. According to official estimates, it has a population of 140,000 inhabitants. This region is notorious for illegal immigration, in the tens of thousands, because of the garimpo[2] and the resulting commerce.
As a traditional area for diamond extraction, Cuango is home to three major diamond-mining enterprises: the Sociedade de Desenvolvimento Mineiro (SDM), which has its headquarters in the administrative capital of Cuango; the Sociedade Mineira do Cuango (SMC), at Cafunfo; and the Sociedade Mineira Luminas, in the commune of Luremo. These three diamond companies use the security firms Alfa-5, Teleservice, and K&P Mineira, respectively, to guard their operations.
Upon the end of 'Operação Brilhante' [3], in February 2005, these private security firms assumed complete responsibility for combating all clandestine prospecting throughout the Cuango region.
In practical terms, the entire region of Cuango, with the exception of the administrative zones of the state and a few highly populated areas, can be considered a restricted [4] and protected [5] zone, according to Law nº16/94 of 7 October, which established the 'Special Regime of the Diamond-Mining Reserves Zones'. This 'regime' is also known as the Diamonds Law.
Moreover, in the restricted and protected zones, in accordance with article 20 nº1 of the Diamonds Law, "any type of economic activity [:] is prohibited, whatever its nature, whether industrial, commercial, agricultural, or other [:]".
In effect, the Government has divided Cuango into three slices and handed them to the three companies namely SDM, SMC and Luminas. In this manner, Alfa-5 hired by SDM, controls the Cuango's administrative town, with the same name; Luminas hands over the control of Luremo to K&P Mineira; and Teleservice, under SMC contract, oversees the Cafunfo sector. Thus, the security control exercised by these companies extends throughout the whole territory. The methods used epitomise the systematic violation of human rights in the name of the law and the authority granted by the state.
These violations have a profoundly sadistic aspect given that, in general, the behaviour of the guards of the three companies includes beating their victims on the buttocks, undressing them and making them circulate naked or semi-naked in public, as well as other rituals of humiliation. They use, as distinct instruments of torture, shovels, or the handles of shovels, clubs and machetes. In the particular case of Alfa-5, various cases have been documented in which the victims are forced to carry out homosexual acts. In one particular case, a son-in-law was forced to violate his father-in-law.
Forced labour at the installations and the working areas of the aforementioned diamond extraction companies has become a routine part of life for the garimpeiros. It is used as a form of punishment which is administered by these companies.
Similarly, K&P Mineira has a dual role in providing services to Luminas as well as Sodiam/LKI and Ascorp. On the one hand, it uses arbitrary methods, including violence, to expel the garimpeiros from the Luminas concession. On the other hand, it protects and accompanies Sodiam/LKI and Ascorp in the management and patronage of the garimpeiros.
Although the Diamonds Law safeguards the practice of artisanal diamond mining, in other words, legal garimpo (Chapter III of the Law, nº16/94), for part of the local population, the Government prefers to keep them in a situation of permanent illegality.
Any agricultural or commercial activity in the region, like the rest of the Lundas, requires the direct authorisation of the Provincial Governor. It is well known that among the local population, there is not a single artisanal exploration licence, or a licence for the practice of subsistence agriculture. In this way, the Government stops these people from surviving without resorting to illegal methods.
The consequences are tragic. For example, on 20 April 2006, guards from K&P Mineira stopped Franciso Pinto from fishing in the River Lumonhe, on the basis that the river and the fish in it are also part of the SMC concession. They beat him until he lost consciousness. Óscar Neves was hit in the eye with the butt of a rifle and was whipped by Teleservice for taking care of his personal hygiene by bathing in the River Cuango. Like all the other villagers, Neves used the river to wash because of the lack of piped water in the region. However, according to Teleservice, the river "is part of the concession".
The law on Private Security Firms (Law nº19/92 of 31 July) prohibits, in article 4, paragraph a) private security activities involving "criminal investigation of any type". The nº2, article 4 of Law nº19/92, prohibits "activities by private security firms that come into conflict with the performance of the proper functions of the security forces and security services and the civil protection of the State".
These companies do not observe the special obligations, according to paragraph a) of article 15 of the same law, to "give immediate knowledge to the judicial authorities or the police of any public crime of which they have knowledge in the exercise of their functions or that is clearly being committed".
Moreover, paragraph b) of article 15 of the above-mentioned law, prohibits "personal performance that could be mistaken by the public for elements of the armed forces or the security services and the state's civil protection services".
So, the documented cases show clearly a total disrespect for the law. These businesses behave, without precedent, in an arbitrary way in detaining, interrogating and torturing citizens, as well as patrolling public roads and neighbourhoods with men in uniform who are armed for combat situations.
Despite their effective public relations propaganda, the diamond companies do nothing to reduce the misery of the local populations in the area.
Without work or other alternatives, the local people become exclusively dependent on garimpo. They are easy prey in the politics of the fight against garimpo. Such a situation is devastating the populations slowly, with the silent and silently, in complicity of international powerhouses and institutions more concerned with lucrative contracts or in getting cozy with the regime.
The Cuango region has the peculiarity of being under the effective control, from a military point of view, of the private security forces. This precedent represents, therefore, another type of threat to the institution of a true rule of law and a democratic Angola.
Moreover, the subordination of the local administration, police authorities and the military to the aims of the businesses which operate in the region, in the face of the negligence of the concessionary, Endiama, acts as a cover for senior figures of the regime who are only looking out for their own particular interests.
Thus, the privileged access to riches remains subject to the duality of violence and corruption. The maintenance of unchecked power by a few individuals, in the country, strives on such logic, in detriment of transparency and true democracy. So, it is time for the government to break from a political strategy dependent on violence and corruption, even if both are privatized.
[1] Marques, Rafael and Rui Falcão de Campos (2005), Lundas: The Stones of Death is available online at www.wilsoncenter.org/events/docs/ADDMarq.pdf
[2] Garimpo is clandestine diamond extraction. A garimpeiro is an unauthorised diamond prospector or miner.
[3] Operação Brilhante (Operation Shining) was a joint operation between the police forces and the military in order to combat clandestine mining and the illegal entry of foreigners into Angola. It began towards the end of 2003. This operation covered the provinces of Lunda-Norte, Lunda-Sul, Malanje and Bié, and, according to data provided by the Ministry of Interior, resulted in the expulsion of 256,417 foreigners who were in the country illegally.
[4] Article 17, No1 of the Diamonds Law stipulates that access to restricted zones is prohibited apart from those people who are legally involved in diamond production. The exception applies only to government officials and people and employers who are there in an official capacity. The government does permit concessionaires, in article 18 No1, the freedom to regulate the circulation of people in their concessions.
[5] In the same way, point 1in article 19 of the Diamonds Law prohibits the circulation of goods in the restricted zones "without the authorisation of the concessionaire", whereas point 2 of the same article permits such circulation with a written authorization by the concessionaire. The report Lundas: The Stones of Death presents a legal analysis of the Diamonds Law and its perverse impact on the local populations. See www.wilsoncenter.org/events/docs/ADDMarq.pdf
The full text of the Diamonds Law can be viewed here

Detainees in Lunda Norte at risk owing to illness and appalling prison conditions

Political Prisoners of the Commission of the Legal and Sociological Manifesto of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate in the MPLA Regime Prison of Conduege – Dundo in the Region of Lunda-Norte in the municipality of Cuango and Cafunfo.

31 July 2010

This is a small part of the members of the Commission of the Legal and Sociological Manifesto of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate that are illegally detained by the MPLA Regime in the Prison of Conduege since April 2009 without charge nor court appearance a total of 40 citizens.
The names of the political detained from the left to the right.
1.- First row: Bento Majimo, Arnaldo António, Daniel, Augusto and Tony Jermias 2.- Secund row: João Venáncio Samiendo, Juste Filipe, Castro Zacarias and Antoninho 3.- Third row: Marco Julião Nguelengue, Zeferino Rui Muajinga, Tito Filimo, Serafim Muangulungu. 4.- Fourth row: Kanhakanha Ngulu, Jaime Eduardo Muatximbão, Viriato Manuel and Augusto Mateus. 5.- Fifth row: Serafim Eduardo, Afonso Lucas, Carlos Txamuangana, Zeca Rodrigues and Mendes

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC STATEMENT

6 August 2010   -  Index number: AFR 12/009/2010

Thirty seven members of the Commission of the Legal Sociological Manifesto of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate (Comissão do Manifesto Jurídico Sociológico do Protectorado da Lunda Tchokwe – CMJSP-Lunda), are facing serious health risks and even death, owing to the appalling prison conditions in which they are held in the Conduege prison in Dundo, the capital of the diamond-rich Lunda Norte province. The majority have been held there pending trial for 16 months; most if not all, are ill, some seriously.
Amnesty International fears for the health and safety of the detainees and is calling on the Angolan authorities to release them pending trial; to provide them with appropriate medical treatment and to improve the prison conditions.
Most of the detainees at Conduege prison are very weak after more than a year in detention in overcrowded conditions and chronic illnesses for which they have not received adequate medical treatment. Their condition has been aggravated by the lack of sanitation and clean water; as well as insufficient and poor quality food being provided. Food and drinkable water is sent from the capital, Luanda, and often run out before new provisions arrive. Only a few of the detainees can rely on their families for the provision food and medicines. The families of the majority live hundreds of kilometres away in areas with poor or non existing transport communications. Many detainees have not seen their families since they were taken to Conduege prison in April 2009.
As a result, most detainees have been ill at regular intervals with different ailments at different times. Most of them have been suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhoea and blood loss in the urine and faeces, as well as malaria and pneumonia, for which they are not receiving medical treatment. Some have hernias and some also have distended abdomens. Apparently,
only two cases have received medical treatment, albeit inadequate.
The near starvation, lack of medical treatment and the appalling conditions endured by these detainees represent a failure by the Angolan authorities to fulfil their most basic responsibilities under international law. Unless immediate action is taken, many of those detained at Conduege prison could lose their lives.
Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the health of Muatxina Chamumbala, who has been ill for some seven months and had a distended abdomen. In early July 2010 he was taken to the Lunda Norte Provincial Hospital in Dundo where he had fluid drained from the abdomen. After three days he was returned to Conduege prison where he remains, reportedly very ill and not receiving medical treatment.
Amnesty International is calling on the authorities to release these detainees immediately on medical grounds, to provide them with adequate medical care and to improve conditions of detention at Conduege.
Most of the detainees were arrested between 1 and 30 April 2009 in several locations in the north-eastern provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul. Four, Modesto Timóteo, Calisto Muatunda, Bento Magimo and Zeferino Rui Muagingo, were arrested on 1 April at the police station in Cuango as they went to deliver a copy of the CMJSP-Lunda’s) manifesto. The police accused them of distributing pamphlets aimed at destabilizing the national and territorial order of Angola, and reportedly beat them to obtain information about other members of the CMJS. Some 270 people were subsequently arrested throughout Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul provinces and briefly detained. Most were released uncharged after a few days but 34 remained in detention. Three others were arrested on 12 February 2010.
In addition, the leader of the CMJS, Filipe Malakito, was arrested in Luanda, the Angolan capital, on 14 May 2009. He was first held Air force base in Luanda. Three and a half months later he was transferred to the hospital prison of São Paulo where he remained for eight months receiving treatment for his swollen legs. He is currently being held at Viana prison in Luanda. Two other members of the CMJS who were arrested in January 2010 are also being held there.
Another detainee, Alberto Cabaza, is reportedly ill, suffering from swollen feet and scabies for which he is not known to be receiving medical treatment. All the detainees have been charged with crimes against the security of the State, under Article 26 of law 7/78, the Law of Crimes Against the Security of the State, of 26 May 1978, amended in 1992. Article 26 states “all and every act, not foreseen in the law that puts at risk or could put at risk the security of the state will be punishable…”
Amnesty International has repeatedly called for this provision to be repealed immediately as it violates the principle of legality in criminal law. It is vague and does not enable individuals to foresee whether a particular action is unlawful. It basically means that any act which the authorities say is a crime will be a crime even if this was not stated in law at the time the act was committed. Furthermore, it violates international human rights law and standards.
Their trial, scheduled for 12 November 2009, was suspended indefinitely on the day it started due to a procedural irregularity. The Lunda Norte Provincial Court decided it had not jurisdiction to try the matter and remitted the case to the Supreme Court, in Luanda. No new date for the trial has been set. However, Zeferino Rui Muagingo was tried in May 2010 and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.
Amnesty International is concerned that they may be prisoners of conscience arrested and detained for calling for autonomy for the Lunda-Tchokwe region. As far as the organization is aware, they have not used or advocated violence.
Background:
The CMJS is a political group set up in 2007 that seeks the administrative and financial autonomy of the former Tchokwe Kingdom, which comprises the present day provinces of Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Moxico and Kuando Kubango. In 2007 they sent their manifesto the MPLA Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos with a view to having discussions about the autonomy of the region, but received no response. The authorities have accused the CMJS of having a military wing but have presented no evidence to that effect. Furthermore, no military activity had been reported in the Lunda provinces since the end, in 2002, of the civil war between Angolan government forces and those of UNITA - The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

List of the Members of the:
Commission of the Legal and Sociological Manifesto of the Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate
in the Prison of the MPLA Regime without Charge

PROCESSOS N.º 3450-A/2009, N.º 157/2010 PGR Lunda-Norte  

E N.º 8001/2010 TRIBUNAL SUPREMO DO MPLA, DR Juiz Carneiro

1.    Dr. Jota Filipe Malakito------------------Cadei a Hospital S.Paulo

2.    Domingos Manuel Muatoyo-------------Comarca Viana Luanda– Sem Processo

3.    Alberto Cabaza-------------------------Comarca Viana Luanda- Sem Processo

4.    José Salumo Samangia------------------Cond uege Lunda-Norte

5.    Modesto Timóteo----------------------- Conduege Lunda-Norte

6.    Dala Ramos------------------------- ---Conduege Lunda-Norte

7.    Daniel Léo Augusto----------------------Co nduege Lunda-Norte

8.    Augusto Mateus------------------------ Conduege Lunda-NOrte

9.    António Leão----------------------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

10.  Zeca Rodrigues--------------------- -----Conduege Lunda-Norte

11.  Juste Filipe------------------------ ------Conduege Lunda-Norte

12.  Calisto Muatunda---------------------- -Conduege Lunda-Norte

13.  Armando António Muagingo--------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

14.  Alexandre João---------------------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

15.  João Venáncio Samiondo-----------------Condue ge Lunda-Norte

16.  Bento Magimo------------------------ ---Conduege Lunda-Norte

17.  Castro Zacarias Nzua---------------------Cond uege Lunda-Norte

18.  Afonso Lucas------------------------- ---Conduege Lunda-Norte

19.  Marcos Julião Nguelengue----------------Condue ge Lunda-Norte

20.  Jaime Eduardo Muachimbau--------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

21.  Zeferino Rui Muagingo--------------------Cond uege Lunda-Norte

22.  Serafim Muaculungo---------------------- Conduege Lunda-Norte

23.  João Mateus------------------------ ----Conduege Lunda-Norte

24.  Muatxina Chamumbala-------------------Co nduege Lunda-Norte

25.  Canhanga Diango André------------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

26.  Tito Filimo------------------------ -------Conduege Lunda-Norte

27.  Sacana Mufungueno Manuel--------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

28.  Serafim Paulo------------------------- ---Conduege Lunda-Norte

29.  Gonga Cesár Manuel----------------------Co nduege Lunda-Norte

30.  Alberto Suca Calala-----------------------Conduege Lunda-Norte

31.  Tito Mateus Muanauta--------------------Co nduege Lunda-Norte

32.  Carlos Almeida----------------------- ---Conduege Lunda-Norte

33.  Mandevo Quifulo----------------------- -Conduege Lunda-Norte

34.  Domingos José---------------------------Conduege Lunda_norte

35.  Toni Geremias Sacazanga----------------Condu ege Lunda-Norte

36.  Sebastião Lumani----------------------- Conduege Lunda-Norte

37.  José Muteba------------------------ ----Conduege Lunda-Norte

38.  Afonso Luifi------------------------- ----Conduege Lunda-Norte

39.  Sergio Augusto-------------------------Conduege Lunda-Norte-Proc 3668-B/09

40.  António Silva Malembela----------------Cond uege Lunda-Norte

Photo: Alberto Cabaza, Muatxina Chamumbala

Health Professional Action

Denial of medical care for Zeferino Rui Muatxingo and Muatxihina Muatximbala

and at least 17 other detainees in Conduege Prison

By the MPLA unelected Comunist Regime

Amnesty International is seriously concerned about the health of Zeferino Rui Muatxingo and Muatxihina Muatximbala and at least 17 other detainees in the Conduege Prison in Dundo, Lunda Norte Province in Angola. Zeferino Rui Muatxingo and Muatxihina Muatximbala are known to be sick as a result of unsanitary conditions and insufficient and inadequate food and water. Despite requests by their lawyer the prison authorities have refused to provide them with medical care. Amnesty International is concerned their health will continue to deteriorate if needed medical attention is not provided.

Amnesty International calls on the Angolan government to ensure these detainees have full and immediate access to appropriate medical services and sanitary conditions.

Background

At least 34 political detainees are currently being held in Conduege Prison in Dundo, the provincial capital of the diamond-rich north eastern province of Lunda Norte. Amnesty International does not have details of the conditions in Conduege Prison or the prisoners’ state of health. However, the organisation has been informed that prison conditions are generally poor, with insufficient poor quality food and untreated water being provided. As a result, 19 detainees have been suffering from severe diarrhoea and blood loss, as well as malaria and pneumonia, for which they are not receiving medical treatment.

Zeferino Rui Muatxingo is reportedly suffering from diarrhoea with bloody stools, blood in his urine, and weight loss. He may also be suffering from malaria. He is not known to have received medical treatment.

Muatxihina Muatximbala is reportedly suffering from malaria, but is not receiving medical treatment.

Zeferino Rui Muatxingo, Muatxihina Muatximbala, and 17 other detainees are part of a group of 34 people arrested throughout April 2009 in several localities in Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul provinces. They are all members of the Comissão do Manifesto Jurídico Sociológico do Protectorado da Lunda Tchokwe (Commission for a Legal Sociological Manifesto of Lunda Tchokwe Protectorate) in Lunda Norte Province, which calls for a federal state.

Zeferino Rui Muatxingo and three others were arrested on 1 April 2009 when they took a copy of their manifesto to Cuango (Lunda Norte) police station. They were arrested on the spot and reportedly beaten by police officers in order to obtain the names of other members of the Commission. Subsequently, 270 people were arrested throughout the province, most of whom were later released uncharged.

However, 34 people including Zeferino Rui Muatxingo and Muatxihina Muatximbala were charged with crimes against the state, and they remain in detention. Their trial started in November 2009 but was suspended indefinitely. The case was remitted to the Supreme Court to resolve a legal irregularity.
 

Intimidation by the MPLA Regime of the
Ethnic Population and Civilians of Lunda Tchokwe

7 February 2011

On the 7 of February 2011, around 13:00 was kidnapped the civilian Mr. António Txichicussula, a Human Rights Activist in the Sector of Calonda.
Mr. António Txichicussula was detained by the MPLA Regime when he was photocopying some papers containing Dr. Dr Jota Filipe Malakito Photo.
He was apreended in the shop SANKIF which the manager of the Shop is Mr. Celestino Zeula.
This are the details of the MPLA regime Agent that apreended the Lunda Tchokwe Human Rights Activist.
MPLA regime Agent Name: Mr. João Dumbo Son of: Mr. João Bernardo and of Mrs Emília Cipriana natural of Benguela born on the 5 of November 1971 and resident in Lucapa.
Today 12 February 2011 we received information by phone from Lukapa that Mr. Celestino Zeula remains detained by the MPLA Regime Police and denied any outside contact, the MPLA Regime Police is not allowing him to receive any food, and he has not eaten in the last 4 days. The cell where he is being unlawfully detained the MPLA Regime is a room where there are 10 more persons in the same prison cell, without any ventilation nor WC, and no water.

The People of Lunda and Moxico march naked over diamonds

Where is the revenue of the Diamonds of the producing regions? “In the ties” reply the population of the Lunda Tchokwe. Near to the 4th largest deposit of Diamonds in the World in the city of Saurimo, the capital of Lunda South.
This are the areas less developed in contrast to the wealth of the Diamonds. There are no health centres in the Lunda Tchokwe region. There are no running water, electricity, roads, and houses. Both health and school infrastructures are non existent. The people of Lunda Tchokwe lived better during the civil war than now!
“The MPLA Regime shows their ties, and say the society is developing”. The MPLA Regime farce continues On the 4th of February 2011 the Deputy minister checked the readiness of the MPLA Regime Police Forces in Lunda Norte.
Dundo – The deputy minister of the Interior, Angelo Veiga Tavares, in since Thursday in Dundo City, north-eastern Lunda North, to assess the readiness level of police forces in this region. This Friday, Angelo Veiga Tavares will inaugurate the Cacanda prison, which is located seven kilometres away from Dundo City.

Hunger Strike in the MPLA Regime Prison of Kakanda Lunda North

14 February 2011

Lunda North a Place where there is No Hospitals, No Schools, No Factories, No Investment, but plenty of Prisons

More than 40 Lunda Tchokwe Human Rights Activists have been transferred to the Conduege Prison to the new Prison of Kakanda in Lunda North, today the 14 of February 2011 they entered Hunger Strike, as a result of the continuous violation by the MPLA Regime of their Liberty and basic Human Rights the Hunger strike also aims to notify the International community of the terrible injustices that the MPLA Regime continuous to perpetuate against the Populations of Lunda, Kuando Kubango and Moxico.

MPLA Regime Political Prisoner Dr Jota Filipe Malakito
denied medical visit since his unlawful arrest in 2009

23 February 2011

Dr Jota Filipe Malakito, President of the CMJSPLT who was kidnapped by agents of the Secret Police of the MPLA Regime since May 2009 and now in the Prison of the MPLA Regime, wrote to the MPLA Regime Henchmen the Director of the Prison Services of Luanda, regarding the continuous obstruction and denial for him to attend a medical consultation in the Central Military Hospital of Luanda.

The letter was written on the 8^th of February 2011 addressed to the Director of Prisons Services in Luanda, until today the 23^rd of February 2011 there as been no reply nor has Dr. Jota Filipe Malakito, President of the CMJSPLT been allowed to be seen by a medical personnel.

Dr Jota Filipe Malakito, writes in the letter that he was given by the Agents of the MPLA Regime Secret Police the medication called ZOMAN-ZARIN=Z2 the same was added and mixed in the meals and water during the days he was kept imprisoned in the Prison of the National Air Force – FAN before being transferred to the DNIC Prison. He is being illegally remanded in prison without any trial or charges.

Dr Jota Filipe Malakito requested to be seen by a doctor on the 16 November 2010, 12 December 2010, 6 January 2011 and on the 12 January 2011,

since he is in Prison he has not been allowed by the MPLA Regime to be seen by a Doctor, nor he as been allowed to make any treatments, his health is degrading rapidly.

Dr Jota Filipe Malakito, is suffering at the moment due to his imprisonment and the drugs to him administered by the MPLA Secret Police Agents, serious loss of vision, strong pain from his testicles, painful problems with the right leg knee, which without a plastic knee protease he cant move.

Bodies of Female Victims repeatedly appearing in the Lunda Tchokwe

25 February 2011

Zinha Maxingo also known as Gizela a Lunda Tchokwe women of 24 years old, born on the 10 of November 1988 in the Municipality of Dala in Lunda-Sul, mother of 3 sons was found murdered and the body thrown in the River Kapulumba next to the local airport.

This is the second victim that appears in the same place and murdered in the same manner: sexual violation, removal of belongings and thrown to the river.

In 2010 it was found several bodies in the diamond mining areas, but more precisely in the areas under the direct control of the Mining Private Security Firms. All mines are in partnership with the MPLA Regime Ruling Elite and the Private Security Companies all without exception are privately owned by members of the MPLA Regime.

The young victim Zinha Maxingo also known as Gizela, was reported to be with two sick sons, in the lack of jobs and abject poverty that rules and infests the nation under the corrupt and clandestine MPLA Regime the victim decided to go to her farm to harvest bombo to sell, this happened on the 23 February 2011, she left her house and did not return. The neighbours decided to search for her, they found her drawn on the same evening at 19:00 hours and her body was buried on the 24 February 2011.
 

LUNDA TCHOKWE POLITICAL PRISIONERS

February 2012

Held without charge in the Kakanda Prision of the MPLA Regime in Angola.

- CASE No. 37 -

Human Rights Annual Reports

Issued by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2009

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2008

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2007

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2006

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2005

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2004

Crimes and Human Right Abuses committed by the MPLA Regime 2003

RIGGED ELECTIONS

by Paul Bogdanor

Eight opposition parties rejected the 1992 election as rigged. An official observer wrote that there was little UN supervision, that 500,000 UNITA voters were disenfranchised and that there were 100 clandestine polling stations.

UNITA sent peace negotiators to the capital, where the MPLA murdered them, along with 20,000 UNITA members. Savimbi was still ready to continue the elections.

The MPLA then massacred tens of thousands of UNITA voters nationwide. Human rights observers have accused the MPLA of “genocidal atrocities,” “systematic extermination,” “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.” (1)

(1) National Society for Human Rights, Ending the Angolan Conflict, Windhoek, Namibia, July 3, 2000 (opposition parties, massacres);

John Matthew, Letters, The Times, UK, November 6, 1992 (election observer);
NSHR, Press Releases, September 12, 2000, May 16, 2001 (MPLA atrocities).

- CASE No. 38 -

Intimidation of Civilians in Cabinda

Cabinda 12 January 2011

Eleven MPLA Police Agents known locally as Polícia Nacional (PN), armed with pistols and revolvers entered the residence of Mr. Próspero Mambuco Sumbo, in the neighbourhood of Comandante Gika, in Cabinda City, on the 10th of February 2011.
It was around 9:00pm when the MPLA Regime police agents banged on the door of the house without search warrant and hand controlled his wife Mrs Albertina Vango, and the daughter of the Human Rights Activist, forcing them to remain in the living rooms while they searched the entire house without informing what was the reason for their uninvited presence
The Cabinda Human Rights Activist Mr. Próspero Mambuco Sumbo was not at home at the time of the MPLA Regime Police Raid.
After the search, the MPLA Regime agents made and interrogation of his wife Mrs. Albertina Vango demanding to know the whereabouts of her husband.
The interrogation involved physical beatings two of the Agenst slapped her repeatedly on the face and threatened her with their pistols, and strangulated her neck with a cloth. Both the wife and the daughter remained in house detention for two whole hours under constant abuse and physical torture.
Only after Mrs Albertina confessed that her husband left home since 12 noon, in the company of Mr. Alexandre Cuanga, his friend. The Agents took with them the Message sent by the Democratic Block (Bloco Democrático) addressed to the Cabinda Human Rights Activist Próspero Mambuco Sumbo in reference to his absolution by the MPLA Regime on the 22 of December 2010.
The search of his house follows rumours in Cabinda of a manifestation for the 12 of February 2011 in the style of the Tunisian, Egyptian manifestations in order to demand the end of the MPLA 37 year rule, invasion and oppression of the Cabinda Nation and People.

- CASE No. 39 -

MPLA Gunned down Cabinda Citizens

Cabinda, March 2011


Gabriel Nhemba known as "Pirilampo"

3 March 2011 - Gunned down by the MPLA Regime: Gabriel Nhemba known as "Pirilampo"

Maurício Lubota known as “Sabata”

19 March 2011 - Gunned down by the MPLA Regime: Maurício Lubota known as “Sabata”

 

                        - CASE No. 40 -

     Political Intimidation & Treat to Commit Murder of Political opponents

Henchmen of the MPLA Regime in Luanda, Angola seek to murder one of the organizers of the Manifestation in Luanda calling for the end of Dictatorship and calling for Freedom and Democracy in the Country

Carbono Casimiro giving an interview

Luanda, 4 April 2011

After the complaint was lodge with the local police concerning the persecution of one of the main organizers of the cry for Democracy manifestation held in Luanda on the 2 of April 2011, two cars where following one of the main organizers of the manifestation which took place in the Independence Square in central Luanda, the capital city of Angola.

Regime Elements affiliated with MPLA Regime made an attempt to assassinate the Angolan Human Rights Activist Mr. Carbono Casimiro at around 22:00 pm of the night of the 4th of April 2011, two individuals appeared with long firearms at his residence located in the area called Marçal in Luanda, several bullets where fired and they shouted: "Carbono we are going To kill you", as on-site witnesses reported including the brother of Carbono was one of the witness to this intimidation event by the MPLA Communist Regime.

Moments after the shots where fired and the shouting of treats, the henchmen of the MPLA Regime entered in their vans and drove of.

The Criminal Regime of the MPLA wishes to perpetuate itself in power through terror, after 36 years of misrule.

The Angolan People are tired of so many lies, in living in such misery conditions.

The Human Rights Activist Dr. Makuta Nkondo, stated during the same manifestation “Mr. José Eduardo dos Santos before independence had no more than two pairs of clothes to wear, today he and his family own Banks, we have the right to ask where did this money came from?”

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS AND UPDATES ON THE TREAT OF ASSASSINATION BY AGENTS OF THE REGIME
TO THE CIVIL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST CASIMIRO CARBONO

25 January 2012

On the 25 January 2012, at around 16:50 in the afternoon, two agents of the MPLA Regime, questioned a young man near the front door of the entrance to the front garden of my house, and asked him if he knew Carbono.

The young man in his innocence replied yes and shouted by calling Carbono. I was in the vicinity and after hearing the calling I saw two men one of them introduced himself as Correia.

They started a what can be described as a strange conversation, which seemed they where not there with good intentions. They asked for more information on a certain pamphlet that announced employment. Carbono ended the Conversation hinting that they should leave. They then half embarrassed went towards another near by door pretending to ask for information.

Latter on Carbono entered in his house and took the photographic camera and started taking photos, which are where shown.

Then they returned to their vehicle and drove around in circles a few times, then they gained courage and started taking photos of Carbono's house.

25 January 2012 around 16:50

25 January 2012 around 16:50

25 January 2012 around 16:50

25 January 2012 around 16:50

25 January 2012 around 16:50

These individuals seem to be elements employed by the MPLA Regime from neighbouring DRC

One of the MPLA agents who beat up Casimiro Carbono during the manifestations in Luanda

UPDATE: 9 of February 2012
MPLA Regime Agents invaded the house of the Civil Rights Activist Casimiro Carbono around 14:00 in the afternoon of the 9th of February 2012, 3 persons (youngsters) where beaten and then taken to the hospital.
 

On the 10th of March 2012 a civil rights manifestation is due to take place in Luanda, the MPLA Regime of Cuban Marxist implementation is acting like furious dogs, any one who might attend.

In this photo we see the Police laughing with the two Thugs from the MPLA Regime hired to beat up the protesters
The two individuals are the one with the blue jacket and brown trousers, look at his hand of so much using it to beat up that itself needed a bandage, the other Hired MPLA Thug is the one with the white hat.


In this photo you can actually see the MPLA Regime Thug stampede a Civil Rights Protester in Lunda and the Angolan Police looking at.
 

Further Incident on the 3 of February 2012

On the 3 of February 2012 the Angolan citizens António Manuel Capitão (Pimpão) and Joel Gonçaves Júnior (Nzala), Brother of Casimiro Carbono where beat up by a group of 5 individuals on a white Suzuki van.

Both Antonio and Joel where taken to the Hospital due to injuries by beatings received by the security forces men of the MPLA Regime. Another young protester Pedro Malembe, who already had been arrested on the 3 of September 2011 was beaten up and taken to a health centre.
 

One of the youths with the beatings on the 3 February 2012

The cameramen present at the manifestation Rui Manuel Salvador, had is equipment confiscated.
The Manifestation was called due to the lack of water and bad living conditions in Cacuaco one of the shanty towns in Luanda.

 - CASE No. 41 -

Kidnap of Civilians

14 August 2011 - Luis Antonio Sango a citizen and civilian from Cabinda was kidnapped by the Secret Service of the MPLA Regime while visiting his family in the  City of Point Noire in the neighbouring Congo 19:00 hours on the 14 of August 2011.

 - CASE No. 42 -

One more political activist  inmate dies in the  Kakanda Prison for lack of Medical Assistance nor medication

12 August 2011

The now dead political activist apprehended by the Regime MPLA apparatus  was called UNGANA FILIPE, of 24 years of age, natural of Lucapa, Lunda-Norte, he died on the 9 August 2011, in the prison of Kakanda in Dundo, his death was due to lack of medical assistance and denial of access to medication and by negligence of the prison authorities Kakanda prison.

The source of this information informs that Ungana Filipe was ill for some time during his arrest in the prison and was never allowed access to medical treatment. Many requests where made to the Prison authorities of the JES MPLA Regime but none where granted allowing the inmate to have medical treatment.

It is needed to be reminded that this Political activist was imprisoned for being a member of the CMJSPLT movement that advocates political, juridical and financial autonomy for the Lunda Tchokwe, Ungana Filipe was a political prisoner incarcerated by the MPLA Regime without charge nor trial.

The defunct was buried on the 11 August 2011 near the Comarca of Kakanda, because his family had no money to take him to buried in the Municipality of Lucapa, he was condemned by the MPLA Regime to 14 years in prison.

The political association CMJSPLT, has in this prison (7) Activists condemned illegally, of which 3 remain sick without access to basic medical treatment more than 4 months. The MPLA Regime Prison of Kakanda, in its medical office has lack of medicines and lack of the basic resources to treat the inmates, it has also lack of enough food and water for the inmates.
 

- CASE No. 43 -

Intimidation of Cabinda Priest

INTIMIDATION OF JOURNALISTS BY THE MPLA REGIME AND DEATH TREATS

The Persecution and Intimidation of Journalist by the MPLA Regime

9 December 2010

By Orlando Castro Journalist (CP 925)

On the 22 November 2010 news I published an article titled "the MPLA Communist Regime tightens its grip and intimidation on all journalists who talk about Cabinda". In it was said that "in several countries, including Portugal, the MPLA's secret political police were tightening their grip to all journalists, either by physical threats or bribery attempts." Three days later I was contacted by another journalist from RDP-Africa channel.
Cristina Magalhães, a journalist of the channel RDP-Africa, told me she had read the article I wrote on the intimidation by the MPLA secret political police on foreign Journalist who dare to write on the Cabinda situation, and she wanted to talk to me about it.
The unelected MPLA Communist Regime was urging in silencing all journalists who are aware and attentive to the question of invasion of Cabinda, and how to prevent information from leaving Cabinda in regards to the crackdown on the civilian population by the MPLA military and police and to prevent all information to be published on all actions that are already scheduled and could be triggered at any time.
Several journalists working outside Angola have been, and are being contacted by representatives of the MPLA Regime, giving to the journalist two two solutions:
"How much you want (in cash) to stop writing and talking about Cabinda" and "You must stop writing and talking about the situation in Cabinda, or your physical integrity may be affected."
Special envoys of the MPLA Communist unelected Regime who added that "money is not a problem", stressing the point that "also the rest is not a problem either."
This situation brings us memories not from to long ago such as the one on the 12 of October 2007, it is now 3 years that have past, but the content is the same, the journalist Isabel Guerrero, from the Portuguese weekly Newspaper "O Diabo", wrote to me 3 questions in regards to the press in Angola.
The answers where never published because they could have and adverse affect in the relations with between the Portuguese State and the MPLA Unelected Regime.

LIST OF INTIMIDATED POLITICAL ACTIVISTS

Incarcerated on the 8 of September 2011 by the MPLA Communist Regime in Luanda, Angola.
These political activists are now held in the KAKILA-VIANA Prison.

1- Acibiades Kapumi
2- Domingos Tove Neves Cardoso
3- Mfuka Muzemba
4- Americo Vaz
5- Paulo Francisco
6- Isaías Celestino
7- Abraão Balanga Motindo
8- Afonso Vemba
9- Miguel Constantino
10- João Dinis
11- José Morais
12- Cristóvão Segunda
13- Lito António
14- Correia Domingos
15- José Tchilumbo
16- Mário Paulino C.D. Vicente
17- Paulino Samacaca
18- Rodrigues Matumona
19- Daniel Silveira
20- Manuel Neto
21- Leonildo Eduardo
22- Agapito João
23- Mário Ilunga
24- Caetano Adão Cucata
25- Custodio A. Lopes
26- Pedro Afonso Vieira
27- Ngunza José Kiponga

- CASE No. 44 -

BEATING OF CIVILIANS

 

The State in which the MPLA Regime Secret Police left Kasu Alexandre in 2007
 

Kasu Alexandre, date of birth 10 de march de 1964, Beaten up in Cabinda in 2007 by the MPLA Regime Secret Police while protesting in public against the illegal occupation and brutal military occupation of the Cabinda Nation and the untold crimes against the Cabinda People by the MPLA Regime.

- CASE No. 45 -

Case No.45 has been moved to the List of The Official List of the Henchmen of the MPLA Regime

Criminal state of affairs, and wide spread Endemic Corruption MPLA Regime Bribery, Money Laundry and Corruption  Daylight theft and pillage of the state assets 
 

- CASE No. 46 -

MPLA, End Torture and Unfair Trials in Cabinda
Fourteen Civilians Tortured in Military Custody Charged with State Security Crimes
December 10, 2008

(New York) - The MPLA unelected regime should urgently end torture and unfair trials in state security cases, Human Rights Watch said today. Fourteen civilians who were arbitrarily detained and tortured in military custody are currently being held on security charges in the MPLA militarily occupied Republic of Cabinda.
Since September 2007, the MPLA Angolan Armed Forces have arbitrarily detained at least 15 civilians and six military personnel in Cabinda, the oil-rich occupied Nation that has long had a separatist insurgency. All were eventually charged with "crimes against the security of the state," accused of assisting the armed separatist Front for the Liberation of the Enclave in Cabinda (FLEC). So far, there has been one trial. On September 16, 2008, a MPLA military court in Cabinda convicted a former Voice of America journalist, Fernando Lelo, and four soldiers of state security crimes and sentenced them to 12 years in prison. Human Rights Watch found the trial fell far short of international fair trial standards.
"The unfair trial of Fernando Lelo and four soldiers has set a disturbing precedent," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. " The MPLA should exonerate and free them, and make sure that future national security trials meet international standards."
Most of those detained in Cabinda were held in an unofficial military detention center, where, Human Rights Watch research found, they were tortured and held in inhumane conditions for months before being transferred to a civilian prison. Most spent far more than the 90 days allowed by the MPLA law before being charged with any offense.
Unfair trial
As a journalist, Lelo had regularly criticized the unelected government for arbitrary arrests and other human rights abuses, and had been briefly detained after covering a police crackdown on church members in 2006. He was arrested in November 2007 and accused of having paid the six soldiers in July 2007 to carry out acts of sabotage.
Defense lawyers and other observers in Cabinda told Human Rights Watch that the trial, which ended in June, produced no evidence to support the accusations. They said the military judge refused to take into account testimony demonstrating that Lelo was at work when a meeting with the soldiers allegedly took place, and that no evidence was produced that the military personnel even knew him. The court systematically disregarded defense evidence, and the state press reported only the prosecution's position. Prior to the trial, on January 7, Attorney General João Maria de Sousa stated there were "strong indications" Lelo was guilty, which raises further concerns about fairness.
Under unelected and currupt MPLA law, civilians should be tried by a civilian court. The UN Human Rights Committee - the body authorized to interpret and monitor compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) - has stated that the trial of civilians by military courts should be very exceptional and occur only under conditions that genuinely afford full due process.
Human rights activists in Cabinda told Human Rights Watch they believed the government delayed announcing Lelo's sentence until after the September parliamentary elections, to avoid popular unrest and damage to the ruling unelected MPLA party's political chances in Cabinda.
In the September trial, one soldier was acquitted, while another had been unconditionally released beforehand. Lelo and the other convicted men have appealed their sentences. The 14 other civilians remain in custody without trial.
Torture in military custody
The defense lawyer for the six soldiers accused with Lelo told Human Rights Watch the soldiers were arrested without a warrant by military intelligence. He said soldiers and military intelligence personnel tortured them to extort confessions to incriminate Lelo. He described the abuses to Human Rights Watch as follows:
"They were beaten with wood and bamboo sticks, car belts, table legs, and electric cables, and tied up with cords. The mother and wife of one detainee were forced to walk naked in the streets of the city. One detainee was subject to a mock execution, and another was shot at, and this resulted in one leg being amputated in the military hospital."
According to the lawyer, they were then held for three months in a secret military prison within the headquarters of the second regional command of the MPLA Armed Forces in Cabinda. During this period, they were continuously handcuffed to one another, often denied food and again beaten by military intelligence personnel and soldiers, on orders of their superiors. The defense lawyer said that the military detainees told him that a senior armed forces official was always present, gave orders to beat them, and at times participated in the beatings.
Former prisoners and local lawyers in Cabinda commonly refer to the military prison where the detainees were held as "the hole." They told Human Rights Watch it was a dirty cellar without sanitation facilities that fills with water when it rains. Both the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (in September 2007) and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been denied access despite official requests. In March, the Angolan Armed Forces spokesperson in Cabinda told Human Rights Watch such a prison "did not exist."
Human Rights Watch research found that the 14 villagers and community leaders currently held in pre-trial detention for state security offenses faced torture and ill-treatment similar to that described by the lawyer for the soldiers convicted with Lelo. The civilians were arrested between December 2007 and April 2008 in Cabinda's northern municipalities of Buco Zau and Belize during military raids after attacks by the FLEC armed resistence in those areas. Lawyers and human rights activists told Human Rights Watch that military intelligence officers, together with soldiers and at times also members of the military police, in the presence of the same senior armed forces official, brutally beat them at the time of their arrest, also carried out without a warrant. As one lawyer described it:
"They beat the detainees with gun butts, batons, sticks, and electric cables, stripped them naked and tied them up with cords. Some had their genitals tied with cord and some were cut on their backs with machetes and threatened with death. The detainees were then held handcuffed and incommunicado in ‘the hole.' There, beatings continued and the detainees were often denied food. Only after three months of military custody were they transferred to a civilian prison."
Only after they were transferred to a civilian prison did the provincial attorney general formally charge them with crimes against state security and related crimes, including armed rebellion, homicide, sabotage, and illegal possession of arms. The accusations are linked to two armed attacks attributed to FLEC Freedom Fighters in December 2007, which resulted in the death of a police official and a Brazilian expatriate worker, and to an assault on a construction company that killed two workers in March 2008.
"The unelected MPLA government should immediately stop all torture of detainees and permit international scrutiny of military detention facilities in Cabinda," said Gagnon. "Those responsible for the mistreatment of detainees should be held accountable."
Human Rights Watch urged the MPLA regime to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol. Angola had promised the UN General Assembly before being elected member of the Human Rights Council in May 2007 that it would do so.
Background
Since 1975, the separatist guerrilla movement Front for the Liberation of the Enclave in Cabinda (FLEC) has been fighting for independence for Cabinda, which today produces half of Angola's oil. The Angolan government claims the civil war ended in 2006, when the government signed a peace agreement with a faction of the rebel group and that continuing sporadic attacks are the work of "bandits" who threaten state security.
The unelected MPLA government has long used national security concerns as an excuse to crack down on peaceful political dissent and curb independent scrutiny in Cabinda. In 2006, the government banned a local civic association, Mplabanda, which had documented war-related human rights violations and other abuses since 2003. The unelected government claimed Mplabanda was carrying out unlawful political activities and inciting violence. An appeal against the ban is still pending at the Supreme Court.
Before the parliamentary elections in September 2008, Human Rights Watch documented a climate of intimidation and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly that targeted critics of the unelected MPLA regime in Cabinda.
 

- CASE No. 47 -

 Intimidation, Persecution, Attempted Assassination of Human Rights Activist
 by the Regimes MPLA Secret Service apparatus on the 20 August 2009

20 of August 2009 - Luís Gualdim Marinha Nunes Araújo, an Angolan citizen born in Luanda, of 55 years of age (in 2009), with the ID Nº 000399159LA031. Mr. Luís Gualdim Marinha Nunes Araújo was at the time the Coordinator of the "SOS Habitat Association" an organization that defends and promotes the right of citizens to a roof over their heads, and to provide a house for each family.
The security guard of the Offices of "SOS Habitat Association", Mr. José Chipopolo informed that from the 8 of August 2009 to the 21 August 2009 he was approached by a previously unknown individual. During the 20 of August 2009 the said individual approached Mr.  José Chipopolo the installations security guard to invite him to ransack the offices of the SOS Habitat Association and the residence of Mr. Luís Gualdim Marinha Nunes Araújo, to perform an attempt on his life.

Furthermore the said individual in the words of the Security Guard mentioned that the said individual also mentioned that they would take the filing cabinets from the main office. He also asked for the keys in order to disable the alarms.

The plot was prevented by security guard informing the SOS Habitat Association officials of what was about to happen.

The said individual was latter on identified as Government Agent Francisco Kamati from the regimes Investigation Criminal Police, and native of Huila.

Documents related to the case:   Annex 1  |  Annex 2  |  Annex 3

- CASE No. 48 -

Assassination of the owner of the Independent Media Newsletter "Impartial Fax"

18 January 1995 - The Angolan Journalist Fernando Ricardo de Mello Esteves, commonly known as "Ricardo de Mello" (Journalist, Editor, Founder and Owner of the Angolan Newsletter «Imparcial Fax» - Impartial Fax ), at the time the cold blood murdered journalist was of 38 years of age, shot dead at the front door of his house by a single straight bullet.
The National Director of the Angolan Criminal Investigation Unit at the was Comrade Eduardo Sambo, who did not move a finger to investigate the case.

- CASE No. 49 -

The body of José João Fernandes in hospital

Intimidation, Shooting at Citizens and Assassination by the MPLA Regime forces in Luanda
by the MPLA Regime and their armed security apparatus

21 June 2004 - José João Fernandes resident in Wenji Maka, Luanda in 21 June of 2004 he was shot in the head at the same time that two of his neighbours Sebastião Manuel and José Valentim where shot in their legs. The Police who shot them is called Joao and is from the Polícia de Intervenção Rápida.

José João Fernandes was taken to the hospital Josina Machel–Maria Pia by his neighbours but soon died of his injury to the head from the bullet.


Sebastião Manuel

José Valentim

- CASE No. 50 -

14 July 1996

violation of the right to life

Violation of the right to life of the following persons: Shot by two police officers on 14 July 1996; Antonio Maltey, died of bullet wounds in hospital. According to the information received, he had been the victim of persecution since 1993 because of his contacts with members of his family belonging to UNITA.

- CASE No. 51 -

4 February 2012
Death of unborn baby

4 February 2012, a Nurse Margareta Antunes Bungo, of 30 years old lost her baby while participating in the Nurse Labour Strike demanding better conditions. The MPLA Communist Police Apparatus beat up those striking and the severity of the beating was so severe that Nurse Margareta Antunes Bungo lost her baby.

- CASE No. 52 -
Political motivated murder of church catechist

Political motivated murder Leão Gime, of 59 years old, who was a catholic catechist, was found dead, (decapitated), in the village of Seva, in Cabinda, 30 of January 2009.

 

 

- CASE No. 53 -

MPLA Forces have raped women and girls from neighbouring Congo

Human Rights Watch Report

20 May 2012

Angolan security forces frequently abuse irregular migrants during expulsions from Angola, including sexual violence and other degrading and inhuman treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 50-page report, “‘If You Come Back We Will Kill You’: Sexual Violence and Other Abuses against Congolese Migrants during Expulsions from Angola,” describes an alarming pattern of human rights violations by members of Angolan security forces against Congolese migrants. Women and girls, who are often detained with their children, have been victims of sexual abuse including gang rape, sexual exploitation, and being forced to witness sexual abuse of other women and girls. Beatings, degrading and inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrests, and denial of due process have been common practices during roundups of undocumented migrants, and in custody before their deportation.

“Angola has a right to expel irregular migrants, but this does not justify denying them basic rights,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Torture, beatings, and rape and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment violate both Angola’s law and international law.”

The Angolan authorities should protect migrants from abuse, rein in security forces, investigate allegations of serious abuse, and prosecute those responsible, Human Rights Watch said. International and Angolan law require Angola to effectively prevent, investigate, and punish acts of sexual violence, torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 100 victims and witnesses to abuses, during expulsions from the Cabinda enclave and the diamond-rich Lunda Norte province to the Congolese provinces of Bas-Congo and Kasai-Occidental in 2009 and 2011. Most of those migrants enter Angola to work in alluvial diamond mines or in informal markets.

Since 2003, Angola has conducted mass expulsions of irregular migrants almost every year, amid recurring allegations of serious human rights violations. In 2011, according to United Nations estimates, 100,000 migrants were expelled. The most serious abuses, including sexual violence, have occurred in detention facilities. Victims identified abusers from a broad range of security forces, including several branches of the police, immigration officials, and armed forces. However, the Angolan authorities have failed to carry out thorough and credible investigations into the allegations, and to prosecute perpetrators.

Women and girls, most of whom were rounded up at informal markets and in residential areas, gave Human Rights Watch consistent descriptions of patterns of sexual abuse and of those who abused them. Most of the reported abuses took place in detention facilities in Lunda Norte, in jails or prisons used as transit centers exclusively for migrants. Victims said that while in detention, groups of members of various security forces repeatedly demanded sex from female detainees, and threatened them with beatings or death, or offered food in exchange. The often-appalling detention conditions – overcrowded cells, and a lack of food, drinking water, and sanitation facilities – contributed to pressure on victims to submit to sexual exploitation.

Children often witnessed sexual abuses against their mothers and other female inmates. A 30-year-old Congolese woman expelled in June 2011 described her plight in Condueji prison in Dundo: “We were 73 women and 27 children in the cell. They disturbed us all the time to have sex with them. Women accepted due to the suffering. There was nothing to eat or drink or water to wash. Sometimes they brought biscuits for the children, but only for the women who accepted having sex with them.”

Another former detainee held in the same prison in June 2011 said: “We were 57 women and 10 children in a cell. Men came all the time, day and night, requesting sex from women. They came in groups of three or four. They raped some women. All this happened in the same cell. The children saw everything and cried a lot. I resisted and an agent kicked me in my belly.”

Human Rights Watch also heard accounts from numerous victims and witnesses of systematic beatings, torture, and degrading and inhuman treatment during roundups, transport to detention facilities, and in custody. Most migrants told Human Rights Watch that Angolan officials arrested them arbitrarily in random roundups or house-to-house operations, without showing an arrest warrant or giving migrants the opportunity to challenge their detention.

The Angolan government has regularly denied and played down allegations of sexual violence, torture, and cruel, degrading, or inhumane treatment during expulsions, despite concerns expressed by the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and international and local organizations since 2004. In response to concerns raised during visits to Angola by the UN secretary-general’s special representative for sexual violence against women in conflict, Margot Wallström, and the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in 2011, the Angolan government made commitments to comply with its international obligations during expulsions of irregular migrants. However, Angola has still not ratified the Convention against Torture and the Migrant Convention, despite pledges it made as it sought membership in the UN Human Rights Council in 2007 and again in 2010.

Mass expulsions of migrants from Angola have continued in 2012. According to the DRC authorities, Angolan security forces expelled over 5,000 migrants in the first two weeks of March from the enclave of Cabinda and Soyo city alone. In a particularly serious incident, on March 23, 2012, three Congolese migrants died in the Cadeia Civil in Cabinda, allegedly of asphyxiation in an overcrowded cell. The prison has been used as a transit jail for migrants for many years.

Lawyers in Cabinda told Human Rights Watch that the police opened an investigation into the alleged responsibility of three immigration officials for the deaths. However, they also said that the victims were buried directly after the medical autopsy, without the authorities allowing access to the morgue by lawyers or even having informed their families.

“Holding those responsible for these recent deaths in custody is a step in the right direction,” Lefkow said. “But the authorities still need to appropriately investigate and provide redress to hundreds of other victims. Without prosecutions there is no guarantee against future abuses.”

“If You Come Back We Will Kill You” FULL REPORT PDF

- CASE No. 54 -

Kidnapping of Regime Protesters
 

Alves Kamulingue

Taken by the MPLA Terror Apparatus in Luanda on the 27 of May 2012
At the time of his disappearance he was heading a protest against impoverished and inhuman state in which the majority of Angolans live.

- CASE No. 55 -

 

Money Laundry
July 2012

The Angolan Investment Bank (Banco Angolano de Investimentos, BAI) is a private Angolan bank that functions as a money-laundering scheme for the regime’s elite.

The European Bank of Investments, the Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) and the Danish Fund for International Investment (IFU) are partners of BAI, lending their international credibility to an institution that serves mainly to launder money resulting from the plunder of Angolan’s resources and to illicitly enrich the ruling elite.

Altogether, public officials and their associates hold a total of 47.75 percent of BAI’s shares. Meanwhile, 42.25 percent is distributed among private Angolan companies associated with public officials, foreign and national managers of the bank, as well as foreign companies. The remaining 10 percent are held by the Angolan National Oil Company Sonangol (8.5%) and the National Diamond Company Endiama (1.5%).

Nevertheless, BAI has so far enjoyed the complicity of the European Union and Nordic countries, which have until now refrained from addressing publicly the situation of generalized corruption, democratic deficit and human rights abuses in Angola.

Tell the European Bank of Investments, the Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) and the Danish Fund for International Investment (IFU) to stop partnering with BAI.

BAI: The Regime’s Laundromat

In recent years, the Angolan financial market has been led by Banco Angolano de Investimentos – BAI (Angolan Investment Bank), a banking institution previously named Banco Africano de Investimentos (African Investment Bank). To a certain extent, the shareholding structure of the bank reflects its success as well as the institutionalization of public assets’ transfer to public officials, for their illicit enrichment.
Praised at US $8 billion, BAI currently holds a portfolio of deposits and credits estimated, by the Angolan National Bank, at US $10.4 billion and US $3.2 billion, respectively.
At its inception, in 1996, the National Oil Company Sonangol was BAI’s main investor, with 18.5 percent of its shares. Over the years, Sonangol quietly transferred 10 percent of its shares to the private ownership of high-ranking officials, besides the ones who, from the start, already owned considerable shares of the banks stock.
By way of illustration, the table below shows only the list of beneficiaries who, by the time they became shareholders of the bank, already held public office posts and who continue to hold positions in the government or in public administration. Left out of the list are individuals who became shareholders of the bank while in public office, but are currently engaged just in private business. This is the case of general João Baptista de Matos (2.5 percent) who, at the time, was Chief of the General Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces.

Altogether, identified public officials and former colleagues hold a total of 47.75 percent of BAI’s shares. Meanwhile, 42.25 percent is distributed among private Angolan companies associated with public officials, foreign and national managers of the bank, as well as foreign companies such as the Portuguese constructor Mota. Sonangol retains 8.50 of the shares, while the state-owned diamond company Endiama keeps 1.50 of BAI’s shares.
In 2010, the United States Senate investigated BAI’s operations in that country, on suspicion that the bank was operating as a money laundering vehicle at the service of senior Angolan officials. The investigation publicly revealed the transfer of BAI’s shares to certain high-ranking political figures.
According to the Senate’s Report, BAI had requested HSBC to maintain confidentiality on the identity of the owners of Dabas Management, José Castro Paiva, and of ABL, Manuel Vicente, to allow “some privacy in relation to this investment.” But in fact, the intention of the confidentiality request was to conceal a crime of embezzlement. Manuel Vicente (Sonangol’s chair and CEO at the time) and José Paiva (Sonangol U.K chairman of the board) used their positions, while setting up the bank, to transfer a total of 10 percent of the bank’s shares, from the outset, to their private ownership.
With respect to Arcinella Assets and Sforza Properties, respectively registered in the Bahamas and in the British Virgin Islands, BAI provided contradictory information, according to the Senate report. As a way to avoid revealing the true identity of the shareholders, BAI declared that 13.5 percent of the shares, jointly held by the two companies, had been placed under the temporary ownership of José Carlos Paiva. He would hold them on a custodial basis, in his role as chairman of BAI. The bank further informed that, according to its strategy and that of Sonangol (its main shareholder), the shares would be transferred to “private individuals over time as they are able to generate wealth.” According to BAI, the individuals who would receive the shares were to be “of Angolan nationality,” with none to receive more than one percent of either special vehicle purpose company.
Moreover, Sakus – Empreendimentos e Participações S.A, a company that holds 3.6 percent of BAI’s capital, is run by Manuel Vicente’s stepson, Mirco de Jesus Martins, who is also his representative in many of his business dealings. This company was set up in 2005 by a Sonangol officer, Norberto Marcolino but, in 2007, new partners, represented by Mr. Martins took it over as an anonymous society (S.A).
The way BAI has explained the transfer of public assets to the private ownership of the Angolan elite is interesting. Its main reasoning is that BAI was created to facilitate the emergence of a national middle class, capable of controlling and developing the Angolan financial sector.
As a legitimizing example, BAI’s representatives have pointed out to the Black Economic Empowerment program in South Africa. This was a project created in 1994 by the ANC government as a legislative measure to correct the inequalities inherited from Apartheid. The program aimed to give economic opportunities to previously disadvantaged groups, such as blacks, coloureds, Indians and some Chinese. Besides promoting the participation in business creation and management, the program includes other initiatives aimed at improving the full economic and social integration of the country.
In a recent document accessed by the author, representatives of the bank also pointed out that war was an obstacle for any structural policy to be set in place. Therefore, BAI had to “take such a forward looking measure towards economic empowerment, even in the absence of a national program and national laws.”
There is, however, a very important element that differentiates the South African process from the Angolan case. Since Angola’s independence, both the political and economic power has been concentrated in the hands of a limited group of MPLA and government leaders. What changed, once the official Marxist-Leninist doctrine was abandoned in 1991, was simply a formality that transferred the control of the economy from the state to private hands, who are the same of government officials and their families.
For instance, in December 2010, just after the release of the Senate report, the Portuguese construction company Soares da Costa sold the three percent of shares it held at BAI to two Angolan private companies for US $27.7 million, but kept the identity of the buyers as a kind of state secret. These buyers are probably top government officials. Otherwise there would be no reason for such secrecy in a regular business deal.
BAI’s “empowerment” program is but a clear money laundering scheme. It introduces into the national and international banking systems assets diverted from public coffers for the private benefit of MPLA leaders and government officials, who are liable for crimes of corruption because of the plunder of the country’s resources. The Law against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing establishes that both the participation and the facilitation of acts of traffic of influence are crimes of money laundering (Art. 51, 1). The law is also specific on the conversion and transfer of ill-gotten gains obtained directly or indirectly (Art. 51, 2), as is the case of share percentages transferred from Sonangol to Angolan officials.
BAI’s growth is due to the relationship it maintains with the state, the main shareholder and debtor of the bank. In fact, many of Sonangol’s financial operations are conducted through BAI. Last March, the state-owned oil company requested BAI to lead a bank syndicate from which to obtain a $600 million loan.
In 2007, BAI lead a syndicate of banks that loaned more than one billion dollars to the Angolan government. In 2008 BAI lent US $400 million to the government, according to public records, while Sonangol obtained a loan of US $150 million from the bank. In the following year, BAI issued credit to the government’s worth US $375 million.
International Respectability
Despite its deeply corrupt nature, BAI enjoys international respectability as it created, together with European institutions, the Angolan Private Investment Fund (Fundo de Investimento Privado de Angola). BAI’s partners include the European Bank of Investments (established by the European Union), the Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund), the Danish Fund for International Investment (IFU), the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, as well as Banco Atlântico, in which Sonangol is also the main shareholder. The Angolan Private Investment Fund is administered by Angola Capital Partners, a private equity fund owned in equal parts by Norfund and BAI.
As a general rule, the Angolan government enjoys great complicity from the European Union and Nordic countries, which refrain from addressing publicly the situation of generalized corruption, democratic deficit and human rights’ abuses in Angola.
Angolans need to know about the type of detergents their government officials use, both in BAI and in other banks, to launder so much money stolen from the Angolan people. How can citizens, vested of their sovereign rights, claim back the assets that belong to them and demand justice? That is the question.
 

KEEPING FOREIGN CORRUPTION OUT OF THE UNITED STATES:

FOUR CASE HISTORIES

- CASE No. 56 -

Protesters Detained, Disappeared
Pre-election Environment Marred by Crackdown

5  July 2012

The MPLA Regime is targeting protest organizers for arbitrary arrest and detention in response to increasing demonstrations criticizing the government or its policies, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch called on the Angolan authorities to release or appropriately charge all detained protesters and to ensure that all detainees have prompt access to legal counsel and family members. The authorities should urgently investigate alleged abductions and possible enforced disappearances of several protest organizers. Angola is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on August 31, 2012.

“The recent spate of serious abuses against protesters is an alarming sign that Angola’s government will not tolerate peaceful dissent,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should stop trying to silence these protests and focus on improving the election environment.”

Angola has experienced unprecedented public protests since 2011 as first youth, and now war veterans, have publicly demonstrated in the capital, Luanda, and other cities.

The youth movement has called for social reforms and the resignation of President José Eduardo dos Santos, now in power for 33 years. War veterans are demanding long overdue social benefits.

Over the past year, Angolan uniformed police and plainclothes agents have reacted to the youth protests with increasingly violent crackdowns, despite their small scale, and have arrested many youth leaders, journalists, and opposition leaders.


Public protests by war veterans have gained momentum since June. War veterans in Luanda and Benguela have announced more protests before the elections unless the government addresses their demands for regular pension payments. Many of the war veterans were demobilized over the last two decades from the armies of all sides, including the ruling party, in Angola’s long civil war. On June 7, several thousand war veterans marched to the Defense Ministry in Luanda, where the army chief of staff, Gen. Sachipengo Nunda, promised to address their pension claims.

On June 20, thousands of war veterans gathered at the military signals regiment headquarters in Luanda, following an official announcement that the government would disburse one-time payments of US$550 and address pension claims. War veterans who participated in the protest that day told Human Rights Watch that the protest erupted spontaneously after they did not receive any official response to their broader pension claims.

The war veterans marched through the city, stopping at the Catholic Radio Ecclesia and the United States embassy, and came close to the presidential area, until they were barred by squads of Rapid Intervention Police, military police, and presidential guards, who dispersed the crowd by shooting teargas and live ammunition.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that protesters were unarmed, but some participants threw stones and beat an Angolan army general who was at the scene, according to Human Rights Watch research. Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm allegations that three protesters were shot to death.

The security forces arrested and jailed more than 50 war veterans during the June 20 protest. Seventeen were allegedly released without charge on June 22, but the police, military, and judiciary authorities did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s repeated requests to confirm the total numbers of those arrested, released, or still in pretrial detention. On June 25, military police arrested a leader of a war veterans’ complaints commission.

Human Rights Watch research determined that at least 28 war veterans remain in pretrial detention: eight at the criminal investigation police headquarters and at least 20 at the military judicial police headquarters in Luanda. Police, military police, and court officials told Human Rights Watch that the detainees were permitted to request assistance from legal counsel, but had not done so. Family members of some detainees told Human Rights Watch they were allowed to bring food, but were not allowed to speak to their relatives.

Two war veterans who were detained for two days told Human Rights Watch that they were forced to declare on television that opposition political parties were behind the protests, and were then released without charge. They said that plainclothes security agents interrogated them separately without the presence of a lawyer at Luanda’s provincial criminal investigation police. They also said they were threatened with reprisals if they refused to tell the state-owned television, Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA), that opposition parties had incited the former soldiers to protest.

One of the two veterans, Francisco Candela, who was demobilized from former União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola(National Unionfor the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA)rebel forces in 2003, said: “They told me that if I spoke out against the opposition parties they would resolve my situation. But if I didn’t accept they would convict me for rioting against the security of the state. ”

Candela added that the security agents drove him and another rebel war veteran in a civilian car to the military headquarters, where TPA journalists interviewed them in the presence of the security agents. The state media have since reported extensively about the alleged incitement of the protests by opposition parties. On June 16, the Angolan Armed Forces publicly accused the opposition parties UNITA, CASA-CE, and Bloco Democrático of having instigated an earlier protest by war veterans, on June 7 in Luanda.

Human Rights Watch also spoke by telephone with José Fernandes de Barros, a former member of the ruling party’s force, FAPLA (Forças Armadas Populares para a Libertação de Angola), and a signatory to a manifesto of a complaints commission that represents 4,000 war veterans awaiting their formal demobilization since 1992. De Barros was arrested on June 25 by military police and has since been detained at the Luanda military judicial police headquarters. He also said that military officials interrogated him without a lawyer present. The commission had previously planned a protest in February but called it off.

Angolan and international law requires immediate access for every detainee to legal counsel, who should be allowed to be present during questioning to prevent coercive interrogations, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Angolan security forces have made doubtful arrests of war veterans even more suspect by questioning them in the absence of legal counsel,” Lefkow said. “Interrogating detainees without the presence of a lawyer raises serious concerns of coercion.”

Possible Enforced Disappearances of War Veteran Protest Organizers
The arrests of war veterans on June 20 and 25 were preceded by the possible enforced disappearance of two organizers from an ad hoc group called the United Patriotic Movement (MPU), which had organized a protest by war veterans and former presidential guards.

On May 27, the MPU organized a protest of former presidential guards in Luanda to call for the payment of overdue salaries. The Luanda authorities had been notified, as Angolan law requires. Although the presidential guards withdrew their participation to await further negotiations with the president’s Military Office, other groups of war veterans joined the protest, which the security forces dispersed before it reached the presidential palace.

After the protest, an MPU leader, António Alves Kamulingue, called a Voice of America journalist and said that he had fled to a hotel in the city center because he was being followed and feared for his life. Kamulingue’s family members told Human Rights Watch that they have not heard from him since that day. They have sought information about him at many police stations and all prisons and hospitals in Luanda, but the authorities deny knowledge of his whereabouts.

On May 29, Isaías Cassule, another MPU member, was apparently abducted in Luanda’s Cazenga neighborhood. Alberto Santos, a former member of the presidential guard unit who is currently in hiding, told Human Rights Watch by telephone that he and Cassule had been called by phone to that meeting point by an alleged protester who claimed to have video footage of Kamulingue’s abduction. Santos said he saw six men, some wearing hats and sunglasses, drag Cassule into their car. Santos managed to escape. Cassule’s family members told Human Rights Watch they have not heard from him since. They had communicated his disappearance to the police and searched for him at police stations and hospitals.Under international law, an enforced disappearance occurs when the authorities take a person into custody but refuse to acknowledge doing so or do not provide information about the person’s whereabouts or fate. Among the rights an enforced disappearance may violate are those to life, liberty, and security of the person, including protection from torture and other ill-treatment.

Threats and Reprisals Against Youth Activists and Protest Organizers
The organizers of the youth protests have also been targeted and threatened for their activities, Human Rights Watch said. All youth protest leaders who recently spoke with Human Rights Watch said they felt their lives were at risk.

On June 14, Gaspar Luamba, a university student and organizer of the youth protest movement, was abducted at noon by four men in civilian clothes at a university in Luanda’s Viana neighborhood. Luamba told Human Rights Watch that the assailants asked his identity and then ordered him to enter their car, warning him not to resist.

“They took me to a construction site of the Brazilian Odebrecht company and interrogated me for several hours,” Luamba told Human Rights Watch. “They displayed knives and pliers and threatened to use them. They asked me whether opposition parties were funding us and how much we wanted. They threatened me and my colleagues to take drastic measures if we declined to negotiate. But they didn’t hurt me.” Luamba said he was released several hours later.

Another youth protest organizer, Adolfo Campos, was attacked and threatened with death by two men in civilian clothes on June 12. He told Human Rights Watch: “Two Land Cruisers forced me to stop the car at 10 p.m. on the road. I left the car, and two individuals armed with a pistol and an automatic rifle beat me in my face with the weapons. I fell on the ground and one of them pointed his gun at me. The other one said: ‘Don’t kill him yet. Let’s go.’” He said the attackers ransacked the car, but only took his phone and left US$3,000 untouched.

A day earlier, on June 11, the well-known rapper and youth protest organizer Luaty Beirão was arrested by Portuguese authorities at Lisbon airport, after police detected a package of cocaine in a bicycle wheel, the only baggage he had taken on his flight from Luanda due to fears that the luggage might be tampered with. According to media reports, a Lisbon court quickly released Beirão from custody based on strong indications that Angolan police agents had placed the drugs in his baggage to incriminate him.

On May 23, at 10 p.m., in the second such attack in two months, 15 men in civilian clothes armed with metal bars and pistols attacked the residence of Dionísio “Carbono,” another youth protest leader, who was hosting a group of youth to discuss their new call-in radio program on the privately owned Rádio Despertar. Several of the youth were seriously injured and suffered broken bones, according to Human Rights Watch research.

“The increasing use of violence, threats, and other reprisals to silence protest organizers is alarming,” Lefkow said. “Angola’s regional and international partners should raise their voices and urge the government to stop the violence and respect basic rights.”

- CASE No. 57 -

Violent Crackdown on Critics
Increasing Violence and Threats Raise Concerns about 2012 Elections

2 April 2012

The MPLA Regime should immediately end its use of unnecessary force against peaceful anti-government protesters, human rights activists, journalists, and opposition politicians, Human Rights Watch said today. Ensuring that people can exercise their basic rights to freedom of association, expression, and peaceful assembly, and prosecuting those who violate those rights, is crucial for creating a peaceful environment for parliamentary elections slated for later in 2012, Human Rights Watch said. On April 4, Angola will celebrate 10 years of peace since the end of the decades-long civil war.

Since January 2012, Angolan authorities have banned and cracked down on five anti-government rallies and arrested at least 46 protesters, 11 of whom courts sentenced to prison terms of up to 90 days. This appears to be an attempt by the government to curb an incipient protest movement promoted by youth groups and others since March 2011, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch also expressed concern that state media appear to be promoting anonymous groups that incite violence against anti-government protesters.

“The increasing violence against protesters, observers and opposition politicians signals a deteriorating rights environment ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Angolan government should take urgent steps to end this crackdown on peaceful protest and activism.”

Uniformed police, in apparent coordination with armed police in civilian clothes and other security agents, violently attacked anti-government protesters in the capital, Luanda, on January 27, February 3 and March 10. In Benguela, on March 10, police arbitrarily arrested a demonstration leader, a human rights activist, and a bystander, and on March 17 police prevented a further protest from taking place. In Cabinda, on February 4, police violently attacked striking health workers.

Uniformed and plainclothes police and people believed to be allied to the government have acted with increasing violence and total impunity during peaceful protests, Human Rights Watch said. The police have not intervened to protect peaceful demonstrators and opposition politicians who were being violently attacked by armed individuals, seemingly acting in coordination with and under the protection of the police.

Interior Minister Sebastião Martins recently denied any police involvement in the violence. The evening after the March 10 crackdown, state television aired threats by anonymous groups that claimed they were defending the peace against anti-government protesters.

Investigations announced by the authorities into the violence have not resulted in prosecutions of attackers identified by demonstrators and eyewitnesses. And new politically motivated assaults, threats and harassment against protesters and observers have been reported.

On March 10, youth groups called for demonstrations in Luanda’s Cazenga neighbourhood and in the city of Benguela, to protest the appointment in January by the Superior Council of Magistrates of Suzana Inglês as chairperson of the National Electoral Commission. Opposition parties contend that her profile does not comply with legal requirements for the position and that she lacks impartiality as a senior member of the ruling party’s women’s mass organization. Some opposition parties had agreed to join the protests.

In the days before the March 10 demonstrations, groups of unknown individuals harassed, intimidated and beat several protest leaders in Luanda. In the afternoon of March 9, a dozen people wearing sunglasses and hats forced their way into the home of Dionísio Casimiro “Carbono,” a rap musician and protest leader, and beat him and other youth protesters, injuring three of them. On March7, six people in several cars abducted, beat and injured two protest organizers, Mario Domingos and “Kebamba,” who were on their way to the demonstration site in Cazenga. The victims filed complaints with the police.

In Benguela and Luanda, days before the planned protests, pamphlets were circulated, allegedly from unknown youth groups that claim to defend peace. The pamphlets called on people not to join the protests, which they allege were aimed at creating instability in the country.

On the morning of March 10, in Cazenga, a dozen police in plainclothes, including sunglasses and hats, and armed with wood and metal clubs, knives and pistols attacked a crowd of 40 demonstrators and a number of bystanders, injuring a protest leader, Luaty Beirão “Mata Frakus,” and two other protesters. Demonstrators and three journalists covering the event - from Voice of America, Rádio Despertar and a freelance journalist - sought refuge in nearby private residences to escape the violence.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the police agents at the site withdrew when the armed police in civilian clothes arrived, and did not intervene against their assaults, despite calls for help. Journalists and demonstrators heard shots being fired behind them while they were fleeing.

That afternoon, unknown people attacked and seriously injured Filomeno Vieira Lopes, a senior leader of the opposition party Bloco Democrático, and Ermelinda Freitas, the party’s municipal secretary, in Luanda’s city center. Both were waiting for a colleague who had volunteered to rescue journalists and injured demonstrators in Cazenga. Freitas told Human Rights Watch that two police agents were present during the attacks but did not intervene, ignoring calls for help by the victims and bystanders.

That evening, the state television, Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA), aired, during prime time, a phone call from an anonymous person alleging to speak for a group of citizens who claimed responsibility for the crackdown. Denying any link to the police and the authorities, the caller threatened to “react” again “with determination” to any anti-government demonstration. State television did not, at any time, air a statement from protesters, opposition parties or the civil society organizations that publicly condemned the violent crackdown.

On the morning of March 10 in Benguela, police deployed rapid intervention units, dog squads, and water cannons, around the city. Uniformed and plain-clothes police, armed with pistols, dispersed a crowd of around 60 peaceful demonstrators and arrested three men: Hugo Kalumba, a demonstration leader; Jesse Lufendo, an activist from the human rights organization Omunga, who was taking pictures, and a taxi driver who was there as a bystander.

On March 16, a court in Benguela sentenced the three men to 45 days in prison on charges of disobedience and aggression against police agents, despite the lack of any evidence against them. In court, the organizers showed evidence that they had informed the authorities about the protest in advance, according to legal requirements, and had requested police protection. They said the authorities responded only orally, two days before the planned rally, banning the protest under the pretext that the initially planned site was less than 100 meters away from the seat of a political party. The detained men were later released on bail.

On the following day, the authorities banned another protest in Benguela called by Omunga, demanding the right to peaceful assembly, under the pretext that the organization had not completed its legal registration. Faced with massive police deployment on March 17, the organization called off the protest.

Harassment, intimidation, and violence against participants and supporters or perceived sympathizers with the protests have continued since.

In a second attack on Freitas, the municipal secretary for Bloco Democrático, seven people one of them masked, forced their way into her home on March 23. They threatened her and her family and stole computers, flash drives, photo cameras, and personal documents.

On March 21, Coque Mukuta, a journalist at the privately owned Rádio Despertar, found a pamphlet at his residence in Cazenga from an alleged “movement of the youth organized to defend peace.” Human Rights Watch saw the pamphlet, which contained a hand-written note addressed personally to the journalist: “You should move to another neighbourhood. Beware, bandit. You are not afraid, but beware.”

Earlier in the year, police violently cracked down on a strike in Cabinda and on two protests in Luanda’s peripheral Cacuaco shantytown neighbourhood.

On February 4, police arrested 21 health workers union strikers in Cabinda city, including two senior union officials. The health workers had gone on strike in the whole province on January 30, to press for improvements of working conditions and the disbursement of overdue subsidy payments. Police deployed rapid intervention police, water cannons, and dog squads, dispersed and violently attacked the strikers in front of union’s office, where the strikers had withdrawn after being forced to move from in front of the hospital. They were released on the same day without formal charges. A union official told Human Rights Watch that police also temporarily arrested, jailed, and mistreated a striking nurse in Cabinda’s interior city Buco Zau on the same day.

On January 27, police dispersed a demonstration by Cacuaco residents demanding water and electricity and arrested 12 demonstrators. On January 31, a court sentenced eight of them to 90 days in prison plus fines and acquitted the others. The imprisoned demonstrators were later released on US$400 bail.

On February 3, public order and rapid intervention police armed with military assault rifles dispersed a crowd of around 50 youth, local residents, and family members of the jailed protesters, calling for their release. A protest organizer told Human Rights Watch that a dozen police in civilian clothes, armed with pistols, violently beat participants. Police arrested 10 demonstrators, but released them on the same day without charge. The organizers said they had informed the authorities in advance about the demonstration, but had not received any response.

Human Rights Watch has reported extensively on unnecessary or excessive use of force by police at antigovernment protests, and threats, intimidation, and arbitrary arrests of journalists and political activists by police and other security agents in Angola, in the past year, including a crackdown on an anti-government rally on December 5, 2011in Luanda.

Many demonstrators involved in demonstrations since March 2011 have told Human Rights Watch that they have been subjected to intimidation, received anonymous phone calls threatening them and their families, and been followed by people in cars. Some said they filed complaints, but have not been able to get any information from the police about whether an investigation had taken place.

“The Angolan government should respect people’s fundamental rights to peaceful assembly and free speech rather than punishing critics and the political opposition,” Lefkow said, “The repressive actions of the government do not bode well for peaceful parliamentary elections.”

 

LIST OF CITIZENS KILLED BETWEEN 2010 AND 2012 AT THE HANDS OF
THE SECRET REGIME POLICE OR BY THE REGULAR POLICE OR BY
FAMILY MEMBERS OF THE RULING MPLA PARTY

The Majority of those killed where politically motivated

 

Cherokee – Lavador de carro assassinado pela UGP
Kassule e Kamulingue – Raptados e Desaparecidos
Nha Lisandra – assassinada pelo namorado
Chinangwe Chiwale – 82 anos. Assassinada por assaltantes
Tânia Burity – Espancada por Fredy Costa e Yola Araújo
Rui Miguel – 22 anos. Morto por Bala Perdida.
Mfulupinga Landu Victor – Professor universitário e político assassinado
Euridice “Dodó” – Assassinada à queima roupa à porta da sua residência, com disparos de um carro em movimento.
Mingota Francisco de Sousa – Morreu à porta da TPA depois de lhe ter sido negada assistência no Hospital
Lopo Loureiro – Assassinado pela esposa Nerika
Kalunga – Professor Assassinado no Moxico
Fernando Marcelino; José Maria dos Santos; José Manuel; Maurício Cristóvão; Elpídio Inácio; Artur Gilela; Ricardo de Mello; António Casimiro; Simão Roberto; Stanislas Ocloo; Alberto Chakussanga  -  Jornalistas MORTOS!
António Cascais – Jornalista agredido depois de cobrir uma manifestação
Nelson Sul D’Angola e Israel Samalata – jornalistas agredidos a mando de Faustino Muteka
Jaqueline Tupuepo – Professora esfaqueada e esquartejada pelo namorado Cláudio na Huíla
Kimbita Afonso – Assassinada no Sambizanga
Raimundo João Paulo – Ardina espancado por desconhecidos
Celestino Henriques – espancado por Cláudio dos Santos
Nelson Maravilhoso – Baleado na perna por Hélder Piedade dos Santos
Ibrahina Lima – Agredida por Hélder Piedade dos Santos
Adalgisa Gureth – Estudante do ISPRA assassinada pelo ex-namorado.
Pedro Nguli – Assassinado por Zang Yan em Benguela
Helena – Assassinada à porta de casa por marginais
Alberto Chissuco – Namibense torturado pela polícia, ficando cego do olho esquerdo (mutilado)
Rosa Camunu José – Namibense vítima de assédio sexual por parte do Juíz António Visandule
António Manuel “Jojó” – Radialista/humorista esfaqueado
Aguinaldo Simões, Fernando Manuel, Elias Pedro, Johnson Van-Dúnem, Ismael da Silva, Eretson Francisco, Paulo Neto e André Marques – Vítimas mortais do Massacre na Frescura
Hélio Simões – Sobrevivente do Massacre na Frescura
Toni Kpy Jaime – Assaltado mais de 9 vezes e ameaçado com armas de fogo e cacos de garrafa
Danilson Lourenço – Baleado por nenhuma razão aparente, ficando com braço defeituoso.
Marilda Lopes Cupa e Eulália Jambela – vítimas mortais da recusa de assistência médica em hospitais públicos
António Manuel Gouveia – Assaltado à mão armada na sua residência
Ermelinda Freitas – Assaltada à mão armada na sua residência
Domingos Manuel – Assassinado à tiro atrás de uma igreja no Uíge
Enrick – Assassinado à tiro em Luanda
Filomeno Vieira Lopes – Espancado barbaramente à margem de uma manifestação em Março de 2012 em Luanda. A mobilidade de um dos seus braços/mãos ficou definitivamente defeituosa.
Zaqueu Capapinha – filho de Job Capapinha, assassinado por cunhado
Lúcia – enforcada pelo padrinho que a engravidou e não quis assumir, no Sambizanga.
Januário Armindo Sikaleta – assassinado à porta de casa por desconhecidos, no Bocoio, Benguela.
Menezes Ekumbi e Alda Catata – marido e mulher à 19 de Novembro de 2010, assassinados em sua residência, em Luvemba, no Bailundo.
Inácia Ginga – 27 anos, morta na via pública na Comuna Ussoke, no Luindimbale.
Zezão – Futebolista do Santos FC esfaqueado na barriga na sequência de uma rixa.
Gerson – Guarda-redes do Progresso do Sambizanga esfaqueado em assalto.
André Zumbi – Espancado pelo Soba do Kota, Malange.
Félix Sapalo – Incendiaram sua residência em Longuimale
Porfírio Cândido – Raptado no Alto Hama, Huambo
Henrique Abel – Baleado no Kwanza Norte
Isaac Soma – Assassinado no Bocoio
Humberto Malengue António – Filho de Sapalo António, assassinado
Beatriz Nambili – Baleada no Bailundo, Huambo
Margarida Natoyo – Braço partido pelo Soba Chikelu e Domingos Kamalanga
Inácio Quintas – Espancado na Ganda, Benguela
João Baptista – Espancado no Chongóroi, Benguela
António Vasco – Baleado por um jovem de gang de seu nome “Rebenta”.
Domingos Januário e irmã – Assassinados com 7 tiros cada um, em Luanda.
Júlio Kussema – Assassinado no Lobito no seu estabelecimento comercial.
Marcelino Pataca e Luciano Moma – Sequestrados à 16 de Dezembro de 2010 na Aldeia Etalangala, Comuna do Bimbi, no Bailundo. Terão sido depois assassinados.
Paulina Chinossole – Assassinada em Mundundu, Ukuma, Huambo.
Luciano Matos Kalepepe – Assassinado no Município do Cachiungo à 25 de Dezembro de 2010.
Enoque Tomás - Assassinado a 6 de Dezembro de 2010, da Comuna de Chinhama, em Cachiungo, Huambo.
Maya Cool - Agredido por Henrique Miguel “Riquinho” por cobrar deste o que lhe era devido.
Anónimo - Morto pelas condições atmosféricas agrestes quando tentava evadir-se no trem de aterragem de um vôo Luanda-Londres.
Anónima - Menor de 15 anos violada por 2 rapazes, atirada do 7º andar. Sobreviveu!
Dezenas de manifestantes raptados, espancados, suas casas arrombadas e bens destruídos, privados dos seus direitos e das suas liberdades fundamentais, pela polícia, milicianos e o anónimo “Ordem Superior”
Milhares de anónimos que morrem diariamente nos bancos dos hospitais por falta de luz, de medicamentos, de amor ao próximo, fazendo de Angola um dos países com esperança de vida mais baixa e maior mortalidade infantil no mundo.

 

- CASE No. 58 -

 

---

"The MPLA Regime has a reputation for severe corruption which Global Witness has been reporting on for the last decade. Investigations by Global Witness have raised serious concerns about corruption in Angola, and the United States, a major consumer of Angolan oil, said in a recent official report that governmental corruption is "widespread" in the country." Global Witness in 2010

---

List of the Henchmen of the MPLA Regime of Terror

The Official List of the Henchmen of the MPLA Regime
Looting the country's riches by liquefying the natural assets of the nation through the creation of companies
under the name of family and members of the ruling elite of the MPLA Regime

"Angola Grow With Us"
70% of the Population lives under $2 US dollars a day
CORRUPTION - NEPOTISM - COMMUNIST IN ITS PUREST FORM

Information Last Updated: 18 February 2014

The personal fortune of Mr. José Eduardo dos Santos 
is estimated to be
$20 Billion US Dollars or €14 Billion Euros 
(Estimated in 2013)

From Rags to Riches

José Eduardo dos Santos was known to only have one suit and two white shirts
 in the city of Brazzaville in (1963-1970), José Eduardo dos Santos is son of a stone mason and was born
in the Island of Sao Tome, and doesn't speak any African Native Language, only fluent in Portuguese and Russian.

SUBMISSION OF CASES OF CORRUPTION

If you have any questions or wish to add information to any of these cases, you are welcome to send us any updated information in regards to the theft of public funds and illicit enrichment in Angola and occupied Cabinda, we are also keen on any information related to foreign multinationals, banks, financial institutions, government officials and governments relations with the MPLA Regime Nomenclature in cases of Public Corruption, Traffic of Influences, Criminal Activities between the MPLA Regime and Foreign Partners.

Contact Us

Rt Hon Mangovo Ngoyo
Keeper of Archives & Chief prosecutor

africafederation@gmail.com

cabinda@gmail.com

---

TOP 60 RICH PEOPLE IN ANGOLA LIST
 

With more than $20 Billion USD  (2013 Estimate)

1 - José Eduardo dos Santos, President of the Republic

Isabel dos Santos (Daughter): First Born 1973 Isabel dos Santos assets worth $3 Billion US Dollars, the Richest woman in Africa 

José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos (Son): Born in 1977 from Jose Eduardo dos Santos second wife Luísa Perdigão Abrantes. He manages $5 Billion US Dollars in funds and assets
With more than $100 Million USD

2 - General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, (The US$750 Million Dollar Man), Member of the National Assembly

3 - José Leitão, Chief of the Civil House of Luanda

4 - Elisio de Figueiredo, Ambassador

5 - João de Matos, General

6 - Higino Carneiro, Minister of Public Works

7 - Helder Vieira Dias (Kopelipa), General

8 - António Mosquito, Businessman

9 - Valentim Amões, Businessman

10 - Sebastião Lavrador, Banker

11 - José Severino, Businessman

12 - Joaquim Duarte da Costa David, Minister of Industry
 

13 - Manuel Vicente, Ex-Executive of the National Oil Company Sonangol, Vice President of Angola

14 - Abilio Sianga, Administrator of the National Oil Company Sonangol

15 - Mário Palhares, Executive of Bank BAI

16 - Aguinaldo Jaime, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister

17 - França Ndalu, General in Reserve

18 - Amaro Taty, Governor of Province of Bié

19 - Noé Baltazar, Director Delegate of ASCORP

20 - Desidério Costa, Minister of Petroleum

21 - José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos, son of the Dictaror & Chairman Fundo Soberano de Angola

With more than $50 Million dollars but less than $100 Million Dollars

22 - João Lourenço, Secretary General of the MPLA Party

23 - Isaac dos Anjos, Ambassador

24 - Faustino Muteka, Minister of the Administration of the Territory

25 - António Vandúnem, Secretary of the Council of Ministers

26 - Dumilde Rangel, Governor of the Province of Benguela

27 - Salomão José Luheto Xirimbimbi, Minister of Fisheries
 

28 - Jardim, Ex-Minister of Fisheries

29 - Dino Matross, 1°.Vice-Presidente da Assembleia Nacional

30 - Álvaro Carneiro, Ex-Director Adjunto da Endiama

31 - Flávio Fernandes, Ex-PCA da Multiperfil

32 - Fernando Miala, Ex-Director of the Services of Security of the State

33 - Armindo César, Businessman

34 - Ramos da Cruz, Governor of the Province of Huila

35 - Gomes Maiato, Governor of the Province of Lunda-Norte

36 - João E. dos Santos, Governor of the Province of Moxico

37 - Gonçalves Muandumba, Governor of the Province of Lunda-Sul

38 - Aníbal Rocha, Ex-Governor of Cabinda

39 - Ludy Kissassunda, Governor of the Province of Zaire

40 - Luiz Paulino dos Santos, Ex-Governor of the Province of Bié

41 - Paulo Kassoma, Governor of the Province of Huambo

42 - Rui Santos, Businessman

43 - Mário António, Member of the Political Bureau of the MPLA Party and ADM. of GEFI

44 - Silva Neto, Ex-Administrator of the National Oil Company Sonangol Distribution

45 - Júlio Bessa, Ex-Minister of Finances

46 - Paixão Franco, President of FDES

47 - Mello Xavier, Member of the National Assembly and Businessman

48 - Kundi-Payhama, Ex-Minister of Defence

49 - Ismael Diogo, President of the Company FESA

50 - Maria Mambo Café (Diseased), Ex-Member of the Political Bureau of the MPLA Party

51 - Augusto Tomás, Member of the National Assembly

52 - Generoso de Almeida, PCA DO BCI

53 - Luiz Faceira, General

54 - Cirilo de Sá, General

55 - Adolfo Razoilo, General

56 - Gilberto Lutukuta, ex-Minister of Agriculture

57 - Simão Júnior-Empresário (Grupo Chamavo e Gema)

58 - Carlos Feijó, Assessor of the President of the Republic

59 - Armando da Cruz Neto, Chief of the Armed Forces FAA

60 - Fernando Borges, Business man

 

---

MPLA Regime No.1
 

José Eduardo dos Santos, in power since 1979

SINCE 2007, 60 CUBAN BLACK SOLDIERS DIVIDED IN TWO PLATOONS PROTECT JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS

They say that because they are black they will not be noticed and they where told to learn portuguese. The first platoon arrived in Angola between the 5 and 8 of October 2007, on the 24 of October 2007 arrived the second platoon. And in the old Cuban Communist fashion they where put to work at once, on the same day. They are administered by a Coronel.

The last time Cuban troops provided the private security of the Angolan President was under Agostinho Neto in the first years of Angola Independence.
On the 27 of May 1977, used the Cuban military men to suppress and kill the internal MPLA faction lead by Nito Alves.
The Cuban Forces took over the Rádio Nacional de Angola, the barracks of the elite forces that formed the 9ª Brigade, and the Prison of S. Paulo, where the so called "nitistas" where in the morning of that day.
In the book livro Purga em Angola, it gives an account of that day the 27 of May, Dalila Cabrita and Álvaro Mateus say that around 10:00 AM Agostinho Neto contacts Fidel Castro, reporting to him the events with alarm of the happenings in the City of Luanda, which in his words was taken by vandals and with the danger of an invasion from Zairian and South African Forces, which became known as  «Operação Cobra». (snake operation)”
The presence of Cuban Military men in Angola is contrary to the quadripartite treaties of13 December 1988, the “Acordos de New York”, singed between Angola, Cuba, South Africa under the UN supervision, that made provisions for the withdrawal of Cuban and South Africa troops from the war theatre and the implementation of Resolution 435 that allowed the independence of Namibia.

  

Comrade Dictator - José Eduardo dos Santos

Dictator and self proclaimed Chief of State. Was a member of the group of Cuban troops who took Cabinda in the so-called north front. The MPLA awarded this bastard the distinction of General. And he is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He is the one who ultimately has absolute power over the regime.

Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos speaks no native language of Angola, which in it self its odd as if he was bourn and grew up in Luanda he would at least could speak Kimbundu, and it is well known that Jose Eduardo dos Santos was born in the Island country of São Tomé and Príncipe, from both parents from São Tomé and Príncipe, after the birth of their son they decided to immigrate and moved to Angola.

Biography of Jose Eduardo dos Santos

"I meet Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Exile and at that time he could not have had more than two pairs of Trousers and two pairs of shirts, so where does his massive fortune comes from?" - Declarations of the Political Activist Dr. Makuta Nkondo in a recorded interview on the 2 of April 2011 in Largo da Independecia, Luanda.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos was born in the Island and Country of Sao Tome in the village of Almeirim where he studied until the fourth class (that is primary School education).

His mother (Jacinta José Paulino) is of descent from people from Guinea and Cape Verde mixed with Sao Tomense after having immigrating to the island country of Sao Tome from Cape Verde due to the draught and hunger affecting that island.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos Father (Avelino Eduardo dos Santos) had originally as his family name Vandunen. The Vandunen are originally descendent from slaves, and they are from a Dutch polygamous father that had several offspring's from different African women.

This name Vandunen comes from the Slaves and says nothing from the culture of Angola.

The Vandunen gathered a reputation for acting as mercenaries, assassins and thieves, this being the main reasons for the Father of Jose Eduardo dos Santos being ashamed of the name Vandunen and removed this name from his full name.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos is not and engineer of petroleum as we claims. He is lying to the people because he only studied until the 6th class in the High School of Salvador Correia in Luanda, after his parents immigrated to Angola.

He worked in a restaurant in Luanda and after an incident of removal and food theft, the Police agency PIDE was requested to apprehend him, thus is when he skipped as a fugitive to the neighbouring Congo.

Once in the Congo the MPLA Comrade Daniel Chipenda placed the thief Jose Eduardo dos Santos in a instruction course of telecommunications listening financed by the KGB, and it was due to this reason that Comrade  Agostinho Neto placed him as the chief of the Communications DISA. This was his first work after 1975, and because of this Agostinho Neto placed him to commence fractionising the population and political manipulation of the society in order to establish a Communist State with the aid of the Russians and the Cubans.
He was swiftly placed as President of the MPLA after the mysterious death of Agostinho Neto in a suspicious medical treatment operation in Moscow. Comrade Agostinho Neto was having second thoughts in moving his allegiance to the United States and Europe and abandoning the Communist Block.
In the mean time the Soviets had this individual Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos who spoke fluent Russian and was married to a Russian women, was the perfect candidate to assure the Russians, Angola would not jump ship. The autopsy of Comrade Agostinho Neto was never preformed. Agostinho Neto died on the 10 of September of 1979 in Moscow.

As guerrilla war ends, corruption now bleeds Angola to death
By Tim Butcher, 30 Jul 2002

The scale of the MPLA Regime corruption problem only really registered when the senior army officer leant forward and whispered the magic word "diamonds".
"It is illegal to buy diamonds in Angola but if you know the right people they can fly you over the border to Kinshasa [capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo] and you can buy as many Angolan diamonds as you want," he said.
In Angola they use a Portuguese euphemism for "bribe". They say you pay a little extra so a person can have a gasosa or drink, but the sort of bribes being paid could buy more than just a little refreshment.
Whether it is army officers smuggling gems, government officials demanding multi-million-pound bribes for oil contracts or teachers wanting money for exam certificates, millions of pounds are being misappropriated every week.
And with more than one million of its 11 million population in need of food aid after the end of decades of civil war, corruption in Angola means yet more human suffering.
"Every person could be fed, every baby could be vaccinated, every bridge could be rebuilt and every mine could be lifted if the government of Angola properly used the millions it steals each year," a foreign aid worker said.
One provincial governor from the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, was recently exposed for selling schools to a friend who then charged pupils an attendance fee.
The wives of senior MPLA members go abroad for cosmetic surgery using a government fund meant to allow sick Angolans to travel for treatment.
So bad is corruption in Angola that it represents a grave challenge to the credibility of the new African Union which is supposedly committed to supporting good governance.
"The end of the war in Angola means that right now the main institution in the country is corruption," said Rafael Marques, a dissident journalist from Luanda who has been jailed by the Angolan government for his exposes.
"The system is rotten to the core and until you change the entire system nothing will change."
The systemic scale of corruption across the region compounds the task facing aid workers as they fight the consequences of the worst drought in the region in a decade.
At the top of the corruption charts is the Angolan oil industry, contributing more than 90 per cent of Angola's £2 billion annual foreign earnings from enormous off-shore oil reserves.
Far from funnelling these earnings into much-needed social programmes, the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been accused of stealing up to a third of the annual income - hundreds of millions of pounds.
Global Witness, an international environmental watchdog, has also accused the MPLA of mortgaging the next few years of oil revenues in exchange for cheap loans.
The IMF has indicated that it will be reluctant to fund large-scale redevelopment in Angola unless some move is made towards accounting for the country's oil money.
But Mr dos Santos has come out fighting, accusing the IMF of trying to interfere in the sovereignty of his country.
He has hired seven public relations consultancies in Washington to try to improve Angola's standing among US congressmen, as well as making clear that oil companies will not be welcome in Angola if they reveal sharp business practices.
A footnote in BP's 1999 annual figures stated that it had spent £75 million on a "signature fee" to win an offshore production contract. The payment never appeared in any government accounts.
BP has subsequently declined to publish details of signature fees paid for its three other big contracts in Angola.

All the Presidents Men a Global Witness Report on the MPLA Regime dated 1st March 2002

All the Presidents Men is the product of two years of investigations, and provides an update on the campaign for full transparency in the oil and banking sector. It continues an exposé, which started with December 1999's A Crude Awakening, into the mechanisms of wholesale state robbery in Angola.

All the Presidents Men a Global Witness - Full Report in PDF

Oil Revenues in Angola: Much More Information But Not Enough Transparency 3rd December 2010

Significant gaps in the data published by the Angolan government about its earnings from the oil industry undermine its attempts to shed a reputation for corruption, says this new study by Global Witness and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa – Angola (OSISA-Angola).

The MPLA Regime Oil Revenues from Cabinda - Full Report in PDF

A Crude Awakening 1st December 1999

Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest oil producer after Nigeria, with recent discoveries suggesting it could soon become the largest; this at a time when the 1999 UN Human Development Index (HDI) places Angola at 160 out of 174 countries, according to social indicators. Whilst Angola should be a country with a thriving economy, instead it is a country still at war, where a massive proportion of national wealth is unaccounted for, and where the well-being of the population appears no-longer to be a matter of priority for Government.

A Crude Awakening 1st December 1999 - Full Report in PDF

MPLA Regime: Above the Law: Police Accountability in Angola

This report documents cases of human rights violations by the police of the MPLA Regime in Angola between 2005 and 2007, which reveal a pattern of police abuse of power and the consistent failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. It seeks to highlight the deficiencies in Angolan police accountability that contribute to, and exacerbate, these violations. The report concludes with recommendations for the improvement of police policies and practice, which, if fully implemented, would significantly contribute to a reduction in human rights violations by the police.

The MPLA Regime Above the Law: Police Accountability in Angola - Full Report in PDF

Criminal Liability in Angola: A Case For Reparations and Compensation 2001 - Full Report in PDF

The Main Institution in the Country Is Corruption MPLA Regime 2005 - Full Report in PDF

En Suisse, l'autre Angolagate des anciens d'Elf

à la chasse aux transactions financières pour reconstituer un vrai système de prison) et 45 millions de dollars rapatriés en guise de « confiscation ». Le sort des deux jours-amende (soit le condamné paie, soit il effectue sa peine de genevois après une semaine au frais derrière les barreaux. Jugement : une légère peine de PDG d'Elf, le « factotum ».

Riccardo Mortara, expert financier et pilote d'avion, qui fut pendant des années le pour le compte du Congo-Brazzaville, le « chef d'orchestre des montages République d'Angola ;

Jack Sigolet, ancien bras droit d'André Tarallo, le Monsieur Afrique d'Elf et grand Baumettes, accroché par un juge marseillais dans l'affaire du cercle Concorde. A sa sortie angolaise.

« entre 400 et 500 millions de dollars » par un fin connaisseur des circuits pétroliers. Le Le banquier François Rouge, propriétaire de la Banque de patrimoine privée (BPP), l'intermédiaire français Pierre Falcone pose ses valises à Pékin.

Les nouveaux circuits de la corruption

Elisio de Figueiredo, l'homme lige du président Dos Santos, part s'installer en Asie, à

En 2003, alors que l'enquête française a porté un coup à la filière de trafic d'armes.

Le utilisé les services des anciens d'Elf-Aquitaine pour détourner des dizaines de millions de d'orgueil blessé de rodomontades de Charles Pasqua sur le trafic d'armes avec l'Angola et les cris détournements de fonds via d'anciens d'Elf.

Par David Servenay | Rue89 | 15/11/2009 | 13H54

la trace d'une société offshore titulaire d'un compte en banque au nom de China

Dynamic Development à Hong-Kong, qui a vu défiler 116 millions de dollars entre 2006 et 2008. De l'argent qui a servi à régler des achats de bijoux, pour six millions de francs suisses, via la société Sonnig de Mortara, offerts à des dignitaires de Luanda.

Riccardo Mortara, décrit comme le « garçon de course » de l'équipe, a multiplié les ouvertures de comptes bancaires à Jersey, au Portugal, au Liban et à Hong-Kong. Comme le précise Le Temps, la clef de répartition des commissions est la suivante, selon la

Chambre d'accusation genevoise :

« 75% des fonds répartis semblaient concerner le président angolais, 15% l'un de ses ministres et d'autres intermédiaires. »
Les derniers 5% ont terminé dans les caisses de Crossoil, la société de Sigolet.
Le parquet de Genève et les avocats d'accord pour étouffer l'affaire
A lire aussi sur Rue89 et sur Eco89
Mais désormais, ils devraient avoir accès au dossier pénal. Ce qui les rendra peut-être de dossiers, soutiens du procureur général et les « nettoyeurs de cols blancs », ses était allé aux limites de ses prérogatives. Un désaveu en bonne et due forme autre d'étouffer cette belle affaire. Or, lundi 9 novembre, la Chambre d'accusation du L'accusation ? Une collusion entre l'accusation et la défense pour obtenir le procureur général de Genève, Daniel Zapelli, aux avocats des suspects français Claude Richard, lui aussi un ancien d'Elf, mettait en évidence de supposés liens.  Alors que l'instruction est déjà très avancée, elle est devenue un scandale majeur, à cause

Isabel dos Santos daughter of the MPLA DictatorImage showing companies partially owned by Isabel Santos

Isabel José dos Santos is considered by Forbes worth at least 50 million US Dollars and as the most powerful and richest woman in her country and among the richest in Africa.

6 December 2010 “Santoro Finance” last week bought almost 700,000 shares in the portuguese Bank BPI for around 986,000 euros, thus adding to the shares it already owned, the company said in a regulatory filing.
According to a statement filed with Portuguese stock market regulator CMVM, Santoro Finance said it had acquired a further 698,919 shares in the Bank BPI in purchases on the 26 November 2010 and 2 December 2010, and paid a total of 986,354 euros. With these acquisition, the company owned by the daughter of the MPLA Dictator, Isabel dos Santos, now has a 9.88% percent stake in the Bank BPI.
On 25 November 2010, Santoro Finance told the regulator it had acquired a further 997,00 BPI shares and at the time had a 9.8% percent stake in the BPI Portuguese Bank. Santoro Finance also owns 25% percent of BIC Portugal, an Angolan banking subsidiary. In Angola, BPI sold 49% percent of Banco de Fomento de Angola to Unitel, a telecommunications operators and one of the largest companies in Angola, which has Geni, a company also linked to Isabel dos Santos, as a shareholder with 25% percent.

INTERNATIONAL BANK CREDIT (BIC) - BANCO INTERNACIONAL DE CRÉDITO (BIC)
Isabel dos Santos, first born daughter of Comrade Dictator Eduardo dos Santos, and Portuguese businessman Americo Amorim (25%) are the main shareholders of the International Bank of Credit.
GENI
The starting point was the creation of UNITEL (mobile telephone) in partnership with Portugal Telecom. Founders: Isabel dos Santos
Activity: telecommunications and services.
PRODOIL
Associated to the Amec Paragon (Houston, USA). Between Angolan partners quoted Marta dos Santos, elder sister of the President.
Activity: Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, services, hotels.
SAGRIPEK
Capital divided between a group of partners Angolans in which includes Isabel dos Santos, which owns 51% and a Brazilian consortium.
Activity: agriculture, livestock, agro-industrial production.
 

Link between Angolan president's son-in-law and state oil company
raises questions about transparency

15th March 2010

Sonangol, the state-owned oil company of Angola, nominated the son-in-law of Angola's President dos Santos to the board of a holding company that owns a third of the listed Portuguese oil firm Galp Energia, Global Witness has learned.

Angola is an impoverished country that depends on its oil industry to pay for reconstruction after a long civil war. Angola has a reputation for severe corruption which Global Witness has been reporting on for the last decade.1 Angola's people have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world: 46.5 years, according to the United Nations.2

Galp has major oil investments in Angola, a former colony of Portugal, and works closely with Sonangol, whose chairman Manuel Vicente sits on its board.3

A third of the shares in Galp are owned by a holding company called Amorim Energia BV. Forty-five per cent of the shares in Amorim Energia are owned by a company called Esperaza Holding BV, which is a subsidiary of Sonangol. The rest of Amorim Energia is ultimately controlled by Portugal's Amorim family.4

The board members of Amorim Energia include Sindika Dokolo5, a businessman married to Isabel dos Santos, a daughter of the Angolan president. As this briefing will show, Global Witness has learned that Dokolo was nominated to this post in April 2006 by Esperaza Holding. The latter was wholly owned by Sonangol at the time, according to Dutch corporate records.6

"The son-in-law of the Angolan president, a private businessman, should not be working so closely with the state company which is responsible for managing Angola's oil on behalf of its citizens," said Diarmid O'Sullivan of Global Witness. "This arrangement raises concerns about conflicts of interest to which Sonangol has not responded."

Sonangol's minority partner in Esperaza Holding is Exem Holding AG. a secretive company based in the Swiss canton of Zug which does not publicly disclose the identities of its owners.7 A director of Exem Holding, a Paris-based financier called Konema Mwenenge, told Global Witness that he has a "professional" relationship with Dokolo. But Mwenenge declined to say whether Dokolo has a financial interest in Exem Holding.8 Dokolo himself, via his lawyer, declined to respond to questions from Global Witness.9 Sonangol's chairman, Manuel Vicente, did not respond to written questions.10

The fact that the Angolan president's son-in-law appears to have been representing Sonangol in its indirect investment in Galp does not amount to evidence of wrongdoing. But these findings raise further questions about the transparency of Sonangol, the state oil company which dominates the economy of Angola.

Sonangol collects billions of dollars a year in revenues on behalf of the Angolan government and controls other companies' access to Angola's oil and gas reserves, but does not publish its accounts and discloses little detailed information about its activities.

When President dos Santos called for "zero tolerance" of corruption in November 2009, a prominent member of the ruling MPLA party said Angolans should feel free to criticise the president over his family's business dealings, Reuters news agency reported.11

Portuguese billionnaire Americo Ferreira de Amorim is the chairman of Amorim Energia. He told Global Witness, in a three-page response to questions about the issues raised in this briefing, that Dokolo had been appointed to the board of Amorim Energia "at the designation of Esperaza Holding".12

"The fact that Mr Dokolo is the husband of the daughter of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos does not seem in itself as relevant neither [sic] to qualify nor to disqualify him as a board member of Amorim Energia, and therefore was not a factor to have him appointed as a managing director of Amorim Energia," Amorim wrote in his letter to Global Witness. He added: "I can give you my personal views on the fact that the appointment of Mr Dokolo did not raise discussions concerning ethical issues."

Amorim said in his letter that the relationship between Amorim Energia and Galp was governed by a shareholder agreement that was in place before Dokolo came onto the former's board. Global Witness does not assert, or seek to imply, that companies controlled by the Amorim family have engaged in any illegal or illegitimate activity.

At the end of 2006, Sonangol's 100 per cent shareholding in Esperaza Holding had fallen to 60 per cent. The other 40 per cent was owned by a subsidiary of Exem Holding.13 Exem Holding, via its subsidiaries, has been granted access by Sonangol to potentially lucrative investments in Angolan oil and gas but appears to be otherwise unknown in the oil industry.

Sonangol has authorised subsidiaries of Exem Holding to:

* Acquire a 40 per cent stake in Esperaza Holding by the end of 2006, making it a partner in Sonangol's indirect investment in Galp.
* Acquire a 10 per cent stake in an Angolan gas exploration venture announced in December 2007. This venture is controlled by Sonangol. Its other shareholders include Galp, Italy's ENI and Spain's Gas Natural.14 The venture has reportedly been awarded a ten-year gas exploration licence and exempted from taxes.15
* Pre-qualify, as of late 2007, to bid for oil licences in Angola.16

Global Witness asked the Exem Holding director, Konema Mwenenge, to describe the process by which Exem Holding had acquired these investments and investment opportunities. Mwenenge replied in an email that: "I can confirm as a Director of Exem Holding that its subsidiaries did respond to tenders in Angola. Information concerning the tenders is available on the web site of the national oil company of Angola."17

Sonangol's website does report that a subsidiary of Exem Holding has been pre-qualified by Sonangol to bid for oil licences in Angola as a "non-operator" - that is, as a minority shareholder in a joint venture with other oil companies.18 However, there appears to be no information on this website about tenders in relation to Exem Holding's other interests. Global Witness wrote back and asked Mwenenge where this information could be found, but he did not respond.

Although Sonangol has a reputation for being professionally run, its opacity and its close links to the ruling elite of Angola have long been a cause of public concern. The state oil company has long been used by the government to borrow huge sums in a highly opaque manner and with little public accountability for the use of the money.19

For more than a year, Global Witness has been investigating the relationships between Sonangol and certain private companies that invest in Angola's oil sector, which are often complicated and hard to unravel because of a dearth of public information.

In August 2009, Global Witness reported on another little-known private company which was pre-qualified to bid for oil rights in Angola by Sonangol in late 2007. The shareholders of this company, Sociedade de Hidrocarbonetos de Angola, included a person called Manuel Domingos Vicente. The chairman of Sonangol, who has the same name, did not respond to a request for comment from Global Witness, nor did two other senior officials who also have the same names as shareholders in SHA.20

The International Monetary Fund agreed in late 2009 to lend $1.4 billion to Angola in return for policy pledges which include more transparency for Sonangol, but it remains to be seen whether these pledges will actually be implemented.21

"At a time when Angola's government is promising more transparency to the IMF in return for a bailout, our findings show that Sonangol is still anything but transparent," said O'Sullivan.

Global Witness believes that Angola's government cannot begin to reverse the country's international reputation for severe corruption until:

* Sonangol explains its relationship with Dokolo and identifies the ultimate beneficial owners of Exem Holding, who are currently unknown to the public.
* Sonangol publishes its audited accounts and full details of oil revenue flows between foreign oil companies, Sonangol itself and the Angolan government.
* Sonangol relinquishes its control over the allocation of oil and mining rights in Angola to an independent agency that operates under full public oversight and awards these rights in a transparent manner.
* International oil companies in Angola commit themselves not to go into partnership with any smaller companies whose ultimate beneficial ownership is unknown to the public.
* The government ensures that civil society groups within Angola are able to freely discuss matters of public interest, including the oil sector, without fear of harrassment or censorship in any form.

For further information, please contact:
Diarmid O'Sullivan: +44 207 492 5863 or +44 7872 620 955
Amy Barry: +44 207 492 5858

Notes
1. Global Witness. A Crude Awakening. 1999; All the Presidents' Men. March 2002. Time for Transparency. March 2004. Available at www.globalwitness.org
2. United Nations. Human Development Report 2009. Angola. The figures for life expectancy at birth are from 2007.
3. Galp Energia. Annual Report and Accounts 2008. Pages 6, 29 and 182
4. Amorim Energia BV. Annual accounts for 2008. Pages 3, 4 and 23.
5. Amorim Energia Annual report 2008. Page 3.
6. Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce. Handelsregisterhistorie. Esperaza Holding BV.
7. Handelsregister des Kantons Zug. Exem Holding AG.
8. Global Witness phone and email conversations with Mwenenge.
9. Correspondence between Global Witness and a lawyer acting for Dokolo.
10. Letter sent to Vicente by Global Witness on 15 September 2009.
11. Reuters. Angolan President calls on party to end corruption. 21 November 2009. Angolan President's family taint corruption fight. 3 December 2009.
12. Letter from Americo Ferreira de Amorim to Global Witness. 18 January 2010.
13. Esperaza Holding B.V. annual accounts 2006. Page 3.
14. Eni. Eni acquires a participation stake in the Angola LNG Project. 10 December 2007. This press release refers to Exem Exploration & Production B.V. This company has since been renamed Exem Oil & Gas B.V., according to annual accounts filed by the latter for 2007, and is wholly owned by Exem Energy B.V, which is wholly owned by Exem Holding AG.
15. Reuters. Angola set to exempt gas explorers from tax. March 25 2009.
16. Angolan licensing round 2007/2008. Companies pre-qualified for Non-Operator. List published by Sonangol on its website. http://www.sonangol.co.ao/
17. Email to Global Witness from Mwenenge. 19 October 2009.
18. Angolan licensing round 2007/2008. Companies pre-qualified for Non-Operator. List published by Sonangol on its website. http://www.sonangol.co.ao/
19. See Global Witness. Undue Diligence. How banks do business with corrupt regimes. March 2009. Chapter Eight.
20. Global Witness. Angola. Private oil firm has shareholders with same names as top government officials. Media briefing. 4 August 2009.
21. International Monetary Fund. IMF lends Angola $1.4 billion to support reserves, reforms. Press release. 26 November 2009. See also Global Witness. IMF risks condoning corruption with new loan to Angola. Press release. 5 November 2009.

http://www.zap.co.ao

ZAP TV & INTERNET PROVIDERS

24 February 2012

ZAP, its an Angolan company that delivers TV and Internet content, with a participation 30% of its capital owned by ZON Multimédia, commemorated this week end (February 2012) its second anniversary with the inauguration of its brand new installations in Luanda.

ZAP is owned in its majority 70% by the Angolan businesswomen Isabel dos Santos (daughter of El President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the source of her wealth or her funds is unknown), the creation of the company ZAP constituted the first step in the process of internationalization of the company ZON Multimédia in the Portuguese speaking countries.

The project of ZAP was born after Isabel dos Santos (daughter of El President Jose Eduardo dos Santos) became shareholder of the company ZON, with the purchase of 10% of the capital of that Portuguese company. ZAP was the first company to offer HD TV service in Angola.

http://www.zon.pt

In the opening ceremony of the inauguration of the coporate offices in Luanda situated in Talatona, the event was presided by the Minister of Social Communication Carolina Cerqueira, and by the Minister of Telecommunications & Technology of Information, José da Rocha, was also present at the event the President of the Executive Comission of ZON Multimédia, Rodrigo Costa.
 

The Powerful Isabel dos Santos

16 May 2012

Who is and how she lives the woman who is buying so much in Portugal? In the last 15 days (16 May 2012), she spent 82 Million Euros. The personal fortune of the first born daughter of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, known as the "Princess", has now surpassed the amount of investment in Portugal in the tune of 1.4 Billion Euros.

With jeans trousers and thorn T-Shirt, accompanied by a well-dressed lady and three children, a young woman arrives at Lisbon airport. A friend waits for some time, her flight from Luanda. Although she is famous and her name sparkles in all the headlines of newspapers of our country economic (Portugal), not to mention Forbes Magazine, where she figures as one of the largest fortunes in Africa, nobody, apart from him, recognizes her. Camouflaged in simple dress mode  - although brand - lets the sparkle for her accompanier, in truth the "Au pair" of the children (4, 7 and 8 years). The girl of thorn jeans, yet, she is the one who is the boss... and the mother.

Maybe Isabel José dos Santos, 39 years old presumably completed last April, is only coming in a shopping trip. Simple things: a participation in the company GALP, a reinforcement in the position of ZON or another even bigger bite of the Bank BPI... The "Princes", as she is known is Angola, first born of the President José Eduardo dos Santos and of a Russian mother by the name of Tatiana, took a course in mechanical engineering electronics in King's College, London, and displays a bewildering discretion, averse to parties and art openings, interviews or photographs of fuss and colourful African.

Completely westernised, anglophile, but speaking a perfect Portuguese, speaks French (that she uses with her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo) and, presumably an impeccable Russian, she is a woman of the world.

One of these days, Portugal needed investment like her place of birth the dessert azeri (born in Baku, Azerbaijão) needs drops of rain. Isabel dos Santos has been the angolan rain in service: through the company holding Santoro, she has 25% of the BANK BIC, now owner of the Bank BPN, and 19,4% of the Bank BPI. Through the company Esperanza Holding (like Holy Hope, a poem of  Agostinho Neto), in partnership with Sonangol, 33,34% of the company Galp (45% of the company Amorim Energy).

And through the company holding Kento, 15% of the company ZON. Its around 1,4 Billion Euros in the value of shareholder in companies in the Portuguese stock market. Bank, Energy, Telecommunications - are her areas of interest, also of cement, and food produce distribution and art.

She is also the darling girl that owns the sophisticated restaurant in Luanda Oon.dah, where a meal costs in average around 100 Euros?...

OPERATION THUNDER

Os procuradores do Ministério Público que estão a conduzir a chamada “Operação Furacão” recolheram, em 2007, numa busca ao escritório do advogado António Frutuoso de Melo, documentação relativa à constituição de uma sociedade sediada numa offshore ligada à filha mais velha do Presidente de Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos. A referida sociedade, segundo fonte conhecedora do processo, foi utilizada por Isabel dos Santos para a compra de um apartamento em Lisboa.

In accordance with information obtained by the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias, the offshore company, with headquarters in the USA, has finally been the subject of an investigation, because it was part of a list of clients of PIC (International Consultants), a fiduciary company that has already been search in connection to the "Operation Thunder". Such company was used to register an apartment bought in Lisbon by the husband of Isabel dos Santos.

Ora, uma vez que o advogado recorreu à PIC, empresa que fornecedora de serviços no âmbito da constituição de offshores, a sociedade de Isabel dos Santos e do marido (cujo nome não foi possível apurar) acabou por fazer parte da lista de clientes já apreendida pelo Departamento Central de Investigação e Acção Penal (DCIAP).

Licenciada em Engenharia Informática, em Londres, Isabel dos Santos tem diversificado os seus interesses económicos. Em Angola, através da Unitel, a maior operador de telecomunicações móveis do país, mantém uma parceria com a Portugal Telecom. Uma empresa que explora as redes de comunicações por despacho do Governo angolano, que, por “razões de manifesto interesse do Estado”, atribuiu à empresa a exploração da rede móvel.

In 2005, the First Born of José Eduardo dos Santos became shareholder of Banco Internacional de Crédito (International Bank of Credit), with a participation identical to the Portuguese businessman Américo Amorim. And in partnership with this businessman gained entrance to the capital of the Portuguese company GALP by means of the consortium of Amorim/Sonangol, the National Oil Company of Angola, after that date and event there where no longer limits in her funding and investment with moneys of unknown origin.

THE DEALINGS OF ISABEL DOS SANTOS, DAUGHTER OF THE DICTATOR OF ANGOLA
 

UNITELNa reunião da Assembleia-Geral da UNITEL, a 4 Fevereiro 2006, Isabel dos Santos foi reconduzida ao cargo de administradora da principal operadora de telefonia celular.

A UNITEL é uma empresa privada de capitais mistos, com a participação do Estado, que detêm 25% das quotas através da Sonangol.

Até à presente data, Isabel dos Santos mantém-se como administradora da empresa. Dirigiu a reunião o presidente da Assembleia-Geral da UNITEL, General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, que na altura era o chefe de Comunicações do Presidente da República, José Eduardo dos Santos.

O General mantém-se como presidente da Assembleia-Geral da UNITEL, é consultor principal da Casa Militar do Presidente da República e, até recentemente, tinha como Presidente do Conselho (PCA) de Administração da UNITEL, o ex-PCA da Sonangol e actual ministro da Coordenação Económica, Manuel Vicente.
Como foi Isabel dos Santos parar ao Conselho de Administração da UNITEL e onde encontrou capital para ser accionista de uma das principais empresas privadas angolanas? A resposta a esta questão certamente poderá ajudar a filha do Chefe do Estado a limpar o seu nome com brio.
BIC BANK
Since 2005, Isabel dos Santos is Administrator of the Bank BIC, where she owns 25% of the social capital, per the legal documents dated from the 7 June 2006.

Her name is present regularly in the portal of the Bank and on other documents of the company, in her quality or administrator of the Bank
DIAMONDS DEALINGS AND ISABEL DOS SANTOS
A associação de Isabel dos Santos ao negócio dos diamantes, em Angola, é bem conhecida. Em parceria com a sua mãe, Tatiana Cergueevna Regan, Isabel dos Santos constitui a 2 Abril 1997, em Gibraltar, a empresa Tais Limited, na qual detinha 75% das acções, cabendo o resto à sua mãe.

Por sua vez, a 11 Outubro 1999, o governo angolano, chefiado pelo seu pai, promulgou um acordo com a sua empresa, a Trans Africa Investment Services (Tais), o Group Goldeberg e Leviev Wellox, para a criação de uma empresa mista de comercialização de diamantes, a Angola Selling Corporation (Ascorp), (Conselho de Ministros (2003:1438-9); a 5 de Outubro de 2004, Isabel dos Santos transferiu a totalidade das suas acções para o nome da mãe e, por essa altura, a Tais já havia mudado de denominação para Iaxonh).

A aprovação do consórcio revelou conflito de interesses, nepotismo e indícios de crime de suborno “passível de destituição do cargo” (Art. 127º, 1, 2 da Constituição). Para mais informações sobre a participação de Isabel dos Santos na Ascorp e as implicações legais, consulte: Marques, Rafael, Diamantes de Sangue, Tinta-da-China: Lisboa, 2011:32-3.
OIL SECTOR AND ISABEL DOS SANTOS
O sector dos petróleos em Angola tem sido o mais opaco e o mais controlado pelo Presidente da República, para serviço dos seus desígnios pessoais. A aprovação final de qualquer contrato petrolífero, por concurso público ou não, cabe sempre ao Presidente da República.

O Decreto n.º 48/06, do Conselho de Ministros, sobre os Procedimentos de Concursos Públicos no Sector dos Petróleos, estabelece que a aprovação final dos concursos públicos cabe ao Governo, ou seja exclusivamente ao Presidente da República, como chefe do Executivo (Art. 14º, c).

Como exemplo, um ano antes de Isabel dos Santos ter apresentado queixa, o seu pai promulgou, a 27 Outubro 2006, a autorização conferida à Sonangol para associar-se, entre outras empresas, à Prodoil, para a realização de operações petrolíferas no Bloco 1/06 (Decreto n.º 82/06).

A Prodoil é uma empresa criada a 9 Novembro 2001 pela Marsanto, e com participação simbólica da Prodiaman e Arlindo Fernando da Costa.

A Marsanto é uma empresa criada a 17 Dezembro 1996, pelos sobrinhos do Presidente Edson dos Santos Sousa e Esmeralda dos Santos Sousa, filhos da sua irmã Marta dos Santos, assim como o consorte desta José Pacavira Narciso.

Por sua vez, este cunhado de José Eduardo dos Santos é o PCA da Prodoil desde 2001.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos vende participação na Zon a Isabel dos Santos

14 June 2012

A empresária angolana pagou cerca de 85 milhões de euros pela participação de 10,88% que o banco do Estado detinha na empresa de telecomunicações. Isabel dos Santo passa a ser a maior acionista privada da empresa, com 28,8 por cento do capital.

INVESTMENTS IN CAPE VERDE ISLAND

UNITEL a company which is Isabel dos Santos daughter of Jose Eduardo dos Santos owned by 25% ACQUIRED 70% OF THE CAPE VERDE ISLANDS PHONE COMPANY "T Mais" October 2012.
 

Isabel dos Santos, Africa's Richest Woman

Daddy's Girl: How An African 'Princess' Banked $3 Billion In A Country Living On $2 A Day

This story appears in the 2 September 2013 issue of Forbes
By Kerry A. Dolan and Rafael Marques de Morais

LAST DECEMBER (2012) Isabel dos Santos commemorated her tenth wedding anniversary to Congolese businessman Sindika Dokolo with a party. Subtlety wasn’t on the menu. She jetted in dozens of friends and relatives from as far as Germany and Brazil, who joined with hundreds of local guests in Angola for three days of lavishness, including a bash at the Fortress of Sao Miguel in the capital city of Luanda and a beachside Sunday brunch on the posh Mussulo peninsula.

The invitation, according to one attendee, came in a sleek white box, promising a celebration of “a decade of passion/ a decade of friendship/ a decade worth a hundred years. …” A decade worth $3 billion is more like it.

At 40 Dos Santos is Africa’s only female billionaire, and also the continent’s youngest. She has quickly and systematically garnered significant stakes in Angola’s strategic industries–banking, cement, diamonds and telecom–making her the most influential businessperson in her homeland. More than half of her assets are held in publicly traded Portuguese companies, adding international credibility. When FORBES outed her as a billionaire in January the government disseminated the news as a matter of national pride, living proof that this country of 19 million has arrived.

The real story, however, is how Dos Santos–the oldest daughter of Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos–acquired her wealth. For the past year FORBES has been tracing Isabel dos Santos’ path to riches, reviewing a score of documents and speaking with dozens of people on the ground.

As best as we can trace, every major Angolan investment held by Dos Santos stems either from taking a chunk of a company that wants to do business in the country or from a stroke of the president’s pen that cut her into the action. Her story is a rare window into the same, tragic kleptocratic narrative that grips resource-rich countries around the world.

For President Dos Santos it’s a foolproof way to extract money from his country, while keeping a putative arm’s-length distance away. If the 71-year-old president gets overthrown, he can reclaim the assets from his daughter. If he dies in power, she keeps the loot in the family. Isabel may decide, if she is generous, to share some of it with her seven known half-siblings. Or not. The siblings are known around Angola for despising one another.

“It is not possible to justify this wealth, which is shamelessly displayed,” former Angolan prime minister Marcolino Moco tells FORBES. “There is no doubt that it was the father who generated such a fortune.” Isabel dos Santos declined to speak with FORBES for this article. Her representatives failed to respond to detailed questions sent months ago but last week issued this statement: “Mrs. Isabel dos Santos is an independent business woman, and a private investor representing solely her own interests.

Her investments in Angolan and/or in Portuguese companies are transparent and have been conducted through arms-length transactions involving external entities such as reputed banks and law firms.”

In turn, the spokesman accuses this article’s coauthor, an Angolan investigative journalist, of being an activist with a political agenda. The Angolan government jailed Marques de Morais in 1999 over a series of articles critical of the regime and has brought new criminal defamation charges against him over his 2011 book, Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola .

Finally, a representative of Mrs. Dos Santos said that any allegations of illegal wealth transfers between her and the government are “groundless and completely absurd.” That could well be. When your father runs the show, and can dictate which national assets are sold and at what price, what’s theft of public resources in one country can be rendered legal with a swipe of the pen.

President José Eduardo dos Santos could not be reached for comment. That is unfortunate, because the Dos Santoses, as Moco notes, have “some explaining to do.” FOR THREE CENTURIES the Portuguese extracted wealth from this mineral-rich country on Africa’s southwestern coast.

Almost immediately after Angola won independence in 1975, various internal factions began battling one another for the right to do the exact same thing. From this chaos, which lasted 27 years, Dos Santos, who had studied oil engineering in Soviet Azerbaijan and served as foreign minister upon independence, eventually emerged as president in 1979. He’s held on to power ever since, making him the planet’s third-longest-serving nonroyal head of state.

The president met his first wife (he’s been married at least twice), Tatiana Kukanova, while a student in Azerbaijan, and his first child–Isabel–was born there. By age 6 Isabel dos Santos was in Angola’s presidential palace, and while the family’s lifestyle wasn’t over-the-top by profligate African dictator standards (save the president’s dalliances–at least five of his children are from various mistresses), the family had Christmas trees flown in from New York and $500,000 worth of bubbly imported from a Lisbon restaurateur.

There was decadence enough for Isabel to earn the nickname “the Princess.” During Isabel’s upbringing the Angola economy sputtered, crippled by two factors: ongoing civil war and Dos Santos’ socialist policies. “In the 1980s you’d go to the supermarket and there would only be noodles on the shelves.

There wasn’t much there,” says University of Southern California associate professor emeritus Gerald Bender, who’s been studying Angola since 1968. For cloistered Isabel that reality was likely invisible; she eventually attended King’s College in London, where her mother, now a British citizen, lives, and earned an undergraduate degree in engineering.

However, as civil war resumed by the end of 1992, Isabel left for Angola’s capital city, Luanda, in a rush, allegedly after receiving death threats in London. By the late 1990s, when the civil war was winding down –a ceasefire was formally declared in 2002–President Dos Santos, like the Soviets he had studied under in the 1960s, was embracing a grab-what-you-can form of capitalism.

Over the past decade Angola has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. GDP grew at an 11.6% annual clip from 2002 to 2011, driven by a more than doubling of oil production to 1.8 million barrels a day. The government budget sits at $69 billion, up from $6.3 billion a decade ago. But predictably, precious little of the windfall has made it to the people. Some 70% of Angolans live on less than $2 a day. And by the government’s own count, 10% of the country’s population is scrambling for food due to drought and bureaucratic neglect. So where’s the money going? Start with a paranoid president-for-life.

The state security apparatus sucks more funds from the budget than health care, education and agriculture combined. A lot is clearly stolen: Between 2007 and 2010 at least $32 billion of oil revenue went missing from the federal ledger, according to the International Monetary Fund, which later tracked most of the money to “quasi-fiscal operations.” Angola comes in at 157 out of 176 nations ranked by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

It trails shining stalwarts of participatory democracy such as Yemen and Kyrgyzstan. And it’s within this environment that Isabel dos Santos has surfaced with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.

ISABEL DOS SANTOS’ formative business experience came at Miami Beach. Not the Florida city, but rather a rustic chic beachside bar and restaurant in Luanda that tries to emulate its namesake, down to the mediocre food and indifferent service. In 1997 the owner, Rui Barata, was having issues with health inspectors and taxmen. His solution: bringing in Isabel dos Santos, then 24, as his partner, with the idea, contemporaries say, that her name would keep pesky government regulators at bay.

Her initial investment was negligible, according to a source with knowledge of the deal, and the restaurant thrived: Sixteen years later it’s still a weekend hot spot. The lesson–the equity stake available to those with a gilded name–couldn’t have been lost on Isabel dos Santos, who was entering adulthood at the exact same time Angola’s riches were being unlocked.

Here’s what followed: First, Grab the Diamonds. Angola is the world’s fourth-largest diamond producer, selling an estimated $1 billion in gems every year from mines situated in the country’s northeast. The mines’ exclusive concession-holder is the state-owned company, Endiama. In 1999 President Dos Santos pushed Endiama to form a diamond-selling partnership. Three Israeli diamond merchants, including Lev Leviev, who FORBES now estimates is worth $1.5 billion, promised contacts and expertise.

The power behind the venture, according to British court records, was Russian arms dealer Arkady Gaydamak–a former confidant of President Dos Santos during the civil war of 1992-2002. The new company would be called Ascorp. Leviev and his partners, including Gaydamak, would wind up with 24.5% of Ascorp.

The government would retain 51%. The most surprising major shareholder? Isabel dos Santos, who emerged with a 24.5% stake through a Gibraltar investment company, Trans Africa Investment Services, that she had set up with her mother, according to TAIS’ annual report. (Leviev did not respond to a request for comment, and Gaydamak could not be reached at press time.) Angola’s 2010 constitution bars the president from stealing public money and acts of corruption, which would seem to prohibit the use of his position for the private enrichment of his family.

No matter: Angola’s Council of Ministers, controlled by her father, approved the Ascorp deal anyway. “In a country with separation of powers and real democracy, these presidential actions to enrich his family would have caused legal procedures for his impeachment,” says lawyer Salvador Freire, president of the human rights group Maos Livres. “In Angola he is the law.”

Ascorp was a cash cow, yielding millions of dollars in dividends per month, according to British court documents, but as the “blood diamond” business attracted international scrutiny in the middle of the 2000s, Dos Santos transferred to her mother total control of TAIS, now renamed Iaxonh Limited, according to Gibraltar’s Registry of Companies records accessed by FORBES.

It’s quite a parking spot, safely under the control of a British citizen, with Isabel dos Santos conveniently sitting in Angola as her mother’s sole heir. The mother could not be reached for comment. Telecom: Father Knows Best. In 1997 President Dos Santos issued a decree concerning the increasingly valuable telecommunications spectrum it controlled: The government must undertake a public bidding process for new telecom licenses. Two years later he defied his own decree–by issuing a new one.

The government could grant such a license without a public tender, as long as the grantee was a joint venture with the state. Eleven months after that the president, backed by his rubber stamp Council of Ministers, granted Unitel the right to be the first private mobile telephony operator in the country–with the condition that he had sole power to approve the project and to decide on the shareholding structure of the company, since it involved state funds. The state-owned oil company got a 25% stake, and Isabel emerged with her own 25% stake. A spokesman for Isabel dos Santos said she contributed capital for her Unitel stake but declined to specify how much. A year later Portugal Telecom paid $12.6 million for another 25% stake.

It was one hell of an investment. Mobile phones have revolutionized Africa, and as one of just two mobile phone networks in Angola, Unitel had amassed 9 million subscribers. Revenue last year was $2 billion, making it Angola’s largest private company. Her share is worth at least $1 billion, based on discussions with several analysts who follow Portugal Telecom. Banking: A Friend in Europe. As Isabel dos Santos diversified her Angolan business interests, in 2005 she diversified her network of powerful patrons. Enter Americo Amorim, a Portuguese billionaire worth $4.3 billion who has spent his life expanding his family’s business empire from cork to real estate, tourism and, especially, oil.

The billionaire, who did not comment for this story, was early to seek deals in Angola after hostilities ended. When the Dos Santos clan made a move into banking in 2005, they did so in partnership with Amorim and Fernando Teles, a Portuguese national who had been CEO of another Angolan bank. They formally opened Banco Internacional de Credito, known as BIC, according to the company’s annual reports. The hand of Isabel’s father again played a role: President Dos Santos, as head of the Council of Ministers, formally authorized the foreign investment in the capital of the bank. Specifically how it was financed is murky, as there is no public record showing who put money into the bank. BIC’s latest annual report shows that Amorim owns 25% of the bank.

Various documents reveal that another 25% is held through an investment vehicle controlled by Isabel dos Santos. Her spokesman says she was a founding member of the bank and had independent means to pay her share from her early business ventures. Regardless, BIC was a hit, in large part because of a deal to lend money to … the Angolan government. BIC made loans to the state worth $450 million, in addition to more than $350 million made to private ventures. BIC had assets of $6.9 billion in 2012. Isabel dos Santos’ stake is worth at least $160 million, FORBES estimates, based on the bank’s book value listed in its latest annual report. BIC officials could not be reached for comment. Oil: A Strange Partnership. Oil is Angola’s greatest natural asset.

The country produces 650 million barrels per year, most of it exported. The state-owned oil firm, Sonangol, is so profitable that it was only a matter of time before the Dos Santos family would start looking for ways to hitch a ride on its success. Isabel’s banking partner, billionaire Americo Amorim, would play the key role. In 2005 Amorim set up a subsidiary, Amorim Energia. He would control it with a 55% stake. The remaining 45%, at least originally, went to Sonangol via a Netherlands holding company called Esperaza Holding B.V. At the end of that year Amorim Energia went shopping, acquiring 33.3% of Galp Energia, Portugal’s former state-owned oil company, for roughly $1 billion, according to press reports.

At the end of 2006, according to investigative not-for-profit Global Witness, 40% of Sonangol’s stake in Esperaza ended up with a Swiss company called Exem Holding. No documents could be found that definitively tie Exem Holding to Isabel dos Santos, but her fingerprints are everywhere. Her husband, Sindika Dokolo, was put on the Amorim Energia board at the request of Esperaza, according to Global Witness. And the chairman of Isabel dos Santos’ holding company is also on the boards of Fidequity, a subsidiary of Exem Holding, and entities called Exem Energy and Exem Oil & Gas, according to public filings. Last year Amorim Energia paid $726 million for an additional 5% of GALP. Isabel’s estimated 6.9% stake in Galp is worth a recent $924 million.

Cement: Safeguarding the “Public Interest.” For most of President Dos Santos’ reign there’s only been one cement factory in Angola, owned by a firm called Nova Cimangola. By mid-2004 the government owned 39.8% of it, state-owned oil company Sonangol’s captive bank, BAI, owned 9.5%, and the remaining 49% was owned by Swiss firm Scanang, which was in the process of being taken over by Portuguese cement company Cimpor. The government began demanding a bigger stake, arguing that the factory was a strategic asset for national reconstruction in the aftermath of the war.

On Oct. 29, 2006 the president’s Council of Ministers’ Resolution 78/06 approved a $74 million payment to buy out Cimpor, declaring that the expenditure was necessary to safeguard “public interest, to restore the legality and to maintain the shareholding control of Nova Cimangola by national entities, incorporated in Angola.” The $74 million payment, according to an Angolan newspaper, came from BIC, the bank half-owned by Amorim and Isabel dos Santos.

The government would now own 89%, while BAI and Angolan individuals would control the remaining 11%. What followed, however, showed that the larger goal wasn’t to give Angola a larger stake but rather certain Angolans. Prior to the council’s approval a company called Ciminvest was incorporated in Angola. Ciminvest was initially fronted by the president’s former legal counsel, according to the articles of incorporation he signed. At one point Portuguese billionaire Americo Amorim owned an estimated 30% of Ciminvest, but his representative confirms that he transferred his stake in 2009. He would not comment on who took over the stake or what was paid for it.

The real owners are now widely understood to be Isabel dos Santos and her husband, though documents detailing ownership are not publicly available. However, Isabel admits on her resume that she chairs the board of Nova Cimangola, which she controls through Ciminvest. Without much ado, at no apparent cost, the company that was presidentially mandated to be controlled by “national entities” had become controlled by Isabel dos Santos. ISABEL DOS SANTOS’ holdings are more than just squirreled away assets to be unearthed in case of a rainy day.

They throw off hefty dividends that allow her to buy yet more assets in businesses seemingly unrelated to the exploitation of Angolan properties, such as her $500 million stake in Portuguese media firm ZON. Meanwhile, her father has taken steps to legally protect himself from all the plundering. Under Angolan law President Dos Santos’ decision to grant a license to Unitel for the personal benefit of his daughter could be considered an abuse of power.

To cover his legal bases, in 1992 the president fiddled with the law to reduce it to two grounds: taking bribes or betraying the country. Technically, he can argue, neither was violated in the case of Unitel. The larger strategy, though, is to portray Isabel as a hero.

In January, after FORBES declared her a billionaire, the Angolan regime’s mouthpiece (and the country’s only daily newspaper), Jornal de Angola , claimed that “while we give our best for Angola without poverty, we are elated with the fact that businesswoman Isabel dos Santos has become a reference in the world of finances. This is good for Angola and it fills Angolans with pride.” Angolans should be mortified, not proud.

---

 

The Son of Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos

José Filomeno dos Santos, aka "Zenu"

As chairman of the new Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos is mandated to get the US$ 5 Billion sovereign fund off the ground. Dos Santos represents a new round of leaders managing sub-Saharan Africa’s sovereign wealth. Dos Santos was a former board member of Banco Kwanza Invest, an Angolan investment bank.

 Millionaire overnight, where the money come from?

José Filomeno dos Santos is CEO of the China Petrotechnical Corporation register in Hong Kong partner of SINOPEC Corp (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation) The Father is the Dictator of the MPLA, Government, Armed Forces, etc… the uncle is Manuel Vicente, President of the Counsel and Administration (PCA) of the Angola Petrol Company Sonangol, family business is the best (wow is Angola a family run business? yeap it seems so).  Jose Filomeno dos Santos, aka Zenu spent time in tour of China petroleum infrastructures in 2005. 

José Filomeno dos Santos son of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos is being investigated by the German Authorities for Money Laundry

24 March 2011

José Filomeno dos Santos, son of Jose Eduardo dos Santos the MPLA Regime Dictator, seen by some observers as a potential successor to become Head of State, is in the eyes of the German and Swiss media because of alleged illicit business activities.

Zenu, is the nick name for José Filomeno dos Santos, is a man that has already worked in several companies of the MPLA Regime: he was part of the Directors of Sonangol and was director adjunct of its subsidiary company AAA, before venturing in the world of International Businesses: he passed by Sweden, he studied in England and participated in several projects, such as “Afrikanische Innovations Stiftung”, Foundation for the Innovation of Africa, with head quarters in Switzerland.

The Swiss journalist specialized in economic matters, Lukas Haessig, recently published and article about the suspicious activities of Zenu dos Santos in Switzerland, in which he explains the function of the Son of the Dictator of Angola Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos, allegedly to finance building works for Charity in Africa. “Zenu dos Santos with this front pretends to create for himself a positive image”, sais Haessig.

The Director of the Foundation is a Swiss lawyer by the name of Thomas Ladner, who at the same time, also directs the company of financial services with the name of Quantum in Switzerland. Zenu dos Santos is also one of the promoters of the Bank Quantum Angola: “This for me is a web of companies - an Angolan network - always with the same individuals who work in together”, states the journalist.

The unclear role of a German Banker

Behind the businesses of Zenu dos Santos is Jean-Claude de Morais Bastos, a Swiss citizen original from Cabinda. It was through him that Zenu created his Bank “Quantum Bank” and recruited to this Bank Ernst Welteke, ex-president of the Central Bank of Germany, Mr. Ernst Welteke today occupies the functions of President of the Council of Administration of the Bank of the Son of Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Haessig considers being “very peculiar” a ex-president of the Bundesbank (German Central Bank) exercising such functions in a Bank of the Son of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, e, and at the same time, in a Bank in Switzerland with the same name, but that alegedly nothing has to do one with the other. "But looking for the Administration we can see that its Administrative personnel are exactly the same. Mr. Ernst Weltecke belongs to both Administration Councils and also the Angolan-Swiss citizen Basto de Morais is in both banks".

Accusations of Money Laundry

Angolan observers residents in Germany have already made serious public accusations against this network, which they qualify as a Laundry machine of money laundry from public funds in Angola. The laundry would be made with the participation and help of some German personalities, such as Ernst Welteke, writes an Angolan journalist resident in Germany, in an article published in the German magazine "afrika Süd". Title of the article: “Dirty money seeks washing-up”.

The Swiss Journalist, Lukas Haessig, says that despite of no proof, for the time being. Deutsche Welle tried in vain to contact Mr. Ernst Welteke, member of the Social-Democrat German party, which in 2004 was forced to quit from the German Central Bank for suspicion of corruption.

Author: António Cascais/Cristina Krippahl
Revision: Helena Ferro de Gouveia
Translation into English: Mangovo Ngoyo

 

The Talented Mr. Bastos de MoraisMr. Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, the closest business associate of President Dos Santos’ son, José Filomeno “Zenú”. He was convicted by a criminal court in the Swiss canton of Zug for “repeated qualified criminal mismanagement.” The judgment dates back to July 13, 2011.
Bastos de Morais first appealed the judgment. On December 11, he was scheduled to meet the deadline for another appeal at the High Court of Zug. The businessman withdrew from appealing, and the conviction has now entered into force. According to a press release issued by Bastos de Morais’ communications agency, Spicy Communications, the reason for the withdrawal is that he was “acquitted in all major charges.” And that what remained was “only a conditional fine and another one for two formally incorrect wage payments.”
He also denied to the “Handelszeitung” that his business activities in Angola are due to his good relationship with the Angolan princeling. “That’s not the case,” he said.
According to Bastos de Morais, the idea of setting up a state fund for venture capital is his brainchild. He mentioned to have close relationships with several ministers, including the minister of Economy, Abrahão Gourgel, who “was willing to listen.” Through the attentive hears of the minister, and through a web of connections, Banco Kwanza secured hundreds of millions of dollars from the Angolan Central Bank to invest abroad. At the time, minister Abrahão Gourgel, was the head of the central bank. “The Minister was able to place the idea, I was the producer.”
“I am a machine of ideas,” boasted Bastos de Morais.
Longtime business partner of Bastos, Marcel Krüse, who is currently the CEO of Banco Kwanza, was also convicted in the Zug court on the same case.
Bastos received a suspended fine of 160,000 Swiss Francs, and has to pay 4,500 Swiss francs. The court handed Marcel Krüse a suspended fine of 170,000 Swiss francs, and has to pay 5,000. A suspended fine means they don’t have to pay the fine unless they commit another crime within the next two years. Nevertheless, both get a criminal record.

Bank Kwanza Investwww.bancokwanzainvest.com
José Filomeno dos Santos, on of the sons of the President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in one of the proprietors of the Bank Kwanza Invest.


Rádio Kwanza
Rádio Kwanza is the now Radio Station of José Filomeno, dos Santos son of the President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, it will start to broadcast in 2012.

---

The Eldest Daughter of Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos, gave a Diamond Mine to his oldest daughter.

The exploration of her Diamond mine in  the mining zone of Camatué, in Lunda Norte.

Ngutuika Josefa Matias (dos Santos)

Daughter of Elisabeth Kaenje Konambanfe and of Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, but of course this daughter, born outside of his "official " marriage does not qualify for a Diamond Mine. UPDATE: January 2012 apparently rumours in Luanda, say that the Communist Leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos, finally has recognized this person has his daughter while in Zaire.

Welwitschia José dos Santos “Tchizé” another Daughter of Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos

Presidential Promiscuity Has Corrupted Society

By Rafael Marques De Morais
4 December 2009

In August, I sent a letter to the president of the Angolan republic, in which I drew attention to the fact that the attorney general of the republic was breaking the law by serving as the managing director of various private firms, something that is incompatible with the office that he holds. [1]
Several people have asked me about the lack of a response from the head of state and government regarding these complaints. My response has been that one cannot and should not expect any positive reaction from the president of the republic concerning corruption and respect for the law. I argued that José Eduardo dos Santos embodied the same promiscuity that he himself had condemned as the worst evil of his government. [2] I also stated that disrespect for the law was common practice for His Excellency.
In response to these questions, I present a brief investigation into the practices of the Eduardo dos Santos Foundation (FESA) as a case study of the president's behaviour in relation to the institutions of state, current law and corruption. While serving as president of the republic, José Eduardo dos Santos also serves as chairman of his foundation, a private entity whose structures include members of the government, members of parliament, multinational corporations and private businesses. Research reveals several articles of legislation which have been ignored by FESA since it was founded in 1996, and which outlaw the use of public powers to personal ends, conflict of interests, influence-peddling and other corrupt practices.
Why has society seemed powerless in the face of the innumerable abuses of power by the president of the republic? This article tries to locate Dos Santos's actions in the context of the collective mentality that is paralysing society: generalised corruption. The article questions the president's political and moral legitimacy in continuing to rule the country after 30 years in power, while disrespecting the laws approved by his own government and allowing corruption to become institutionalised.

THE REIGN OF DOS SANTOS

According to Article 65 of the Angolan constitution, 'the President of the Republic is not responsible for acts carried out in the exercise of his duties, except for cases of bribery or treason to the Fatherland'. (Some lawyers argue that Angolan legislation does not define the crime of bribery and that the provision on treason does not apply to the president. Nevertheless, as a signatory to the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Protocol against Corruption,[3] Angola makes up for this omission since the state has incorporated the protocol into its domestic law. [4] ) Thus, with a constitutionally enshrined freedom from responsibility, the president can do as wishes. His slightest whim is law. Lawyers from the ruling MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertaçao de Angola - Partido do Trabalho) party go to extremes to interpret the president's violations of the law as acts of sovereignty and as demonstrations of the political wisdom of their leader.
The 30-year reign of José Eduardo dos Santos has been successful in two respects. First, in the accumulation of wealth beyond measure, in shadowy ways and with impunity, by the presidential family, the closed inner circle of government, generals of the Angolan armed forces, high officers of the Angolan National Police, the MPLA elite and foreigners partners. Second, in the absolute control of political, economic and social power through a web of corruption that is complemented by strategies of repression.
In a recent talk on Radio Ecclesia I drew attention to a number of concrete cases of corruption in the highest echelons of the state. I referred to the ongoing violation of the law by members of the government and by those who control public resources. I quoted in particular the flouting of the Law on Crimes Committed by Public Office Bearers [5] and the Disciplinary Regulations for Public Management[6], which both clearly prohibit officials from using their positions or engaging in state business for personal benefit, beyond the proper remuneration for their work.
Several citizens have spoken to me about this subject. Yet it seems that society in general is still not yet prepared to deal with the truth. People feel offended, and can even become hostile, when someone exposes the truth to public view. This is one of the effects of generalised corruption, not of fear of repression. Even though the looting of public wealth has been laid bare, a large part of society prefers to survive by hiding behind the illusion that everyday corruption is an act of benevolence by those in power.
'They [the power holders] plunder, but also allow others to plunder their share.' This seems to be the justification among the more enlightened sections of society.
The fear that is so often evoked as an explanation for the impotence of society is simply the fear of losing the property or benefits that are to be gained through dealings based on institutional, party-political or family connections. This is the condition of citizens who are aware of reality and capable of effecting change. This is a middle class riding on the back of opportunism.
THE PRESIDENT'S LAW
The president of the republic, José Eduardo dos Santos, is the chairman of FESA, a private organisation which the Council of Ministers, chaired by President dos Santos, ratified as a public utility institution. [7] From an ethical and legal point of view, this act in itself reveals a conflict of interest and influence-peddling, in that the president, acting through a collegiate institution of government, approved his private foundation as a public utility.
According to the Regulations for Associations and Other Public Utility Institutions, [8] public utility status is bestowed upon 'philanthropic or humanitarian associations, or aid and educational institutions founded by private individuals, of which the beneficiaries are the inhabitants of a particular place, and which are not administered by the State'. [9]
According to FESA itself, the foundation was created in 1996, 'with His Excellency President José Eduardo dos Santos as its founder'.[10] Bestowing upon FESA the status of public utility thus violates the regulation referred to above, which was approved by the president of the republic as head of the Council of Ministers, and which is supposed to apply only to institutions created by private individuals. The president of the republic is not a private entity.
As the chairman of FESA, the organisation's highest authority, the president of the republic plays an active role, with the power to chair meetings of the trustees' committee, to appoint the members of the same committee, to convene meetings, to appoint and dismiss the president and vice-presidents of the foundation and to 'determine the disposal of the foundation's assets', among other tasks. [11]
From an ethical and legal point of view, the incumbent president of the republic may not exercise any private function. Although constitutional law is not specific on the matter, this conclusion can be reached through extensive interpretation, according to the constitutional expert Mihaela Webba. If parliamentarians and judges may not fulfil private functions other than teaching, then the president of the republic as the bearer of the highest state office certainly may not.
Moreover, in Angola the president is an executive entity, since he is head of government and as such should, at the very least, respect the judicial regime applied to members of the government, namely the Law on Crimes Committed by Public Office Bearers. Even if this law does not apply to the president of the republic, by association and by interpretation José Eduardo dos Santos ought to comply with this law as a member of the government. [12] This law prohibits the use of public office for personal gain, and combining private and public roles. Good sense should have persuaded José Eduardo dos Santos not to establish the foundation while in office as president of the republic.
The very nature of the foundation conflicts with the statesmanlike behaviour that is expected of the president, and damages the supposed separation of public power from private interests. FESA, in point 1.2 of article 3 of its constitution, provides for delivering special consultancy services 'with a view to technical assistance to public and private institutions (...)'. In point 1.3 of the same article, FESA intrudes into the realm of national politics by declaring itself ready to 'contribute to the formulation of national policy conducive to the sustainable development of the country'. [13]
Article 4 of FESA's statutes states that the foundation must 'promote the creation of private business enterprises in which the foundation becomes a shareholder.' [14] This is something which has happened with great success. FESA's participation in commercial business, with no line drawn between the state and the private sphere, makes the president of the republic the representative of the commercial interests of a private association in which local meets international capital.
As proof of his absolute power, José Eduardo dos Santos has brought part of the government and other bodies of state, such as the National Assembly, into the management of FESA, in disregard of the law. The sustenance of such a decision corrupts the workings of the public administration. This is demonstrated by looking at the management structures of FESA and of its sporting offshoot, the Santos Football Club.
FESA [15]


Santos Football Club [16]


Manuel Vicente, the chairman of the board of the Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, is breaking the Disciplinary Code for Public Management by serving as vice-chairman of FESA, a private function, even though he was mandated to do so by the president of the republic. On the other hand, Sonangol, a state company, is a member of the FESA general assembly, one of the main donors to the foundation and a partner in FESA's investment arm, Suninvest, in the Empreendimentos Miramar project in Luanda. [17]

This is a modern high-rise complex currently under construction next to the Alto das Cruzes cemetery, and which includes a five-star Hotel Intercontinental [18], the biggest casino in the country and three apartment towers, with the most expensive flats currently on the market. Sonangol holds 43% of the shares and Suninvest 40%, while the foreign business that is building the project, the Nankwing Rainbow Company, holds the remaining 17%. [19] This raises the question of who is paying the millions of dollars needed for the construction of the project? Where is Suninvest getting its funds from? Or is Sonangol covering all the costs and offering shares to Suninvest? This information is not in the public domain.
Although the National Assembly has removed the explicit definition of acts of corruption from the Law on Economic Crimes, and its succeeding laws, Angola remains a signatory to the SADC Protocol Against Corruption, [20] the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, [21] and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. [22] The legal mechanisms and definitions set out in these documents apply to Angola.
More seriously, there is a simple explanation for the total support that the president's actions enjoy among members of the government, MPLA parliamentarians, and the leaders of the armed forces and the police: they do as the president wishes so that they too may act with impunity.
Let us take the example of the head of Sonangol, Manuel Vicente, whose personal businesses, such as Sadissa, engage in multi-million dollar deals with the state, but who has never been punished for such illegal acts. [23]
The same can be said of Manuel Rabelais. The minister of information is the managing director of various companies, some of which provide services to the state media outlets. Apart from giving away Channel 2 of TPA (Angolan Public Television) to the president's children, Manuel Rabelais insists on breaking the law by keeping Tchizé dos Santos, the president's daughter, as one of the interim directors of TPA. [24] Tchizé dos Santos is the managing director of Semba Comunicaçao, which is responsible for producing the content of TPA's Channel 2. The law known as the Statute of the Public Manager prohibits the simultaneous holding of public and private office in the way that Tchizé dos Santos does. She has the double role of public servant and the main private supplier to TPA. What possibility does this leave for an oversight role by the state?
As members of FESA structures, ministers Manuel Rabelais, Francisca Espa­rito Santo and Mankenda Ambroise, vice-ministers Pinda Simao and Victoria de Barros Neto, as well as the ambassador to UNESCO, Sita José, and the Africa and Middle East Director in the Foreign Ministry Nelson Cosme, are committing the crime of abuse of power, according to the Law on Crimes Committed by Public Office Bearers (Lei dos Crimes Cometidos por Titulares de Cargos de Responsabilidade).
The Members of Parliament Domingos Peterson and Teresa Cohen are violating Line H of Article 16 of the Deputies' Statute (Estatuto dos Deputados), by serving on FESA's Curators' Committee. [25] Two of the longest-standing members of the MPLA's political bureau - the parliamentarians Afonso Domingos Pedro Van-Danem 'Mbinda' and Magalhaes Paiva 'Nvunda' - are also involved in the Santos Football Club.
The president in turn abuses the human resources that are put at his disposal for the fulfilment of his state duties and for his personal security by deploying them in the management of the Santos Football Club. This is the case with Manuel Paulo da Cunha and Generals Leopoldino Nascimento and José Joao Mawa.
Moreover, according to the Santos Football Club website, the club's main objectives include commercial success through 'finding the best and easiest route to acquire resources through the international known model of the "business-club"'. [26] Since José Eduardo dos Santos continues his role in FESA, and the Santos Football Clube is a FESA project, it is fair to say that the president is directly involved in private business.
INFLUENCE-PEDDLING
Furthermore, FESA represents the most blatant example of influence-peddling ever seen in the country. The FESA general assembly includes representatives of the oil multinationals British Petroleum (BP), ExxonMobil, Total and of the Block 2 associates (Braspetro, Sonangol Chevron, and the Angolan private companies Somoil, Poliedro and Kotoil), as well as the diamond giant De Beers. The construction firms that have benefited the most from state contracts - the Brazilian Odebrecht and the Portuguese Soares da Costa, Teixeira Duarte and Mota Engil - enjoy presidential favour as members of the FESA general assembly and its main donors.

The firm that is almost exclusively responsible for the overseeing of the main state construction projects, Dar, offered FESA office space while the foundation was being set up. Dar is a member of the FESA general assembly, while its proprietor, the Lebanese Ramzi Klimk, is also the chairman of the foundation's fiscal committee.

Klimk is also a shareholder in FESA's investment arm, Suninvest, and of the German multinational Siemens, in Siemens Angola. [27] The main state-owned companies, Sonangol, TAAG (Angola Airlines), the diamond company Endiama and Angola Telecom also have seats in the FESA general assembly.
According to Article 21, point 1, line B of the FESA statutes, one of the requirements for a seat in the general assembly is the donation of at least a minimum sum 'determined by the Council of Curators'. However, there is no public information as to what this minimum sum is. [28]
In terms of current legislation, [29] the monetary and material contributions by these companies to FESA can be defined as acts of corruption since they involve direct or indirect gifts to the highest state official, the president, who as head of the Council of Ministers has the power to decide on the awarding of all relevant state contracts. Until recently, FESA's President Ismael Diogo, who works with members of the general assembly on a daily basis, was also a public office holder with the position of Angolan consul general in Rio de Janeiro.
CONCLUSIONS
Over 30 years in power, José Eduardo dos Santos has never earned a democratic mandate as president. Appointed president of the republic by the MPLA in 1979, he did not win an outright majority in Angola's first and only presidential election in 1992, and the required second round of that election never took place. His current behaviour deprives him of any political or moral legitimacy to continue in office. As Manuel Jorge points out, 'there is no legitimate power without respect for the law'. [30]
Since bribery is defined as an act of corruption, citizens ought to organise themselves to explore all the legal, civic and political means to insist on an independent audit of FESA's activities, since there are plenty of indications that criminal action could be taken against the president of the republic, José Eduardo dos Santos.
Society urgently needs a debate on how to restore the legitimacy, honour and authority of the office of the president of the republic. The ongoing disrespect for the law is, in itself, a form of tyranny and the corruption of political power and of state institutions.
To take a stand against the political irresponsibility, impunity and corruption that are robbing Angolans of the prospect of a better collective future is an act that is in keeping with the constitution and with aspirations for a more moral society. Angola needs a leader who can restore morality to society and to government for the benefit of future generations.
NOTES
[1] See the author's letter about the attorney general's business activities, addressed to the president of the republic on 13 August 2009. A copy is available at http://makaangola.com/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-the-President-of-Angola.pdf
[2] Dos Santos, José Eduardo (2008) 'Devemos corrigir todas as praticas negativas que afectam a imagem do Governo', address at the opening of the 11th Extraordinary Meeting of the MPLA Central Committee.
[3] Assembleia Nacional, Resoluçao.° 38/05 de 8 de Agosto, Protocolo contra a Corrupçao da SADC.
[4] According to the SADC Protocol Against Corruption, 'Corruption ... includes bribery or any other behaviour in relation to persons entrusted with responsibilities in the public and private sectors which violates their duties as public officials, private employees, independent agents or other relationships of that kind and aimed at obtaining undue advantage of any kind for themselves or others.'
[5] Assembleia do Povo (1990) Lei n.° 21/90 de 22 de Dezembro.
[6] Comissao Permanente da Assembleia do Povo (1989) Lei n.° 10/89 de 30 de Dezembro. www.makaangola.com
[7] Conselho de Ministros, Resoluçao n°14/96 de 20 de Dezembro.
[8] Conselho de Ministros (2001) Decreto n.° 5/01 de 23 de Fevereiro.
[9] Ibid., Artigo 2°, n.° 3.
[10] See http://www.fesa.og.ao/fundacao/estatuto.htm
[11] See section II of the FESA Statures on the foundation's organs, particularly article 8, which defines the role of chairman, and article 9 which sets out the competencies of the chairman in six lines.
[12] The Supreme Court controversially ruled on 21 December 1999 that 'the President of the Republic is in a certain manner a member of the government since he presides over the formation of the government, having the power of decision in the Council of the Republic.' The Angolan lawyer Antonio Paulo disagrees with this interpretation by the Supreme Court, and argues that from a constitutional point of view, the leadership of the government falls on the prime minister. Nevertheless, the president shelters behind this ruling as a way of legitimising his absolute control over the government's decisions. He must therefore be held to account as a member of the government.
[13] See Fundaçao Eduardo dos Santos (2009) Alteraçao do Pacto Social da FESA, Diairio da Republica, III Série, n.° 77, de 27 de Abril, p 3607.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Table based on information available on the FESA website. http://www.fesa.og.ao/fundacao/orgaos.htm
[16] Ibid. http://www.fesa.og.ao/projectos/sfc.htm
[17] See Miramar Empreendimentos, Limitada (2007) Constituiçao da sociedade Miramar Empreendimentos, Limitada, Diairio da Republica, III Série, n.° 70, de 11 de Junho, pp.2169-71.
[18] See InterContinental Luanda at http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/new-hotels/luanda
[19] Ibid. p.2170
[20] Assembleia Nacional, Resoluçao.n° 38/05 de 8 de Agosto, Protocolo contra a Corrupçao da SADC.
[21] Assembleia Nacional, Resoluçao n.° 20/06 de 23 de Junho, Convençao das Naçaes Unidas contra a Corrupçao.
[22] Assembleia Nacional, Resoluçao n.° 27/06 de 14 de Agosto, Convençao da Uniao Africana sobre a Prevençao e o Combate à Corrupçao.
[23] Marques de Morais, Rafael (2009) Legal Doubts over Thales' Angola Deal, text available at http://makaangola.com/?p=44〈=en-us
[24] Gabinete do Ministro da Comunicaçao Social (2009) Despacho n.° 38/09, 28 May.
[25] According to this point of law, one may not 'use the position of member of parliament to benefit private interests, whether one's own or of a third party, in any way'.
[26] See FESA (2009) Programas e Projectos, Santos Futebol Clube de Angola: Objectivos do Clube. http://www.fesa.og.ao/projectos/sfc.htm
[27] Vide Siemens, S.A, Dia¡rio da Republica, III Série, n.° 94, de 4 de Agosto de 2006, pp. 2629-33.
[28] A public disclosure by a former member of FESA's general assembly, the then Norwegian oil company Norsk Hydro (currently StatoilHydro) revealed that it contributed with an annual sum of US$100,000 to the president's foundation. See http://www.hydro.com/upload/33521/Final%20Libya%20Investigation%20Report%202008-10-06.pdf
[29] As an illustration, the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption defines corruption, in Article 4, point 1, line B as 'the offering or granting, directly or indirectly, to a public official or any other person, of any goods of monetary value, or other benefit, such as a gift, favour, promise or advantage for himself or herself or for another person or entity, in exchange for any act or omission in the performance of his or her public functions'.
[30] Jorge, Manuel (2001) Poder e Autoridade: A Legitimidade em Questao, text sent to the Farum sobre as Mutiplas Consequências da Guerra, 14-15 March, Luanda.

The Private Present Diamond Mind of Welwitschia José dos Santos “Tchizé”

On the 5 of November 2010, José Eduardo dos Santos, authorized the Ministry of Geology, Mines and Industry to issue a concession in the region of Lunda-Norte of the Muanga Project to his daughter Welwitschia José dos Santos “Tchizé”.

On the 2 of December 2010 this concession came into law with the Presidential Decree No. 296/10

The Muanga Project was originally given issued on the 14 of July 2005 by José Eduardo dos Santos as an association between Endiama (51%), and the Society of Mining Development (Sociedade de Desenvolvimento Mineiro – SDM) (20%), Odebrecht (19%) and Di Oro (10%).

SDM is a consortium between Endiama and the Brazilian multinational Odebrecht.

Semba Comunicação (Semba Comunications)
This communications company as has partners two sons of the President of Angola which are Welwitshea known as "Tchizé", and José Paulino dos Santos. The company is spending 17 million USD between 2011 and 2012 on adverts promoting the Republic of Angola and what a great place it is do do business the international news channel CNN, the money off course is paid from public funds, and the company gets its commission, all nice and clear. The name of the advert campaign is "Angola Grow With Us".
The web page of the company was  www.semba-c.com  and  www.semba.ao
Semba Comunicação, a private Angolan company, has been receiving millions of dollars directly from the presidency of the Republic of Angola’s budget to produce commercials to improve the image of Angola abroad. However, this company, incorporated on 11 October 2006, is owned by President José Eduardo dos Santos’ children, namely Welwitchea José dos Santos ‘Tchizé’ and José Paulino dos Santos ´Coréon Du.’ They are promoting the image of their father’s regime through campaigns broadcasted on CNN International. President Dos Santos has been in power for 32 years without ever being elected by the people.
The 2012 presidential budget alone allocates almost US $17 million for Semba Comunicação to engage in a contractual agreement with CNN International for a new advertisement campaign.



José Eduardo Paulino dos Santos “Coreon Dú”

The Company, Di Oro - Sociedade de Negócios e Alta Costura Limitada, established in 2003, is owned by Tchizé dos Santos (73.34%), and her husband Hugo André Nobre Pêgo (16.66%), and the President singer son José Eduardo Paulino dos Santos “Coreon Dú” (10%).

At the time of the signing of the Muanga Mining Project, the company Di Oro –Sociedade de Negócios e Alta Costura Lda (Society of Businesses and High Fashion Limited), had a different area and scope of business, has stated in article No. 2 of the company incorporation papers, which was “high class fashion designs, administration of industrial ventures, decoration, commercialization of cosmetics, clothing for weddings, cocktails, anniversaries and receptions”.

José Eduardo Paulino dos Santos “Coreon Dú” left, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, centre with his latest wife on the right


On the 30 of September 2005, two months after the diamond mining concession was granted to both sons and the son in law of José Eduardo dos Santos they changed the name of the company to “Di Oro – Sociedade de Negócios Limitada” (Society of Businesses Limited), and the Article No. 2 of incorporation was changed to “geological studies, diamond prospection and mining, association in the participation of mining businesses, hospitality industry and confections, general commerce, import and export”.

The Brazilian Multinational Odebrecht his heavily involved in accounts of corruption directly involving the President of Angola, by giving 10% of the Social Capital of the Muanda Mining Project to the sons of the President Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, whom personally signed the contracts with the Director of the Brazilian Multinational Odebrecht Mr. António Mamieri.

The Contract of the Muanga Mining Project in Article No.25 states that Odebrecht and SDM both assume the compromise to make all investments. The only justification for the Di-Oro to receive 10% of the business is the privilege that has in gaining the signature of the President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

The Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos is in the habit of giving mining concessions to his own sons and family, on the 30 November 2005 he gave a concession for Prospect, Research and Recognition of the deposits of primary diamonds in the Cabuia Mining Project, in the region north-east of Saurimo in Lunda Sul by Decree No. 106/05 of 9 December 2005 of the Council of Ministers.

The consortium formed by the company of Tchizé dos Santos, N’Jula Investments, Miningest and Sambukila, was given 5% of the social capital in the mining project, without necessity of any financial contributions to it, either material or technical.

In the mining Project Cabuia, the company Equatorial Diamonds owned by the businessman Hélder Bataglia, assumed the entirety of the finance of the project in his own account and risk, and stayed with 44% of the total of shares.

The company Endiama, in its quality of representing the state, received 51% of the shares. The contract was celebrated for a period of 5 years by Executive Decree No. 7/06 of 30 of January 2006, of the Ministry of Geology and Mines, such contract received some changed to its original configuration, in relation to the Mining Project of Cabuia.

The consortium of Tchizé dos Santos gained a new amount of 30% for the diamonds exploration period. The company Endiama (35.5%) and the company Equatorial Diamonds (34.5%).


Media Nova  www.medianova.co.ao
Media Nova (New Media) is the  biggest editorial media in Angola they are controlled and owned by two sons of Mr. El President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, yep the same old giza, you should get the hang of the way things are run in "Angola" by now.
Media Nova owns Radio More (Rádio Mais) and the TV Channel Zimbo (TV Zimbo).

www.radiomais.co.ao
Rádio Ecclesia was the radio channel more widely listened in Angola but as from 2012 it can only broadcast in certain areas, on the contrary Radio More (Rádio Mais) can broadcast everywhere at leisure, Radio More (Rádio Mais) you guess it, it is owned by the Company Media Nova which is owned by two sons of Mr. El President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, owned byWelwitshea José dos Santos “Tchizé” and of José Paulino dos Santos “Coréon Du".


Maria Luísa Perdigão Abrantes “Milucha"
Maria Luísa Perdigão Abrantes “Milucha" is the mother of Welwitshea José dos Santos “Tchizé” and of José Paulino dos Santos “Coréon Du”.

www.anip.co.ao

Maria Luísa Perdigão Abrantes “Milucha" is also the president of the National Agency for Private Investment in Angola ANIP (Agência Nacional para o Investimento Privado).


ANA PAULA CRISTÓVÃO LEMOS DOS SANTOS
Born 17 Outubro 1963, tendo feito os seus estudos primários em escolas da capital. Cedo se sentiu atraída pela abertura ao mundo proporcionada pela navegação aérea, tendo sido assistente de bordo das Linhas Aéreas de Angola durante dez anos.

Contraiu matrimónio com José Eduardo dos Santos, no dia 17 de Maio de 1991. Do enlace matrimonial nasceram três filhos: Eduane Danilo (nascido a 29/09/1991), Joseana (nascida a 5/4/1995) e Eduardo Breno (nascido a 2/10/1998), incluindo o núcleo familiar mais cinco filhos do lado paterno, anteriores ao casamento.

Eduane Danilo Lemos Dos Santos
Eldest son of Ana Paula Cristovao Lemos dos Santos
with Jose Eduardo dos Santos

  

Front view of the Solar de Alvalade Building in Luanda

Rear view of the Solar de Alvalade Building in Luanda

Main Entrance Front view of the Solar de Alvalade Building in Luanda

July 2012

Eduane Danilo Lemos Dos Santos son of Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Ana Paula dos Santos
new purchased Penthouse Apartment on the 17 top Floor of the Solar de Alvalade Building in Lunda
valued at US$ 4,000,000 (Four Million US Dollars)

Eduane Danilo Lemos Dos Santos, um dos filhos mais novo do Presidente da República, foi recentemente brindado com um apartamento avaliado em quatro milhões de dólares norte-americanos, no edifício "Solar do Alvalade", localizado na rua Comandante Gika, adjacente a sede da OMA Nacional. O presenteado é filho mais velho do casamento com Ana Paula dos Santos.

Trata-se do apartamento mais caro do edifício por estar localizado no último andar (17 piso) com uma vista dos dois lados da cidade. Muito recentemente, e por orientação do “ofertante” que se desconhece, foi partida uma parte do imóvel para dar lugar a uma nova estrutura decorativa revestida de mármore branco.

No 7 July 2012, foi alugado uma grua para carregar as novas mobílias e material da cozinha para o apartamento. O facto foi encarado pelos vizinhos como uma demonstração "de poder", visto que todos os moradores do prédio usam elevadores e escadas para carregar os seus bens (mas nunca uma grua).

Eduane, de 21 anos de idade, se encontra neste preciso momento a estudar arquitetura na Inglaterra, será o morador mais novo daquele edifício e com o apartamento mais caro.

Vivem igualmente no referido edifício, o ministro da Administração e Território, Bornito de Sousa (que aparece de quando em vez), o chefe adjunto do SINSE, Fernando Eduardo Octavio, o ex-administrador da RNA, Eduardo Magalhães e o secretario de Estado junto a PR, Manuel Magalhães.

Em tempos, Manuel Rabelais foi-lhe recusado um pedido para colocar vidros na varada do seu apartamento no oitavo andar. A administração do edifício convocou-lhe para uma reunião onde lhe foi transmitido que não permitiam alterações porque iria tirar a estética do imóvel.

Até aqui não se sabe se o mesmo irá recorrer da decisão uma vez que o apartamento de “Danilo” dos Santos sofreu alterações, sem merecer qualquer objecção da direcção administrativa do referido edifício.

LAWYERS WHO HAVE REPRESENTED THE MPLA REGIME

Jean-Yves Le Borgne, french lawyer on the pay roll of the MPLA Regime

Reinhart Marville Torre’s lawyers
(Lawyers to Corrupt and Criminal Regimes)
"To retain our competitive edge, and mindful of our clients, lawyers and support staff, we constantly monitor and seek to control our cost base".

Jean Reinhart, lawyer to the MPLA Corrupt Regime

---

MPLA Regime No.2

General Antonio dos Santos França, aka “Ndalu”

No decision is taken without his presence. In al decisions even on those more sensitive such as High Command decisions in the Regime, the last word is his. He is revered as the strategist. He is a Regime figure such as Comrade Carlos Feijó, all call him “The Chief”. Comrade General França “Ndalu” is the father of the hawks. After the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, General Ndalu is the only person in the Regime that can order to “shut the mouth” of Comrade Vice President “Nandó” and the mouth of Comrade General “Kopelipa”.

In the inner circle of the MPLA Regime it is mentioned that the Armed Forces of Angola belong to Comrade President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, but the Generals belong to Comrade General “Ndalu”. He is the mentor of Comrade General “Kopelipa”, of Comrade General João de Matos and others. He is the leader of the hawks in the MPLA Regime. All Generals have to obey him. In 2005 De Beers Angola Prospecting appointed General Antonio Dos Santos Franca ‘Ndalu’ to the board of the company as non-executive chairman.
TELESERVICE

Monopoly security of oil fields. Its founders were the generals Joao de Matos, France Ndalu, Armando da Cruz Neto, and Antonio Luis Faceira and Hendrick.

General Antonio dos Santos França aka “Ndalu” also has Investments in Air Gemini, the Lumanhe Company (diamonds) with Escom, linked to the Group Espirito Santo.

---

MPLA Regime No.3

General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias, “Kopelipa”

The security of the Dictator Comrade President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is in his hands. He is the closest Henchmen of the Dictator and the one who has access to his home. (also only Comrade Vaz da Conceição and Comrade General Leopoldino have access).

He is Minister of State and Chief of the Military House. In Government he follows all military issues, defence, police and intelligence. All promotions in this areas have to pass through his hands first for appraisal. The Dictator Comrade President Jose Eduardo dos Santos appreciates his discrete side not getting involved with any group. He was the individual who the Dictator sent to convince the dissident Comrade Carlos Feijó to return to the presidential circle. Comrade Kopelipa is in the list of the 5 largest fortunes created by corruption of the MPLA Regime. He avoids political fights with the others in the Regime. He was the responsible of ending the carrier of the Regime Dissident General Fernando Miala.

NO PROOF OF ORIGIN: This insignificant piece of shit speaks no native language of Angola it is known he was born in Cape Verde and Island lost in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere between the African continent and South America.

BUSINESS IS GOOD IF YOU ARE A MPLA REGIME HENCHMEN

List of a few of the many companies owned by Comrade General Kopelipa

MACONRevolutionize public transport in Luanda (buses and taxis). Hélder Vieira Dias, head of the Military House of the presidency and director of the Office of National Reconstruction is a member-founder.

AutoStarOwns 40% of this company that distributes Car Parts and sales new cars like the Mercedes brand. Comrade Manuel José Van-Dúnem
another MPLA Regime Henchmen has 10% on this same company.

Activity: transport, trade.

World Wide Capital (WWC): As of April 2011 Comrade Kopelipa now owns 8,37% of the Bank BIG.

Hypermarket Kero
January 2012

Based on the Information of the Director General of the Hypermarket Kero the Brazilian Citizen João Santos, the investment interests in the Kero Hypermarket is made up from a joint of capitals from a group of Angolan Investors and the Private Bank Atlântico: “The US$35 millions are a joint of own capital and the resources made available by the partnership with the Private Bank Atlântico”.

On the 10^th of December 2011 the Minister of Commerce Idalina Valente, inaugurated the third Hypermarket of Kero in Luanda in the new location of Kilamba. This housing project is the biggest of Angola and was under the responsibility of the Cabinet of National Reconstruction which is under the Command of General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”.

Presently (January 2012) the project is managed by the State Oil Company Sonangol and it is directed by Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente.

The company proprietor of the project is Zahara, which is one of the Angolan companies that belong to the Group Aquattro International S.A. Who controls 99,96% of its capital.

This group of companies has in the last three years became the most dynamic and the leader of private development and investment in the angolan economy, it is exclusive property of three individuals: the President of the Board of Administration of Sonangol the State Oil Company Comrade Manuel Vicente;

the Minister of State and Chief of the Military House of the President of the Republic General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias “Kopelipa”; and its principal advisor General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento.

These three partners hold an equal share in the Grupo Aquattro International S.A., each one has 33,3% of the social capital in the Group.

Coronel João Manuel Inglês, Logistics Officer in the Military House, and his Brother Domingos Manuel Inglês, private assistant of the businesses of General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”, have a symbolic representation 0,5% of shares in the Group.

This company was created by three partners, Ismênio Coelho Macedo, portuguese citizen, and an administrator of the Private Bank Atlântico, the one who financed in part the Hypermarket Kero.

Sonangol State Oil Company has a quantitative participation in the Private Bank Atlântico, of 7,5%, and it is represented in the Bank by a non executive administrator appointed by Sonangol Comrade Baptista Sumbe, who is a close associate and employed by Senior Comrade Manuel Vicente.

The Hypermarket Kero, in the housing estate of Cajú, Talatona, shows Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente a member of another multimillionaire project which was financed by the State Oil Company Sonangol, the housing project was created for the accommodation of its workers, for the extended family of the President, and for the nomenclature elite of the MPLA Regime.

General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa” and Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente in the development of a housing project in the location of Kilamba, they both are the responsible for the taking of decisions in the project.

The Trio made up by Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente, Generals Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa” and Dino is also propriety of the Private Company Delta Imobiliária, by which the Angolan State has contracted to manage and oversee the sale of the houses at millionaire prices.

For the moment Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente henchman of the MPLA Regime and the Generals of the Regime are granted total impunity in front of the law has they are the “de-facto” right hand men of José Eduardo dos Santos.

Pumangol with participation of “Kopelipa” 

Pumangol, it is a new company (2011) in the Angolan market of comercialization and distribution of oil products, “downstream”, Angola,
it is a company constituted between the multinational company Puma Energy International, and the Trafigura Group and a group of Angolan investors. Among these the main partners are the Chief of the Military House Gen M H Vieira Dias “Kopelipa” and Leopoldino do Nascimento “Dino” , both very near to several titles and both having several businesses in common.

Before of the constitution of  Pumangol (the bureaucratic set up process was done in an unusual speedy and timely manner unusual in Angola, supposedly by direct influence of Angolan personalities interested),  Sonangol, through its holding, announced the intention of purchasing 20% of the participation in the Trafigura Group in the Company Puma Energy International, which mean that by the path it also has indirect interests in the new company.

Since its set up Pumangol has already opened up 15 distribution posts of gasoline in Luanda (end of 2011 early months of 2012), some of these gas stations are of big proportions.

Pumangol thus does not need to deal with the usual paper word and red tape and becomes more competitive in the “midstream”.

Pumangol does not depend of the Sonangol Refinery; it imports directly, in accordance with the plans that traces and which execution controls.

Angola officials held hidden oil stakes

Financial Times
By Tom Burgis and Cynthia O'Murchu, FT.com

16 April  2012 

(Financial Times) Three of the most powerful officials in Angola have held concealed interests in an oil venture with Cobalt International Energy, the Goldman Sachs-backed explorer whose operations in one of the world's most promising energy frontiers are under investigation by US authorities, the Financial Times has learned.

The recently departed head of the national oil company and an influential general confirmed to the FT last week that they and another general have held shares in Nazaki Oil and Gáz, the local partner in a Cobalt-led deepwater venture launched in early 2010.

Warning its shareholders that it might face liabilities under US anti-corruption laws, Houston-based Cobalt said in February that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice were investigating its Angolan operations.

The three men's previously opaque shareholdings in Cobalt's local partner could raise questions about compliance with US anti-corruption law, which makes it a crime to pay or offer anything of value to foreign officials to win business.

Manuel Vicente, who was the head of state-owned Sonangol until his appointment in January as minister of state for economic co-ordination, and General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior, known as Kopelipa, the head of the presidency's military bureau, confirmed their holdings in Nazaki in near-identical letters.

As head of Sonangol, Mr Vicente oversaw Africa's second-biggest oil industry. Asked whether they had exerted any influence over the award of Cobalt's oil rights, Mr Vicente and Gen Kopelipa denied wrongdoing. They said they had held their Nazaki interests "always respecting all Angolan legislation applicable to such activities, not having committed any crime of abuse of power and/or trafficking of influence to obtain illicit shareholder advantages".

They said their interests and those of General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento were held through Grupo Aquattro Internacional. Aquattro is named as a Nazaki shareholder in two company documents from 2007 and 2010 obtained by the FT. They said Aquattro had been "recently dissolved" but did not say whether they had disposed of their interests in Nazaki.

Gen Fragoso do Nascimento, a former head of communications in the presidency, did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Vicente and Gen Kopelipa added: "Should the continued operation of Cobalt in the Angolan petroleum sector be unviable as a result of any failure to comply with any American law, there will certainly be [Angolan] and/or foreign entities interested in substituting for it in the assets it owns in Angola." Gen Kopelipa added that "that hopefully will not happen".

Responding to FT inquiries about the three officials, Cobalt stressed that its extensive and ongoing due diligence "has not found any credible support for [the] central allegation that Angolan government officials, and specifically the officials identified . . . have any ownership in Nazaki". It would be happy to review any proof.

"Cobalt has at all times complied fully with both US and Angolan laws," it said. Nazaki, which did not respond to a request for comment, denied the allegation, Cobalt said.

Goldman, one of Cobalt's founding investors and its biggest shareholder, declined to comment, as did the SEC and DoJ. Sonangol did not respond to requests for comment.

---

Kopelipa Pitta Gros Vieira Dias
The son of General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”

 

4 November 2012 - The of son General Kopelipa bought the Portuguese Company Viauto from the Company Santogal, a Company from the Portuguese Group Espirito Santo.

Viauto represents in Portugal and Spain the Car Brands of Ferrari and Maserati in both nations markets, but the deal made with the Son of General Kopelipa only corresponds to the Company Interests and Operations in Portugal.

Kopelipa Pitta Gros Vieira Dias, has and owns several businesses in Portugal, both in the bar, club and restaurants sector and in the Real Estate sectors, with this purchase he enters the selling of luxury cars in the Portuguese market.

It is not know the origin and source of his funds nor in which way and manner the funds will arrive in this European Community Country, Portugal. The Bank of Angola in an attempt to combat the exit of capitals from Angola, forbid that any Angolan citizen transfer to the exterior no more than $ 60,000 USD per year.
 

---

MPLA Regime No.4

Manuel Domingos Vicente

Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente (son-in-law of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos) receives $6 Million USD per year from the Oil Company Exxon for Rent of a Apartment in Barrio Corimba in Luanda, Angola, the Oil Company Exxon deposits the annual rent directly into the personal account of Comrade Manuel Domingos Vicente in a Swiss Bank.

Chinese unelected Vice Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Manuel Domingos Vicente (L), chairman and chief executive officer of Sonangol, Angola's state-owned oil company, in Beijing, May 9, 2010.

Manuel Domingos Vicente 
(son-in-law of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos)

Comrade Manuel Vicente is the 39º most important man of the Portuguese Economy!!!
So how much money does he has in Portugal? Just ask the Immensely Incompetent and Corrupt Portuguese Authorities.

In the start of 2010 he was in the path to become Minister of State for Economic Coordination, he also seen the name of one of his protégées Comrade Baptista Sumbo being denied to substitute him has President of the Administration Council of Sonangol the MPLA run and control State Oil Company.
The importance that the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos has given him denotes that he has now passed into the list of natural candidates to the presidential succession. He has received much power whereby he has now be given the control of Transport, Economy and Public Works. In the last years it is to him that Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos started to ask for the names of who should and should not be promoted. Some in the unelected Regime say that he is in training for the passage of the political testament. He is placing individuals of the MPLA Run State Oil Company Sonangol into Governmental Posts.

BCP (Banco Comercial Português) this Bank is the largest investment of the MPLA Regime in the portuguese economy. Sonangol, the State Oil Company of Angola controls 11,57% of shares in this bank, which confers to the MPLA Regime the largest share holder in the bank. Recently (early 2012) dictated the rules and structure of the institution. And selected the model of administration and appointed the names to the Council of Administration. We must understand that the MPLA Regime is advised in such matters by the Cuban advisors in the same way the Cuban Regime advises and controls the Regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Manuel Domingos Vicente has accumulated one of the largest fortunes in Angola. He is also referred in the Regime structures as the financial facilitator of the New Rich inside of the MPLA Regime.

Opening ceremony of the Hypermarket Kero in Luanda

Hypermarket Kero : Partner in the Hypermarket Kero (Please read the details in MPLA Regime No.3)

Link between the MPLA Regime Dictator son-in-law and
state oil company raises questions about transparency

15th March 2010

Sonangol, the state-owned oil company of Angola, nominated the son-in-law of Angola's President dos Santos to the board of a holding company that owns a third of the listed Portuguese oil firm Galp Energia, Global Witness has learned.
Angola is an impoverished country that depends on its oil industry to pay for reconstruction after a long civil war. Angola has a reputation for severe corruption which Global Witness has been reporting on for the last decade.¹ Angola's people have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world: 46.5 years, according to the United Nations.²
Galp has major oil investments in Angola, a former colony of Portugal, and works closely with Sonangol, whose chairman Manuel Vicente sits on its board.³
A third of the shares in Galp are owned by a holding company called Amorim Energia BV. Forty-five per cent of the shares in Amorim Energia are owned by a company called Esperaza Holding BV, which is a subsidiary of Sonangol. The rest of Amorim Energia is ultimately controlled by Portugal's Amorim family.⁴
The board members of Amorim Energia include Sindika Dokolo⁵, a businessman married to Isabel dos Santos, a daughter of the Angolan president. As this briefing will show, Global Witness has learned that Dokolo was nominated to this post in April 2006 by Esperaza Holding. The latter was wholly owned by Sonangol at the time, according to Dutch corporate records.⁶
  "The son-in-law of the Angolan president, a private businessman, should not be working so closely with the state company which is responsible for managing Angola's oil on behalf of its citizens," said Diarmid O'Sullivan of Global Witness. "This arrangement raises concerns about conflicts of interest to which Sonangol has not responded."
Sonangol's minority partner in Esperaza Holding is Exem Holding AG. a secretive company based in the Swiss canton of Zug which does not publicly disclose the identities of its owners.⁷ A director of Exem Holding, a Paris-based financier called Konema Mwenenge, told Global Witness that he has a "professional" relationship with Dokolo. But Mwenenge declined to say whether Dokolo has a financial interest in Exem Holding.⁸ Dokolo himself, via his lawyer, declined to respond to questions from Global Witness.⁹ Sonangol's chairman, Manuel Vicente, did not respond to written questions.¹⁰
The fact that the Angolan president's son-in-law appears to have been representing Sonangol in its indirect investment in Galp does not amount to evidence of wrongdoing. But these findings raise further questions about the transparency of Sonangol, the state oil company which dominates the economy of Angola.
Sonangol collects billions of dollars a year in revenues on behalf of the Angolan government and controls other companies' access to Angola's oil and gas reserves, but does not publish its accounts and discloses little detailed information about its activities.
When President dos Santos called for "zero tolerance" of corruption in November 2009, a prominent member of the ruling MPLA party said Angolans should feel free to criticise the president over his family's business dealings, Reuters news agency reported.¹¹
Portuguese billionnaire Americo Ferreira de Amorim is the chairman of Amorim Energia. He told Global Witness, in a three-page response to questions about the issues raised in this briefing, that Dokolo had been appointed to the board of Amorim Energia "at the designation of Esperaza Holding".¹²
"The fact that Mr Dokolo is the husband of the daughter of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos does not seem in itself as relevant neither [sic] to qualify nor to disqualify him as a board member of Amorim Energia, and therefore was not a factor to have him appointed as a managing director of Amorim Energia," Amorim wrote in his letter to Global Witness. He added: "I can give you my personal views on the fact that the appointment of Mr Dokolo did not raise discussions concerning ethical issues."
Amorim said in his letter that the relationship between Amorim Energia and Galp was governed by a shareholder agreement that was in place before Dokolo came onto the former's board. Global Witness does not assert, or seek to imply, that companies controlled by the Amorim family have engaged in any illegal or illegitimate activity.
At the end of 2006, Sonangol's 100 per cent shareholding in Esperaza Holding had fallen to 60 per cent. The other 40 per cent was owned by a subsidiary of Exem Holding.¹³ Exem Holding, via its subsidiaries, has been granted access by Sonangol to potentially lucrative investments in Angolan oil and gas but appears to be otherwise unknown in the oil industry.
Sonangol has authorised subsidiaries of Exem Holding to:

• Acquire a 40 per cent stake in Esperaza Holding by the end of 2006, making it a partner in Sonangol's indirect investment in Galp.
• Acquire a 10 per cent stake in an Angolan gas exploration venture announced in December 2007. This venture is controlled by Sonangol. Its other shareholders include Galp, Italy's ENI and Spain's Gas Natural.¹⁴ The venture has reportedly been awarded a ten-year gas exploration licence and exempted from taxes.¹⁵
• Pre-qualify, as of late 2007, to bid for oil licences in Angola.¹⁶

Global Witness asked the Exem Holding director, Konema Mwenenge, to describe the process by which Exem Holding had acquired these investments and investment opportunities. Mwenenge replied in an email that: "I can confirm as a Director of Exem Holding that its subsidiaries did respond to tenders in Angola. Information concerning the tenders is available on the web site of the national oil company of Angola."¹⁷
Sonangol's website does report that a subsidiary of Exem Holding has been pre-qualified by Sonangol to bid for oil licences in Angola as a "non-operator" - that is, as a minority shareholder in a joint venture with other oil companies.¹⁸ However, there appears to be no information on this website about tenders in relation to Exem Holding's other interests. Global Witness wrote back and asked Mwenenge where this information could be found, but he did not respond.
Although Sonangol has a reputation for being professionally run, its opacity and its close links to the ruling elite of Angola have long been a cause of public concern. The state oil company has long been used by the government to borrow huge sums in a highly opaque manner and with little public accountability for the use of the money.¹⁹
For more than a year, Global Witness has been investigating the relationships between Sonangol and certain private companies that invest in Angola's oil sector, which are often complicated and hard to unravel because of a dearth of public information.
In August 2009, Global Witness reported on another little-known private company which was pre-qualified to bid for oil rights in Angola by Sonangol in late 2007. The shareholders of this company, Sociedade de Hidrocarbonetos de Angola, included a person called Manuel Domingos Vicente. The chairman of Sonangol, who has the same name, did not respond to a request for comment from Global Witness, nor did two other senior officials who also have the same names as shareholders in SHA.²⁰
The International Monetary Fund agreed in late 2009 to lend $1.4 billion to Angola in return for policy pledges which include more transparency for Sonangol, but it remains to be seen whether these pledges will actually be implemented.²¹
"At a time when Angola's government is promising more transparency to the IMF in return for a bailout, our findings show that Sonangol is still anything but transparent," said O'Sullivan.
Global Witness believes that Angola's government cannot begin to reverse the country's international reputation for severe corruption until:

• Sonangol explains its relationship with Dokolo and identifies the ultimate beneficial owners of Exem Holding, who are currently unknown to the public.
• Sonangol publishes its audited accounts and full details of oil revenue flows between foreign oil companies, Sonangol itself and the Angolan government.
• Sonangol relinquishes its control over the allocation of oil and mining rights in Angola to an independent agency that operates under full public oversight and awards these rights in a transparent manner.
• International oil companies in Angola commit themselves not to go into partnership with any smaller companies whose ultimate beneficial ownership is unknown to the public.
• The government ensures that civil society groups within Angola are able to freely discuss matters of public interest, including the oil sector, without fear of harrassment or censorship in any form.

For further information, please contact:Diarmid O'Sullivan: +44 207 492 5863 or +44 7872 620 955 and Amy Barry: +44 207 492 5858
Notes
1. Global Witness. A Crude Awakening. 1999; All the Presidents' Men. March 2002. Time for Transparency. March 2004. Available at www.globalwitness.org2. United Nations. Human Development Report 2009. Angola. The figures for life expectancy at birth are from 2007.
3. Galp Energia. Annual Report and Accounts 2008. Pages 6, 29 and 182
4. Amorim Energia BV. Annual accounts for 2008. Pages 3, 4 and 23.
5. Amorim Energia Annual report 2008. Page 3.
6. Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce. Handelsregisterhistorie. Esperaza Holding BV.
7. Handelsregister des Kantons Zug. Exem Holding AG.
8. Global Witness phone and email conversations with Mwenenge.
9. Correspondence between Global Witness and a lawyer acting for Dokolo.
10. Letter sent to Vicente by Global Witness on 15 September 2009.
11. Reuters. Angolan President calls on party to end corruption. 21 November 2009. Angolan President's family taint corruption fight. 3 December 2009.
12. Letter from Americo Ferreira de Amorim to Global Witness. 18 January 2010.
13. Esperaza Holding B.V. annual accounts 2006. Page 3.
14. Eni. Eni acquires a participation stake in the Angola LNG Project. 10 December 2007. This press release refers to Exem Exploration & Production B.V. This company has since been renamed Exem Oil & Gas B.V., according to annual accounts filed by the latter for 2007, and is wholly owned by Exem Energy B.V, which is wholly owned by Exem Holding AG.
15. Reuters. Angola set to exempt gas explorers from tax. March 25 2009.
16. Angolan licensing round 2007/2008. Companies pre-qualified for Non-Operator. List published by Sonangol on its website. http://www.sonangol.co.ao/17. Email to Global Witness from Mwenenge. 19 October 2009.
18. Angolan licensing round 2007/2008. Companies pre-qualified for Non-Operator. List published by Sonangol on its website. http://www.sonangol.co.ao/19. See Global Witness. Undue Diligence. How banks do business with corrupt regimes. March 2009. Chapter Eight.
20. Global Witness. Angola. Private oil firm has shareholders with same names as top government officials. Media briefing. 4 August 2009.
21. International Monetary Fund. IMF lends Angola $1.4 billion to support reserves, reforms. Press release. 26 November 2009. See also Global Witness. IMF risks condoning corruption with new loan to Angola. Press release. 5 November 2009.

---

MPLA Regime No.5

Comrade Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos aka Nando

Prime Minister of Angola between 2002 to 2008, then President of the National Assembly, then February 2010 was appointed vice-president of Angola, by private choice of Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos

In the familiar circle of Comrade Jose Eduardo dos Santos he is seen as the better person who would protect them in adverse times. He is one of the rarest figures of the Regime that in the absence of Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, would guarantee inner stability, in 1992 during the war with UNITA he was the guarantee of stability in person. He is respected because he had the merit to overthrow the Dissident General Fernando Miala who he was his mortal enemy.
In the inner hard side of the nucleus of the Regime the are scared of him, and rumours about that with him, “he it will be worse than the Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos”. People in his inner circle do not think that Jose Eduardo dos Santos is grooming him to replace him.

He hopes that one day he will be the “Constitutional Substitute” to the Presidency. He has become lately a switched of political figure, fact that disturbs him to bits. He no longer seems to be received by the Dictator. He has made know via third parties to the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos that he doesn’t enjoys his new political situation. His office is where it functioned the old Prime Minister Paulo Kassoma. The Regime wanted to transfer him to a new office near to the Presidency, in an office next to the Ceremonial Office but he refused.

He is one of the principal shareholders of the African Bank of Investments "Banco Africano de Investimentos" (BAI).

Mr Nando has also other businesses he owns a Ranch and he owns a Water Company which is managed by his sons, he also moves in the areas of real estate and construction.

---

MPLA Regime No.6

Comrade Carlos Feijó

He is part of the doves faction in the Regime. He is in practice the figure who has in fact taken in the role of running the executive administration. He is not a member of the Political Bureau of the MPLA Party but participates in the meetings in the quality of “invited” of the Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos has the Dictator makes a point in introducing him in such capacity.

The Provincial Governor and the Ministers of the Social Departments and of Economy report directly to him, this makes of Comrade Carlos Feijó a figure in a superior position than that of the Vice-President of the MPLA Communist Regime. He has become the main individual in the investment policies in Guinea-Bissau a major hub in Africa for the Narco Trafficking.
GEMA

Company created by Simon Junior, its current president is Jose Leitao, former head of the Civil House of the Presidency. Account among its shareholders with the lawyer Carlos Feijó. Activity: supermarkets, cinemas, private clinic, shareholder of Coca-Cola Angola, partnerships with South African companies and Chinese.

---

MPLA Regime No.7

Comrade Paulo Kassoma is the one on the left with the glasses.

Comrade Paulo Kassoma

He is constitutionally the third person in the State. He is referred as the person that more consensus gathers inside of the inner thought centre of the Regime He has no inner enemies at present. Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos nurtures strong admiration for him and recognizes in him a sense of humility.
In the eve of the Fraudulent Elections of 2008 where the Regime gained 80% of the votes after 37 Years in Power, and the economy, the country totally destroy by corruption and terrible management and total neglect by the unelected Communist Regime. Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos visited the region of Huambo having become “amazed” by what he had seen. At night on his return to Luanda he called him on the phone to inform him of his desire of making him his next Prime Minister of Angola. One of his best friends is the Vice-President “Nandó”. They studied together in the school of São Domingo when they where kids.
In European circles of intelligence Comrade Paulo Kassoma his seen as one of the possible substitutes for the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos to the Post of President of the Republic, but he has yet to give signs of his desire for such a post in the Regime

---

MPLA Regime No.8

General António José Maria

He is the Chief of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM). He has the power of influence next to Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos in relation to military matters. The Generals have no sympathy for him. He is the Senior Officer of the Armed Forces that has mostly shown obedience to the wimps of the Regime, and is therefore the source of his power (a perfect ass licker “general”).
In 1992 e became an enemy of Fernando “Nandó” in regards to the assassination by the MPLA Regime of Adolosi Paulo Mango Alicerces the Secretary General of UNITA, Adolosi was his colleague when studying in the Huambo Higher Seminary, and during the war took refuge in his house. He was the mentor for the promotion of the Regime Dissident General Fernando Miala. In 2006 he had serious differences with Comrade Kundy Paihama.



He has already threatened Sebastião Martins the Chief of the MPLA Regime Secret Service SINFO.
He has influenced the dismissal of the ex Chief of the Armed Forces Comrade General Francisco Furtado and also responsible for the dismissal of the ex Commander of the Second Military region Comrade General Jack Raul and his both assistants of the Military Intelligence Service SIM Comrade General Zé Grande and Comrade General João Massano.

He has also made animosity with Comrade General “Kopelipa”. In short he is a member of the Regime that imposes order in the Generals.

---

MPLA Regime No.9

Kundy Paihama

He retains much influence in the south part of Angola where the population assume that he is their man that represents them in side of power. He is the individual in which Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos seeks no fights with. When the MPLA Regime was forces by the international community to end the one party only policy he was one of the Regime personalities who people fought he would leave the MPLA party to start his own party.

Since then Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos started to pay more attention to him and to his Native Ovimbundos.

Kundy Paihama visiting reclusive Regime of North Korea

Comrade Kundy Paihama is an equal partner in the Investment Group Angola Casinos (Casinos de Angola) the Complex is calculated in US $3,5 millions Dollars. One of the equal partner of the Investment Groups is a foreigner which is hiding from prosecution and police in Europe, his where about are unknown. Comrade Kundy Paihama promised (January 2012) that he will sort things out in order to became the majority share older partner.

Comrade Kundy Paihama has a taste for expensive and luxurious watches he bought a $50,000 USD watch and made it public. Now he says in his own words "that the trick is to keep the mouth shut, he can not say and he cannot buy what he likes".

---

MPLA Regime No.10

Comrade Roberto António Victor Francisco De Almeida

Chairman of the National Assembly

Date of Birth: 05/02/1941, Place of Birth: Kaxicane, Icolo e Bengo Ethnicity: Mbundu

Career: Director General, Foreign Affairs Ministry, 1975; Minister of External Trade, 1976; Coordinator, MPLA Urban Committee, Luanda, 1978-79; Deputy President of National Assembly, 1980; Secretary, MPLA ideology sub-committee, 1982; MPLA representative for Bié Province, National Assembly, 1992; President, National Assembly, 1996 to date.

Commentary: A member of the MPLA old guard, Roberto De Almeida has built up a formidable business and political network. With good contacts in Europe, especially in Moscow, he has also developed ties with some French-speaking former activists of Holden Roberto's Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (FNLA).

He his the Vice-President of the Communist MPLA Regime party.

---

MPLA Regime No.11

Comrade – Julião Mateus Paulo aka Dino Matross

Secretary General of the MPLA Party. He has importance for having been Minister of Security, for which reason even by not being active he can be called to give advise on sensitive matters. His political power of influences remains next to the Administration of State.

---

MPLA Regime No.12

Comrade João de Almeida Martins aka “Jú”

His power is in the MPLA party. He is presently the ideological architect of the MPLA policy, and he operates like a specie of Vice-president in the shadows. From this apreciation is why they call him the little “Lucio Lara”. In party matters his vision is always taken into consideration by Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos. No decision is taken without his knowledge first.

The inner circle of the MPLA Regime acknowledge him with political wisdom. Party leaders state in informal circles that in the lack of Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Comrade Jú can maintain the Regime together. His adversaries for the post of President are “Manuel Vicente” and “Nandó”. While both of this individuals fight the succession struggle Jú Martins is laying down the foundations for the succession.

---

MPLA Regime No.13

Comrade General - Higino Carneiro

After the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos Comrade General Higino Carneiro is the Richest Henchman of the Regime of the MPLA.
In 2009 he had a small fight with “Kopelipa” concerning labour matters. He was one of the ministers that was more involved with state matters. He accompanies Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos to all his foreign trips.
In October 2010 Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos invited him to the post of Governor of Luanda, but he refused saying that he only accepts that post if he can have his own powers for the job and without any interference from central power. He has acquired illegitimately like the rest of the Members of the MPLA Regime an amazing personal fortune, and he is the political figure that more supports the MPLA Party. He is responsible for moving $200USD million dollars from INEA to the MPLA campaign in 2008.
CABUTA ORGANISATIONS"Holding set up by General Higino Carneiro, Minister of Public Works and governor of Kwanza Sul and family. Activity: agriculture, agro-industry, hotels, tourism, banking, insurance.
From the endless list of Businesses he has 12 hotels dispersed in the territory of Angola, has big haciendas (Cabuta Hacienda is one of them), he owns Banks (Bank Keve and Bank Sol), he owns an aviation company with a fleet of 14 light aircrafts called Air Services, which recently was in talks to start flights between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Luanda, etc.
Puma Air 
He was a Partner with the Brazilian citizen Gambogi de Souza, the company was based in Brazil a Puma Air.

---

MPLA Regime No.14

Comrade Aldemiro Justino de Aguiar Vaz da Conceição

He is the political figure of the MPLA that exercises political coercion over the Media in Angola. His puppet is Luis de Matos the National Director of Information. He has the job of assessing Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos in making him read all political happenings in Angola.
One of his known assess is his capacity to manipulate public opinion. He is presently in the Military House managing the Office of Psychological Action and Information. He his in charge of overseeing all of the Regime Propaganda.

---

MPLA Regime No.15

Cândido Pereira dos Santos Van-Dúnem, Minister of Defence

---

MPLA Regime No.16

Miguel Maria Nzau Puna 
a.k.a. o "Porco" e "Traidor"

Miguel Nzao Puna is also known by is nick name "Porco" (The Pig) and "Traidor" (The Traitor), it was this Pig who was at one time the Secretary General of UNITA, and Miguel Maria Nzau Puna was instrumental in the betrayal of Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi location and personal security, which lead to the massacre and assassination of Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi. A native born of Cabinda, thus the Noble and Glorious Cabinda Patriots wipe their arses with this communist, treacherous pig.

The Pig alias the Traitor Miguel Maria N`Zau Puna among other things served as the ambassador of the MPLA Regime to Canada from September 28, 2000 to 2008.

---

MPLA Regime No.17

 
Eduardo Leopoldo Severim de Morais

Minister of Finance

Finance Minister Eduardo Leopoldo Severim de Morais, who succeeded José de Morais in 2008.

---

MPLA Regime No.18
 

 
António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto

Minister of Public Administration, Employment and Social security

António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto is partner in GEMA a company created by Simon Junior, its current president is Jose Leitao, former Head of the Civil House of the Presidency. Account among its shareholders with the Lawyer Carlos Feijó and António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto, vice-president of MPLA and Minister for Employment and Social and Security.

Activity: supermarkets, cinemas, private clinic, shareholder of Coca-Cola Angola, partnerships with South African companies and Chinese.
António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto is also partner with Brazilian businessman Valdomiro Minoru Dondo in the company 2000 Empreendimentos.

---

MPLA Regime No.19

General Bento Kangamba

The name of General Bento Kangamba apears next and connected to the individuals from whom where ceased Millions of Euros by the French Authorities. General Bento Kangamba is member of the Presidential Family, he is married to Avelina Escórcio dos Santos, who is the daughter of Avelino dos Santos, the eldest brother of José Eduardo dos Santos.
He is the President of the Kabuscorp Football Club in Luanda, among other things he is the Secretary of the Provincial Committee of Luanda of the MPLA Party for the organization and mobilization in the rural and periphery areas of the capital city of Luanda.

---

MPLA Regime No.20

General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento

"The US $ 750 Million Dollar Man"

How a Swiss commodities giant used shell companies to make an
Angolan General three-quarters of a Billion Dollars richer

By Michael Weiss @ foreignpolicy.com
13 February  2014

Revolutionary communist regimes have a strange habit of transforming themselves into corrupt crony capitalist ones and Angola -- with its massive oil reserves and budding crop of billionaires -- has proved no exception. In 2010, Trafigura, the world's third-largest private oil and metals trader based in Switzerland, sold an 18.75-percent stake in one of its major energy subsidiaries to a high-ranking and influential Angolan general, Foreign Policy has discovered.

The sale, which amounted to $213 million, appears on the 2012 audit of the annual financial statements of a Singapore-registered company, which is wholly owned by General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento. Details of the sale and purchaser are also buried within a prospectus document of the sold company which was uploaded to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange within the last week. "General Dino," as he's more commonly called in Angola, purchased the 18.75 percent stake not in any minor bauble, but in a $5 billion multinational oil company called Puma Energy International. By 2011, his shares were diluted to 15 percent; but that's still quite a hefty prize: his stake in the company is today valued at around $750 million.

The sale illuminates not only a growing and little-scrutinized relationship between Trafigura, which earned nearly $1 billion in profits in 2012, and the autocratic regime of 71-year-old Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power since 1979 -- but also the role that Western enterprise continues to play in the Third World.

Despite a boom in its oil revenue over the last few decades, and dos Santos's own declared zero-tolerance campaign against corruption, Angola has yet to implement any meaningful development programs for a citizenry of 14 million, many of whom still live in poverty. "Angola is incredibly compelling from a human rights point of view partly because of the corruption and the fact that this is a government that has the resources to respond to the needs of its people and to fulfill the huge economic and social and cultural rights and yet is not doing so," said Leslie Lefkow, the deputy director for Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. Meanwhile, Trafigura has spent the last several years cultivating lucrative commercial interests in Angola and buying up shares in at least seven different companies, ranging from real estate to cargo shipping.

Unsurprisingly, it has assiduously pursued investment in Angola's oil sector, according to Marc Gueniat, the senior researcher at the Berne Declaration, a Swiss NGO that monitors corporate transparency. (The group is named for the 1968 accord signed by scholars and intellectuals calling for more equitable business practices in an increasingly globalized economy.) "I am not aware of any other country where one company has such a dominance on the oil imports as Trafigura has in Angola," Gueniat said. "It effectively has a monopoly to supply petroleum products in the country. What sense does this make from an Angolan perspective?" Gueniat has extensively documented the curious arrangement between Trafigura and the dos Santos regime, including deals that directly involve General Dino, whose actual legal ownership of former Trafigura assets was previously unsubstantiated although suspected.

In a February 2013 Berne Declaration report titled "Trafigura's Business in Angola," Gueniat found that the commodities trader, which is the third-largest company in Switzerland in terms of money brought in "seems to have committed itself to agreements in which the risk is high that the distinction between public and private interests becomes confused." Most of Trafigura's investments in Angola have been managed through a Singapore-registered company called DTS Holdings, also known as the DT Group.

The two directors of this entity are General Dino and Claude Dauphin, a French billionaire who helped found Trafigura and is today its chief executive officer. As the Berne Declaration noted: "While DTS Holdings is involved infrastructure, logistics and real estate, it is oil where the majority of its revenues are generated. The group is party to a swap contract, which may be one of the largest in the world.

They export unknown quantities of Angolan crude and in return, since 2009, have been supplying Angola with all of the oil-derivative products required to meet domestic demand." DTS Holdings's monopoly on oil-derivative products has proved remarkably lucrative. In 2011, DTS Refining -- the subsidiary responsible for controlling the company's contract with the Angolan state -- was valued at $3.3 billion. Trafigura's investments tend to involve or enlist the so-called "triumvirate" of regime officials who oversee large swaths of the Angolan economy.

Angolan Vice President Manuel Vicente, said to be dos Santos's anointed successor, as well as the former CEO of Sonangol, Angola's state oil company, is one member of this triumvirate. Another is Gen. Manuel Helder Vieira Dias Junior, also known as "General Kopelipa," who is now the chief of the Security Intelligence Bureau of the Presidency, a national security agency. Kopelipa is widely considered to be the most powerful man in the country, and the only real rival to President dos Santos's influence. That makes his deputy, the third man in the trio, extremely well placed: General Dino, formerly the head of communications for the Angolan presidency and then General Kopelipa's special advisor. He was appointed to this role in September 2010 by in a presidential decree which was heralded in Diario da Republica, the state newspaper of Angola. Whether he's still formally in this role is somewhat unclear.

Trafigura, in a statement, noted that "Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento is a leading Angolan business man and a long standing partner of Trafigura and holds no current position in the Angolan Government." But the Angolan journalist and watchdog Rafael Marques de Morais counters, "When ranking officials are dismissed or resign, the president must publish his decision in the daily gazette. Also, as a general he should have been retired from the army to be able to take a private job." Regardless of his position now, the Berne Declaration makes clear that he was indeed General Dino at the time Trafigura "befriended" him, which may account for how he managed to buy a nice chunk of one of its most valuable assets.

Here's how it happened. In 2010, a Singapore-registered company known as Cochan Pte Ltd. invested approximately $213 million in cash and in kind to purchase an 18.75 percent stake in Puma Energy International, a company acquired by Trafigura in 2000. Headquartered in Singapore and claiming to "bring secure, safe and affordable fuels, lubricants and other oil products to millions of business and retail customers every day," Puma Energy International is in the business of supplying, storing, refining, and selling petroleum-based products. It employs 6,000 people in over 30 countries, operates 1,500 gas stations, and has regional offices from Puerto Rico to Australia.

The investment in that 18.75 percent stake was made via Cochan Pte's Marshall Island-registered holding company, Cochan Holdings LLC. Cochan Pte's sole shareholder is an entity known as Cochan Ltd .-- this one registered in the Bahamas, an offshore tax haven much sought for its corporate secrecy laws. In 2011, owing to an enlargement of shares in Puma Energy International, Cochan Pte's 18.75 percent stake was diluted to 15 percent. It was not at the time disclosed, however, who the ultimate legal beneficiary was of the Bahaman parent company.

That mystery has now been solved thanks to Cochan Pte's financial statements for 2012, which were audited by global accounting firm Ernst & Young, copies of which have been obtained by Foreign Policy, and by a newly published prospectus document which corroborates the audit. The owner of the Bahaman Cochan is none other than General Dino, making him the owner of Cochan Pte (in Singapore) and now the sole owner of 15 percent interest in Puma Energy International. "Where did a general get $213 million dollars to invest?" asks Arvind Ganesan, the director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. Another question asked by anti-graft monitors contacted by Foreign Policy is how General Dino managed to enrich himself so extravagantly in such a short period of time, and through a transaction with one of the world's largest commodities trader.

Yet General Dino wasn't the only one to gobble up shares in in the oil company. In 2011, Trafigura also decided to sell another 20 percent stake of Puma Energy International to Sonangol Holdings LDA, a holding company of Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company. This transaction apparently satisfied both buyer and seller because, as the Financial Times reported last November, Trafigura sold an additional 10 percent interest in Puma Energy International to the Angolan state oil company for $500 million. That means, that as of this writing, 45 percent of a $5 billion multinational is owned by either the dos Santos regime or General Dino. But that's not all.

The Ernst & Young audit of Cochan Pte further discloses that General Dino owns 50 percent of DTS Holdings. If this company's subsidiary, DTS Refining, was valued at $3.3 billion in 2011, then General Dino's half interest in DTS Holdings is likely worth a small fortune today. Combined with his stake in Puma Energy International, he is almost certainly an on-paper billionaire, again raising the question of how he obtained the initial capital to make such remunerative investments. Foreign Policy contacted Trafigura for comment. A spokesperson for the company, Victoria Dix, emailed back confirmation of the sale as well as General Dino's ownership of Cochan.

Dix quotes from a prospectus document for the bond issued by Puma Energy International in January 2014, which does indeed name General Dino as the ultimate owner of the Bahaman entity. However, that prospectus is only available on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange website and was only uploaded on Feb. 3, 2014. There was no mention of General Dino's direct ownership of Cochan in any public press statement linking him to this much-scrutinized transaction four years ago.

The prospectus also confirms that General Dino was appointed a special advisor to Kopelipa in September 2010 but adds that he "no longer serves in such capacity." It does not say when he stepped down from his position or whether or not he currently holds any other active role in the dos Santos government. (As recently as April 2012, the Financial Times referred to General Dino as one of three of the "most powerful officials in Angola.") Nevertheless, the prospectus confirms that General Dino was an active public official in Angola when he bought his stake in Puma Energy International.

Dix declined to respond to Foreign Policy's question about whether or not Trafigura was concerned that selling a sizable stake in a multinational oil company to an Angolan official, while simultaneously investing in Angola's publicly owned energy economy, constituted a conflict of interest. Puma Energy's bond prospectus, though, does seem to address these concerns by stating: "Certain of our direct shareholders, Sonangol, Cochan and Trafigura, and certain of their beneficial shareholders, as well as local partners have in the past or are currently, and may in the future, be the subject of criticism or allegations by the press relating to fraud, corruption, bribery and non-compliance with sanctions, and have in the past or are currently, and may in the future, be subject to investigation by certain regulatory authorities and other governmental and non-governmental entities relating to such matters.

These allegations and criticism can be found in the public domain. Such allegations and criticisms do not relate to their shareholding in or relationship with us." While Trafigura has not done anything illegal in selling its assets to either the government or an Angolan individual, General Dino may have violated his own country's Law on Public Probity. Passed in June 2010, or about two months after he was named an advisor to General Kopelipa, this law criminalizes the act of a state official "acquiring for [himself] or for another, in the exercise of [his] duties, responsibilities, employment or public function, goods of any nature whose value is disproportionate to the capital gains or income of the public servant." The law also requires those officials to disclose their assets and revenue, and the sources of both, once every two years, although, according to Freedom House, the "dominant interpretation of the law is that the president, vice president, and president of the National Assembly are exempt from this requirement."

General Dino is no stranger to corruption allegations within and without Angola. He currently features in a still-pending U.S. federal investigation into the activities of an American oil company.

Along with General Kopelipa and Vice President Vincente, General Dino is a shareholder in Nazaki Oil & Gas, an Angolan enterprise that partnered with the Texas-based Cobalt International Energy, a U.S. concern whose main shareholders are Goldman Sachs and a joint energy fund controlled by the Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings, an American private equity firm. In 2009, Cobalt received licenses to operate two deepwater blocks in the Angola seabed thought to contain large reservoirs of recoverable oil.

Cobalt's original investment was $500 million in 2005, but, as the Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais points out in a comprehensive study titled, "The Angolan Presidency: The Epicentre of Corruption," this was roughly the same amount that Sonangol itself had previously invested in the Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holding's joint energy fund. In other words, he claims, the money that private U.S. enterprise was investing in Angola actually already belonged to the Angolan people.

Interestingly, in 2011, Cobalt further admitted that it'd been made aware of a "connection between senior Angolan government officials and Nazaki." But the Texan oil company chose to go ahead with the deal anyway. In November 2012, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the Justice Department launched an investigation into Cobalt International under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which outlaws U.S. citizens or companies paying bribes to foreign officials. The U.S. government's suspicions were triggered by Nazaki's links to the triumvirate of General Dino, General Kopelipa, and Vice President Vincente. The investigation remains ongoing. Cobalt, meanwhile, maintains that it did nothing wrong.

It told the Financial Times in April 2012 that it had "not found any credible support" to corroborate ties between Nazaki and these three Angolan officials. Vincente and Kopelipa also denied that their interests in the company consisted an "abuse of power." Still, the Financial Times disclosures about Cobalt's ties to General Dino and these other Angolan political figures cost the company close to $1 billion in market capitalization. * * * For its part, Trafigura's history outside of Angola has similarly merited unflattering attention -- quite a lot, in fact, for such a short corporate lifespan.

The commodities trading giant was founded in 1993 following the departure of a number of senior commodities traders -- including Eric de Turckheim and current CEO Claude Dauphin -- from Marc Rich & Co., run by the eponymous American billionaire who fled to Switzerland in 1983 to evade U.S. federal prosecutors. Rich at that time had been charged with 64 crimes including racketeering and "trading with the enemy," namely Iran. He died last June but not before being infamously pardoned by President Clinton in 2001.

Other Marc Rich & Co. traders left to found Glencore, today Switzerland's largest commodities trader, which last year merged with XStrata, a Swiss mining giant. According to a 2005 BusinessWeek article, Rich's own money may have helped to found Trafigura "to expand his empire," although he is thought to have divested at some point. A 2012 bond prospectus put out by Trafigura's finance subsidiary states that the company, which now has 81 offices operating in 54 countries, and a total of 9,000 employees, is "exclusively owned by over 750 senior employees," although their identities are not stated.

The French-born, 63-year-old CEO Claude Dauphin is widely regarded as Trafigura's single largest shareholder. A separate 2010 bond prospectus discloses that he owns "less than 20%" of the company. Trafigura was accused of violating sanctions against Iraq in 2001 when it took part in removing 500,000 barrels of oil from the country, according to the 2005 Volcker Report on the abuses and misuses of the United Nations' "oil-for-food" program. The report found that Trafigura had bought Saddam Hussein's crude from a Bermuda company known as Ibex Energy -- itself owned by a former Marc Rich & Co. trader named Jean-Paul Cayré.

Trafigura denied having any links to Ibex Energy but, in the end, its Swiss arm, Trafigura AG, was fined $20 million by the U.S. government after pleading guilty to falsifying information about the origins of the oil, which subsequently was sold on to American refineries. In October 2009, the details of confidential scientific report Trafigura had commissioned three years earlier were published by the Guardian showing that the company bore responsibility for dumping tons of toxic waste in Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast and created a public health crisis for tens of thousands of people. Effects ranged from severe burns to the skin and to the lungs; permanent ulceration; corneal damage; vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness and death.

Trafigura, the Minton Report found, had used an amateur chemical reduction process to lower the sulfur quotient in a consignment of cheaply-bought contaminated gasoline; the result led to the creation of a corrosive and poisonous black sludge that was then discarded recklessly by a ship called the Probo Koala. Following this, Amnesty International and Greenpeace launched a three-year investigation into Probo Koala incident, concluding in a lengthy report published in 2012 that Trafigura hadn't adequately safeguarded against a repeat of toxic waste dumping and calling for the company to be brought up on criminal charges in Britain.

The company's operations "are essentially run from London," as the Guardian's David Leigh wrote. Trafigura countered by alleging "significant inaccuracies and misrepresentations" in the Amnesty/Greenpeace study, although it declined to specify what these were. Trafigura had initially tried to keep its pollution of the Ivory Coast hidden from public view, despite a raft of damning internal company emails that were leaked to the press.

Leigh accused the company of engaging in a "massive cover-up" and documented the legal avenues it had pursued which included "launch[ing] a libel case against BBC Newsnight, forc[ing] an alleged correction from the Times, demand[ing] the Guardian delete articles, and ... [trying] to gag journalists in the Netherlands and Norway with legal threats." To even publish an article on the Minton Report, the Guardian had to fight a "five-week legal battle." Then, in December 2012, Trafigura again found itself mired in African controversy when Wynter Kabimba, the Zambian justice minister, was hauled before his own country's Anti-Corruption Commission to account for allegations that the Swiss trader paid Midland Energy Zambia, a company he owned, to facilitate an oil and diesel deal. Trafigura denied that it had ever made any payments to Midland Energy Zambia.

As far as African countries go, Angola is at once a bad place for conducting clean and transparent business transactions and a good place for garnering sweetheart deals with state officials inclined to ignore their own laws and look the other way. Much of Angola's $114 billion GDP has either gone missing or straight into the pockets of the ruling elite. Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Angola 153 out of 177 countries in 2013, and the U.S. State Department noted in 2012 that the Angolan "business environment remains one of the most difficult in the world.

Investors must factor in pervasive corruption, an underdeveloped financial system, poor infrastructure and extremely high on-the-ground costs." Last year, Isabel dos Santos, the president's 40-year-old daughter, was declared Africa's only female billionaire, and the continent's youngest, with a net worth of $3 billion, according to an article in Forbes.

Perhaps most famously, between 2007 and 2010, the International Monetary Fund found that $31.4 billion had disappeared somewhere along the way from Sonangol to the government's bank accounts. Even though the dos Santos regime later claimed to have accounted for 85 percent of the money in "losses," Sonangol is still seen as the "personal ATM of the government," according to Human Rights Watch's Arvind Ganesan, who has spent 15 years studying corruption in Angola. "The fundamental problem in Angola with oil money is that, as the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, there should be enough revenue to make Angola a model of development around the continent and really around the world," says Ganesan. "But that doesn't happen.

The reason is that the dos Santos government is opaque in how it uses the funds." Instead, the richer the dos Santos regime becomes on oil revenue, the more it cracks down on dissent and oppositional activity. Rafael Marques de Morais, the muckraking journalist who has anatomized the triumvirate's dodgy commercial involvements, now faces possible jail time -- for what, exactly, he's never been informed. "I've been indicted now to go to court, but after 8 months of investigations and questioning, I was never allowed to see a word on the charges against me," he told Foreign Policy. Even minor challenges to the authoritarian status quo are met punishingly.

In October 2013, for instance, 17-year-old Manual Chivonde Bapista Nito Alves, who'd been arrested a month earlier for ordering T-shirts that read, "Out Disgusting Dictator," was tossed into solitary confinement and kept for weeks without access to lawyers, family, or doctors. (Under Angolan law, juveniles may not be kept in pretrial detention, much less solitary confinement.) Nito Alves is now the first citizen to be charged under a 2010 state security law which prohibits "insulting" the Republic of Angola.

The lesser insult, apparently, is making dos Santos' cronies exorbitantly rich at the expense of the people whose lives they are meant to better. In a speech delivered before the PMLA in 2009, President Dos Santos condemned "[i]rresponsible people, people of bad faith, [who] have taken advantage ... to squander resources and to carry out illicit and even damaging and fraudulent acts of management." General Dino, it seems, has yet to be included in this category.

120531 Cochan Singapore Pte. Ltd. - Annual Report 2011

Leopoldino

---

ANGOLA: A Family run business

The Private Government of Mr. José Eduardo dos Santos and his Family

- José Eduardo dos Santos Dictator of Angola since 10 September 1979 - present

 
- José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos aka Zenu son of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos, was nominated a member of the Council of Administration of the Petroleum Fund (Fundo Petrolífero) of the State Oil Company SONANGOL by presidential order Nº 19 /2012. He is also the executive vice president of the Administration of the Bank Kwanza Investment (Banco Kwanza Investimento). He is being groomed by his father the Dictator to be a presidential candidate in the election period after 2017. As chairman of the new Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos is mandated to get the US$ 5 billion sovereign fund off the ground. Dos Santos represents a new round of leaders managing sub-Saharan Africa’s sovereign wealth. Dos Santos was a former board member of Banco Kwanza Invest, an Angolan investment bank. Son of the Dictator of Angola he was born in 1977 from Jose Eduardo dos Santos second wife Luísa Perdigão Abrantes.

- Eduardo Santos nephew of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos was nominated a member of the Council of Administration of the Petroleum Fund (Fundo Petrolífero) of the State Oil Company SONANGOL by presidential order Nº 19 /2012.

- Afonso Van-Dúnem M'Binda , Minister of External Relations 1985-1988 is the Husband of Luzia Inglês Van-Dúnem who was the leader the MPLA Ruling Party Woman's Organization until 2011 and which is now the President of the National Electoral Commission of Angola

- Cândido Pereira dos Santos Van-Dúnem , Minister of Defence is a cousin of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos, and Kopelipa Minister of State and Chief of the Military House, and José Vieira Dias Van-Dunem Minister of health.


Carlos Alberto Lopes

- Carlos Alberto Lopes Finance Minister, brother-in-law of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos.

- Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos ‘Nandó' Vice-President of Angola, from 2010 - present; Speaker of the National Assembly 2008-2010; Prime Minister 2002-2008, he is cousin of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos

- Fernando José de França Dias Van-Dúnem Prime Minister 1991-1992; 1996-1999, cousin of General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias ‘Kopelipa'

- Isabel dos Santos , daughter of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos; investor; owner of key mobile phone operator and bank, the richest woman in Angola
 

José Vieira Dias Van-Dúnem

- José Vieira Dias Van-Dúnem , cousin of General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias ‘Kopelipa' Minister of State and Chief of the Military Bureau of the President

José dos Santos da Silva Ferreira

- José dos Santos da Silva Ferreira , is the head of the super ministry which oversees Chinese contracts and projects



Luzia Inglês Van-Dúnem

- Luzia Inglês Van-Dúnem ex-Secretary General of OMA, the women's mass movement of the ruling party MPLA, and now President of the Angola National Commission, she is the wife of Afonso Van-Dúnem M'Binda who was the Minister of External Relations 1985-1988

Lionidio Ceita

- Lionidio Ceita President of the Administration Council of the State Water Company EPAL, Mr. Lionido Ceita is the Brother of Ana Paula dos Santos Wife of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos

- Manuel Domingos Vicente chairman and chief executive officer of Sonangol, Angola's state-owned oil company, he is son-in-law of the Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos

- General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias ‘Kopelipa' Minister of State and Chief of the Military Bureau of the President, cousin of Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos.

- Pedro de Castro Van Dúnem, 1942-1997 Minister of External Relations of Angola 1989-1992; Minister of Public Works and Urban Affairs 1992-1997

- Antonio dos Santos França aka “Ndalu”

casamento da filha do general Antonio França “Ndalu”, ocorrido sexta 9 March 2012 in portugal. O correio da manha, num artigo assinado por Sofia Rêgo realça que Ana Paula dos Santos, mulher do presidente de Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, deslocou-se a Portugal para assistir ao casamento de Irina França, prima da família. Na festa, que se realizou no hotel Penha Longa, em Sintra, e juntou parte da elite angolana, não faltaram luxos.
Convidados ficaram hospedados em luxuoso palácio
A noiva, cantora e filha do general Antônio dos Santos França “Ndalu” e da ex-embaixatriz de Angola nos EUA Maria João Jardim, deu o nó com Sérgio Pugliese (um dos directores da petrolífera BP em Angola), numa cerimónia que contou com cerca de 600 convidados. Irina chegou com uma hora de atraso, às 17h30, numa charrete, vestida de branco pérola e a acenar aos convidados, entre eles, a ministra da Agricultura de Portugal, Assunção Cristas (que nasceu em Angola), Sílvia Rizzo e Romana.
Segundo a media portuguesa o general “Ndalu” e a esposa Maria João Jardim são realmente grandes e poderosos anfitrões em Portugal, tudo para poder receber com carinho e muito luxo a comitiva de convidados vips de várias nacionalidades, inclusive do Brasil, de onde veio grande número de amigos para prestigiar o casamento de Irina Jardim França e Sérgio Pugliese.



A primeira-dama de Angola, Ana Paula dos Santos, veio a Portugal para assistir ao enlaceFrança “Ndalu” acomodou os hospedes do casamento da num fantástico palácio que virou hotel, o Seteais, da poderosa cadeia Tivoli, que possui os mais luxuosos hotéis pelo mundo.
O Seteais merece comentário. afinal, ele é mais que um hotel de cinco estrelas, é um luxuoso e romântico palácio que nos transporta para o requinte da arquitectura do século XVIII. Ele está localizado na encosta de uma serra, vila Património com vista para o castelo dos Mouros e o Palácio da Pena.
Para além da primeira dama angolana, Ana Paula dos Santos e o general João de Matos que foi o padrinho do noivo estiveram também como convidados figuras destacadas como o General Pedro Neto, a deputada Ângela Bragança e o seu esposo, o ministro dos assuntos parlamentares, Norberto Santos “Kwata Kanawa”, o ex- embaixador em Portugal, Rui Mingas, o ex- Ministro do Interior, General Roberto Leal “Ngongo”, o ex- SG do MPLA, João Lourenço e a sua esposa Ana Dias Lourenço. Na vertente cultural, esteve Músico Coreon Du, o rapper PM e sua noiva Telma Escorcio e o produtor Gil Inglês radicado nos Estados Unidos da America.

- General Bento Kangamba
The name of General Bento Kangamba apears next and connected to the individuals from whom where ceased Millions of Euros by the French Authorities. General Bento Kangamba is member of the Presidential Family, he is married to Avelina Escórcio dos Santos, who is the daughter of Avelino dos Santos, the eldest brother of José Eduardo dos Santos.

He is the President of the Kabuscorp Football Club in Luanda, among other things he is the Secretary of the Provincial Committee of Luanda of the MPLA Party for the organization and mobilization in the rural and periphery areas of the capital city of Luanda.

---

List of the Richest Men of the MPLA "Nomenklatura"

The New rich MPLA Regime bets in Business

I miss Angola and from Angonotícias and other sites to learn of the generals that enabled me to move quite at ease throughout the territory during the war, arrived only in areas where the mercenaries, soldiers ... and, worse, where people were attacked by the military and where assassinated without having no one to turn to. It continues to find unforgivable that the international community, because of the wealth that prey on the MPLA Angola, did not press the organisation of free elections in the country.
'Invest in Angola is now the currency of our rich' says the 'Weekly Angolense. The newspaper, which caused scandal in 2004 with the publication of the richest men listed the "nomenklatura" Angolan, again loading two weeks ago with a "portrait" of private groups that proliferate in MPLA Angola, to lift the 'boom' economic and confesses intention of the government to stimulate domestic private groups and to enter into strategic sectors such as banking, oil or diamonds.
The Director of the 'Weekly Angolense ", Graca Campos, admits that the list is not exhaustive and does not support a thorough investigation. They are the 'business' giving that talk and that illustrate the importance of political lobbying activities and' desire 'for foreign investors to form partnerships with political figures of the regime or their relatives. With the proper salute to the 'Weekly Angolense ", that is, in short, from A to Z, the portrait of private groups more' exciting 'of today in Luanda.
ARMINDO CÉSAR & SONSIn the beginning was the Maboque, company specializes in catering, hotel and "Catering. It is said that counts among its shareholders with family members of Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos and a pleiades of generals. But in the last five years the group grew and multiplied itself. Activity: the earlier, more fishing (catch and marketing), hotel and tourism, real estate, trade (hypermarket Interpark), training and services.

INTERNATIONAL BANK CREDIT (BIC)Isabel dos Santos, first born daughter of Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and Portuguese businessman Americo Amorim (25%) are the main shareholders. Created in June, has already opened 13 branches (8 in Luanda) and raised more than 165 million dollars in deposits.
COMMERCIAL BANK OF ANGOLA (BCA)  BANCO COMERCIAL DE ANGOLA (BCA)
It includes among its shareholders three former MPLA Regime prime ministers: Lopo do Nascimento, France Van-Dúnem and Marcolino Moco. Solomon Xirimbimbi (Minister of Fisheries), Augusto Thomas (former Governor of Benguela, former Minister of Finance) and businessman Jaime Freitas (COSAL, Interauto, Tecnomat) are the other members. In 2005 sold 50% of the shares to Absa Bank of South Africa, which in turn was bought by Barclays Bank, the United Kingdom.
CABUTA ORGANISATIONS"Holding set up by General Higino Carneiro, Minister of Public Works and governor of Kwanza South and family. Activity: agriculture, agro-industry, hotels, tourism, banking, insurance.
FINANGESTAmong the shareholders are listed José Pedro de Morais, Ex-Minister of Finance (December 2002 to October 2008), General Pedro Neto, chief of General Staff of the Air Force, and Kundi Paihama, Minister of Defence. Activities: games and lotteries, publishing record, transport, services, construction, "import-export 'insurance, security.
GEMACreated by Simon Junior, its current president is Jose Leitao, former head of the Civil House of the Presidency. Account among its shareholders with the lawyer Carlos Feijó and António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto, vice-president of MPLA and Minister for Employment and Social and Security. Activity: supermarkets, cinemas, private clinic, shareholder of Coca-Cola Angola, partnerships with South African companies and Chinese.
GENICompanies in the sectors of banking, oil, diamonds and construction thrive as' boom in MPLA Angola. The starting point was the creation of UNITEL (mobile telephone) in partnership with aPortugal Telecom. Founders: Isabel dos Santos, Brig Leopoldino Fragosodo Birth (Head of Communications of the Presidency), Anthony Van-Dúnem (former secretary of the Council of Ministers) and Manuel Augusto da Fonseca, the bureau's legal Sonangol. Joined them to the Franco-Brazilian businessman Pierre Falcone. Activity: telecommunications and services.
GENIUS
Created by General Joao de Matos (ex-chief of General Staff General of the FAA) and Mário Pizarro (former Governor of the BNA). The crown jewel of the group is GEVAL-Angola Joint-venture with the Brazilian Vale do Rio Doce, No. 1 worldwide for mining.
Activity: mining (diamonds, manganese, others). Projects: electricity, telecommunications. Participations: Torres of Caramel (Luanda), Fine Shopping Centre
IMPORÁFRICA-IMPORCARFaustino Muteka former Minister of Administration of Territory and current secretary of the MPLA Party for the mobilisation is the figure-of-bow of the group, which are associated with capital from Portugal to India. Activity: construction, agriculture, trade, sale of cars, real estate.



In the photo the Angolan actres Lesliana Pereira, the Brazilian Xuxa, and the Valdomiro Minoru Dondo
MACONRevolutionized the public transport in Luanda (buses and taxis). Hélder Vieira Dias, head of the Military House of the presidency and director of the Office of National Reconstruction, Brig Leopoldino Fragoso and Julio Bessa, former Minister of Finance, in partnership with the Brazilian native with Angolan citizenship Valdomiro Minoru Dondo are members-founders.
Activity: transport, trade (the Shopping Centre Kinaxixi is "stuck" for two years).

Note on the dark activities of Mr. Valdomiro Minoru Dondo
In 2010 the Brazilian Federal Police discovered his name in a dark operation with an Official of the International Airport of Rio de Janeiro which has now been dismissed.
XAVIER MELLOThere is much that Mr George Mello Xavier by MPLA in 1992 ceased to be 'the entrepreneur of the regime "but remains active, influential and irreverent.
Activity: construction, tourism, hospitality, beverage, agro-industry,
PECUSCreated by Portuguese group Tecnocarro, Jose Récio, was sold to brothers Anthony and Luis Faceira.
Activity: production and marketing of meat, which leads sector.
PRODOILAssociated to the Amec Paragon (Houston, USA). Between Angolan partners quoted Marta dos Santos, elder sister of the Comrade Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Activity: Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, services, hotels.
SAGRIPEKCapital divided between a group of partners Angolans (BAI, GCP, Banco Keve, Higino Carneiro, Mello Xavier, Faceira brothers, Isabel dos Santos), which owns 51% and a Brazilian consortium.
Activity: agriculture, livestock, agro-industrial production.
SOMOILFirst private company to enter the Angolan oil exploration. Founded by Desidério Costa, Minister of Petroleum, and Alberto de Sousa. Activity: oil and derivatives (lubricants)
SUNINVESTDirected by Ismael Diogo, Consul of Angola in Rio de Janeiro and President of the FESA (Eduardo dos Santos Foundation).
Activity: pharmaceutical industry (partnership with the Laboratory Teuto of Brazil), urban transport, waste removal (Luanda), trade.
VALENTIM AMÕESHe came to Luanda from the Central Plateau, which has a large property and controls much of the trade. He joined the Central Committee of MPLA in 2004 and among its members include the General Fernando Miala, the information services outside of the presidency.
Activity: road and air transport, hotel and tourism, 'rent-a-car' trade.
SECURITYThe security companies deserve to be treated separately, as it was by way that many MPLA generals first entered in business and acquired the capital that allowed them highest flights. They are now the hundreds, more or less sophisticated, and provide all kinds of services, from the safety of the premises personal escorts, transport of funds and installation of monitoring systems. The 'Weekly Angolense "highlighted the following:
ANGO SEGUCompany pioneer in industrial safety. Its founding the generals Fernando Miala and José Maria and Santana André Pitra (Petroff) former Minister of Interior and Commander-General of Police.
ALFA 5Created by General Joao de Matos and other generals and officers. It controls 50% of the safety of large areas of exploitation of diamonds.
TELESERVICEMonopoly security of oil fields. Its founders were the generals Joao de Matos, France Ndalu, Armando da Cruz Neto, and Antonio Luis Faceira and Hendrick. Investments in Air Gemini, the Lumanhe Company (diamonds) with Escom, linked to the Group Espirito Santo.
COPEBE
Created by Pedro Hendrick Vaal Neto (former minister of social communication), Roberto Leal Monteiro "Ngongo" and Nelson Cosme, ambassador of Angola in the Organization of Central African States.

---

Valdomiro Minoru Dondo Became rich with Businesses in Angola

Valdomiro Minoru Dondo, is a Brazilian Business man who became rich with the Socialism of the Angolan market, he did not made the miracle alone. He is the owner of a conglomerate of more than 20 companies, which the solitary client is the MPLA Regime itself, he is the partner of at least 5 local authorities, including regime leaders without portfolio, who made millionaire contracts with him.

But the relation with power goes further. In Brazil Minoru has negotiated at least 3 buildings for Angolan leaders and their families members.
His wife, Agla Dondo, is personal friend of Ana Paula dos Santos, wife of José Eduardo dos Santos, the dictator who has has hold the grip on power for the last four decades which Minoru has businesses.

Considered a myth in Angola Minoru gets annually an officially $4.5 Million USD in profits from public contracts, in Brazil he is known for the extravagant birthday parties of his wife, in one of these parties he send to make a giant cake in the shape of a Louis Vuitton hand bag.

In the businesses of Minoru, there are no limits between public and private.

Has a physical person he is partner of Pedro Sebastião Teta, vice Minister of Science and Technology of Angola, in the company Júpiter; he is partner of  brigadier Leopoldino Fragoso, Dino, in the company Supermar; he is partner of the sister of the first lady of Angola, Artemísia Cristina Cristóvão de Lemos, in the company Bob's; he is partner again of Leopoldino Fragoso, in the company Tilápia Psicultura; he is partner of Pitra Neto, Minister of Work and Social Security of Angola, in the company 2000 Empreendimentos; he is partner of the Chief of the Military House of the Presidency of Angola and Director of National Reconstruction of Angola, General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias, o Kopelipa, in the company Medicamentos e Cosméticos (Medicine & Cosmetics) he is partner of Prenda; and also, has juridical person (by Midras), of the ex-Minister of Finances José Pedro de Morais (December 2002 to October 2008), in the Company Gesa Health.


Minoru is also the 3rd largest shareholder of the BNI Bank, this Bank has in its social composition again the ex Minister of Finances José Pedro de Morais (December 2002 to October 2008), and the Ex-Chief of Armed Forces and General of the Army João de Matos and the President of the National Assembly, Paulo Kassoma, represented by his daughter, Kanda.

Há oito anos, José Pedro de Morais e o ex-governador do Banco Nacional (o Banco Central daquele país) Amadeu de Jesus Castelhano Maurício (demitido em 2009) foram favorecidos com 21 remessas do Trade Link Bank (uma offshore nas Ilhas Cayman), procedentes do Brasil, no valor total de US$ 2,7 milhões.

Pelos extratos bancários obtidos com a quebra do sigilo bancário da Trade Link nos Estados Unidos, durante as investigações sobre o valerioduto, a offshore fez 20 remessas no valor aproximado de US$ 2,6 milhões para contas de Morais entre 2003 e 2005. As remessas variaram de US$ 76 mil a US$ 360 mil. Os documentos oficiais registram que, só em 2003, a Trade fez 12 transferências para o ex-ministro, no valor de US$ 1,4 milhão. Os recursos saíram de uma conta do Trade Link, no Banco Standard, em Nova York, e seguiram até uma conta em nome de Morais no Banco Internacional de Crédito (BIC), em Lisboa, Portugal.

Nos extratos da offshore, consta também uma remessa de US$ 176 mil para Amadeu Castelhano, então a mais alta autoridade monetária de Angola, no dia 12 de março de 2002. O dinheiro saiu da conta da Trade no Standard, passou pelo Banco Africano de Investimentos e, depois do giro, voltou a uma conta em nome de Amadeu, no Citibank, em Nova York.

Minoru é próximo de ambos. De Morais, é sócio em dois negócios. Já os cartórios de registro de imóveis do Rio revelam que, em 30 de janeiro de 2004, o empresário comprou de Antônio Jacinto Castelhano (parente de Amadeu) as sobrelojas 207 e 208 do edifício situado na Avenida Presidente Vargas 590, no Centro.

Nos anos 1990, revela ainda a pesquisa nos cartórios cariocas, Minoru fez dois negócios com Sebastião Basto Lavrador, outro ex-governador do Banco Nacional: em novembro de 1997, o empresário foi procurador de Maria Fernanda Noguera Alcântara Monteiro Lavrador (mulher de Lavrador) na compra do apartamento 301 da Praça Ataualpa 86; dois anos depois, em 9 de julho de 1999, o empresário vendeu para o próprio Lavrador a sala 201 do bloco 10 da Avenida das Américas 500, na Barra, com direito a quatro vagas de garagem.

Em Angola, Minoru já foi acusado de fazer negócios com o Ministério da Saúde, a Casa Militar, o Ministério das Finanças e vários governos provinciais, supostamente transferindo os recursos para empresas suas situadas em paraísos fiscais, como Ilha da Madeira, Ilhas Cayman, Suíça e Miami. Mas as investigações ordenadas pelas autoridades locais nada constataram até hoje.

O escândalo mais recente, divulgado pelos meios de comunicação independentes, atingiu a Midras, unidade do grupo VMD (a holding de Minoru) para a área de medicamentos. Para disfarçar a grande concentração de recursos e de contratos nas mãos de uma única empresa (a Midras), Minoru teria criado mais de uma dezena de filiais para receber os recursos federais, sustentou a denúncia.

Como ocorre com as empresas de Minoru no Brasil, que recebem recursos do BNDES para atender às encomendas do governo angolano, a Midras teria captado empréstimos em bancos de várias partes do mundo, especialmente da Europa, em nome do Ministério da Saúde, para fornecimento de medicamentos para a rede pública hospitalar.

De acordo com a denúncia, o empréstimo é originalmente concedido à Neofarma, do grupo VMD, começando assim um efeito cascata destinado a disfarçar o desvio de parte do empréstimo. Na etapa seguinte, a Neofarma encomenda a compra a outra empresa de Minoru, a Nova África, que ficaria com parte do lucro. Mais empresas completam essa cadeia, até garantir que uma fatia do empréstimo se perca no caminho.

A pioneira das mais de 20 empresas de Minoru em Angola é a Macon, criada para explorar os transportes coletivos no país, até então limitados a táxis (lotada) e caminhonetes. Em reportagem sobre os investimentos do governo central em grandes "elefantes brancos", cuja utilidade é duvidosa, a "The Economist" citou que foram comprados três mil ônibus, mas o país só tinha na ocasião 1.500 motoristas.

A última manobra de Minoru teria sido a aquisição da empresa DGM, que cuida do desenvolvimento de sistemas de pagamento de benefícios para o Instituto Nacional da Segurança Social. A DGM teria sido comprada pela Angola Prev em junho. Suspeita-se que o governo esteja preparando a compra da DGM por US$ 500 milhões, muitas vezes mais do que o seu real valor: a avaliação feita por uma empresa brasileira foi desqualificada por uma instituição financeira internacional.
 

From Mr. Valdomiro Minoru Dondo website

www.valdomirodondo.net

International businessman Valdomiro Dondo applies his entrepreneurial acumen in both his professional and charitable endeavors. Under the auspices of his executive work with Brazilian firm Midras Group, L.L.C., Dondo has spent two decades fostering a powerful connection between Latin America’s largest country and the East African province of Angola. In addition to bolstering general economic and cultural transfusion between the two regions, Dondo’s firm has been instrumental in encouraging a significant Brazilian audience presence at the Miss Angola contest. His work with Midras Group also supports a strong Angolan market for Brazilian daytime television.

Valdomiro Dondo began investing in Angola when its economy opened in 1992, while the country struggled under a decades-long civil war. Rather than focusing solely on the region’s explicit business interests in the form of diamonds and oil, Dondo set out to establish critical inroads for Angolan infrastructure, including the region’s first urban transportation program. In addition to major installations in the healthcare, technology, and retail sectors of the country, Dondo helped found Angola’s stock exchange. He also instituted language programs to help Angolan businessmen communicate with their largest investors, the Chinese.

Education on several vital issues has proved an essential ingredient in Valdomiro Dondo’s ongoing mission to improve Angola’s healthcare and human services. Entrenched superstitions surrounding such issues as hygiene, medicine, and gender roles have made it difficult for human aid services to establish the type of systems needed to help equalize rights and provide care for Angolan natives. Consequently, the charitable organizations working in the region emphasize instruction and information, in addition to the provision of relevant resources. Dondo’s beneficiaries in this sector include projects supporting dental health, advanced prenatal care, and vaccinations against malaria and other infectious diseases endemic to the area.

---

Estoril Sol Residence
Luxury Complex in the sea front of the city of Estoril in Portugal

The Minister of Administração Pública, Emprego e Segurança Social, António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto, é dono de cinco apartamentos na Torre Baía, no 3.º, 5.º, 7.º, 9.º e 14.º andares, estando os primeiros quatro em nome da sua filha Katila Pitra da Costa, estudante.

Pitra Neto deverá ser o próximo presidente da Assembleia Nacional, depois das eleições de 31 de Agosto 2012, conforme cogitações emanadas da presidência de José Eduardo dos Santos.

Tanto no 9.º como no 14.º andar, o ministro Pitra Neto tem como vizinhos o casal "Kopelipa". Fátima Geovetty, a esposa do ministro de Estado e chefe da Casa Militar, general Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias - Kopelipa, adquiriu dois apartamentos.

O fiel escudeiro do general Kopelipa nos seus negócios privados, Domingos Manuel Inglês, fica a meio, no 12.º andar.

Na torre ao lado, Cascais, o principal gestor de negócios um tanto obscuros do general, o português Ismênio Coelho Macedo, desfruta da grande vista para o mar, com um apartamento no 4.º andar. Outro comprador extraordinário é o ex-ministro das Finanças, José Pedro de Morais, com quatro apartamentos, também na Torre Baía, no 1.º, 2.º, 4.º e 5.º pisos.

Por sua vez, o brasileiro Valdomiro Minoru Dondo, também portador de nacionalidade angolana, tem um apartamento no 11.º andar da Torre Estoril. Valdomiro Minoru Dondo tem cruzado negócios com o general "Kopelipa", José Pedro de Morais, Pitra Neto, a família presidencial e outros influentes membros do Regime. A sua formidável capacidade para o tráfico de influências conferiu-lhe o interessante título de estrangeiro mais rico de Angola. Por sua vez, outro brasileiro, associado a Minoru Dondo e a dirigentes angolanos, Gerson António de Sousa Nascimento é dono de um duplex, na Torre Estoril, no 6.º e 7.º andares.

O sócio e representante legal de alguns negócios de Welwitchia - Tchizé? dos Santos, Walter Virgínio Rodrigues, demonstrou que os negócios lhe têm corrido de feição e comprou um apartmento no 8.º andar da Torre Estoril.

Como celebração do contrato multimilionário realizado entre o Ministério da Comunicação Social e a empresa Westside Investments para a gestão privada do Canal 2 da Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA), a sócia maioritária, -Tchizé? dos Santos, agraciou-o com um bónus de US $500 mil, enquanto a filha do presidente atribuiu-se, a si própria, com fundos do erário público, um prémio de um milhão e meio de dólares. Outro angolano que faz parte do selecto grupo de proprietários do Estoril Sol Residence é o antigo director da Endiama, Noé Baltazar.

Apesar dos preços, os angolanos, regra geral, compram vários apartamentos, de forma ostensiva. Algumas das aquisições levantaram suspeitas junto das autoridades judiciais portuguesas que, para o efeito, abriram inquéritos. Um dos inquiridos, por suspeita de branqueamento de capitais, foi o presidente do Banco Espírito Santo Angola (BESA), Álvaro Sobrinho.

A 2 de Setembro de 2010, Álvaro Sobrinho adquiriu seis apartamentos no referido complexo, tendo, inicialmente, pago o valor de 9,5 milhões de Euros, segundo investigações do Diário de Notícias.

His brothers Sílvio and Emanuel Madaleno are also the owners of 3 more apartments in the Complex of Estoril Sol.

---

Kimberley's Illicit Process

From the Winter 2013 Issue "Faceoff: China/India"

By Khadija Sharife and John Grobler
 

ANTWERP—Somewhere between Africa’s diamond mines and the dazzling diamond bazaars of Dubai and Antwerp, a Belgian company called Omega Diamonds has constructed a financial triangular trade, where at least $3.5 billion worth of diamond profits simply vanished between 2001 and 2008. And, if Belgian investigators are to be believed, there was little anyone could do about it. Not only did Dubai authorities deliberately turn a blind eye to questionable corporate practices of tax evasion and systematic under-invoicing—“tax optimization" being the preferred term—but the Dubai Multi-Commodities Center (DMCC) leadership appears to have actively blocked investigation by other governments. Instead of being busted and black-balled from the industry, Omega Diamonds, owned by two of the largest industry players, was handed a get-out-of-jail-free card.
While Brussels would claim a major victory on march 14, 2013, after levying a fine of $195 million on Omega Diamonds—the biggest-ever imposed on a Belgian enterprise—the company and at least two of its principals would escape any other sanction. Ironically, a few days earlier, Omega’s former attorney Koen Geens was appointed as Belgium’s minister of finance, putting him in charge of tax investigators—the very office that was prosecuting his former clients.
But a year earlier, Omega’s main shareholder, Ehud “the Argentine” Laniado, sold all his property in Belgium, and according to the industry intelligence newsletter Rough & Polished, took up residence in the tax haven of monaco, beyond the reach of the Brussels tax inspectors. His partner, Sylvain Goldberg, appeared to have moved his operations to Switzerland and Israel—the former a major tax haven, the other, not exactly known for cooperating with foreign tax authorities. Both men remain members in good standing of Antwerp’s venerable Diamond Bourse, whose officials declined to comment on the Omega settlement.
Undoubtedly, Omega was able to beat the system because of its particularly complex web of illicit activities. In short, Omega’s illegal diamond trade linked countries in central Africa to Omega subsidiaries in Dubai and, ultimately, Antwerp. Employing corrupt African autocrats and money-hungry businessmen, Omega would purchase diamonds of questionable origin for little to no money in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe. They would then ship the diamonds to Dubai, where they would be given certificates of mixed origin—legal under the Kimberley Process definition—and subsequently over-value the worth of those diamonds. From Dubai, the diamonds would be sent to Antwerp, where they would be sold on the biggest diamond market for more than their actual worth. The money gained from those sales would finance the personal bank accounts of Omega and many of the corrupt characters they employed in their tri-continental scheme.
A three-month investigation into the efficiency of the international agreement designed initially to combat blood diamonds, known as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), reveals that one of the most effective tactics enabling the continued looting of Africa’s mineral resources is the practice of under-invoicing the value of diamonds through subsidiary companies, based in jurisdictions providing legal and financial secrecy, like Dubai. This maneuver alone has managed to subvert and cleanse several billion dollars worth of African diamonds of questionable origin. And although Omega agreed to pay the fine that Belgian tax investigators had imposed as part of an out-of-court settlement, it has denied all guilt.
These jurisdictions are often Kimberley Process-certified, enabling tax havens to act as transit countries for diamonds, serving the purpose of removing the origin of diamonds through certificates of mixed origin. But the root cause of the problem does not lie in the ineffectiveness of the Kimberley Process as a monitoring mechanism for actual conflict diamonds. It lies in the Kimberley Process's commendable goal of removing the stain or reputation of “conflict” from diamonds, through a process of certification. Subverting this process requires narrowly defining the concept that now frames rebels as the sole source of conflict in Africa, which still produces at least 65 percent of the world’s production of raw, uncut diamonds. So the cleansed Kimberley Process diamonds, produced in African countries that have not been subjected to violence but which may be ruled by venal autocrats, have augmented the personal wealth of these nations’ rulers. Certified as 99 percent conflict-free, they may then be used to produce vast profits for a handful of individuals and families. This mechanism is only just coming into focus thanks to a series of court proceedings in Europe.
By 2007, when the first investigations leading to these proceedings were just debuting, Dubai had become a $35 billion-a-year juggernaut that, by virtue of its lax tax laws, secrecy, and its position straddling the old world of diamonds, represented by Antwerp and the new world of Mumbai and Shanghai. Players like Goldberg and Laniado had already spotted opportunities that a tax haven and diamond hub like Dubai offered. To understand how the Kimberley Process helped Dubai grow into what Britain’s Scotland Yard believes is the world’s largest entrepot for diamond and gold smuggling, it’s only necessary to understand what the reigning Dubai Diamond Council had hoped to achieve—and the myriad of unintended consequences that resulted.
Antwerp was the world’s leading diamond trading center and home to the World Diamond Council. As early as 2000, the World Diamond Council was working to protect its position in an industry where much of the world’s diamonds passed via Amsterdam’s Pelikaanstraat at the heart of their Diamantkwartier. Getting everyone to play by the same rules was critical to protecting Antwerp as home to the 500-year-old diamond cutting and trading business, while fending off threats posed by upstarts such as Tel Aviv’s Ran Gamat and, to a lesser extent, Dubai and Mumbai.
Dubai’s rise to preeminence may be traced in a barely straight line to 1992, when the beleaguered government in Luanda, the center of barely-legal diamond mining, was facing a loss of control over most of the Angolan hinterlands to UNITA. The government, led by UNITA’s rival MPLA, hired a group of former South African soldiers who styled themselves as Executive Outcomes (EO) to, at first advise, and later assume operational command of their military campaign against UNITA. Heavy arms, gunships, and specialized tracking technology—all expensive—would be needed to bring an end to the murderous campaign of Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA. To fill that increasingly pressing need, the Luanda regime turned to a coterie of Russian-Israeli arms and diamond dealers, namely Sylvain Goldberg, Pierre Falcone, Arkadi Gaydamak, and Lev Leviev. And eventually, to Dubai. But not before the Kimberley Process sought to throw a monkey wrench into their business.
THE RIP-OFF
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) was designed in 2003 to “keep diamonds tainted with violence out of the international trade,” and was supposed to be limited to the activities of rebel groups in diamond-producing nations of Africa—largely Angola and Zimbabwe. But the $800 billion Marange diamond field in Zimbabwe, looted through a web of politicians, the army, and opaque companies, was beyond the reaches of the entire Kimberley Process. Instead of bringing to its knees the trade in Zimbabwe’s “blood diamonds,” named for the brutality and looting by President Robert Mugabe’s political and military thugs, their operations continued to be financed by these very diamonds.
Various forms of violence, from physical to economic and social, fall outside of the Kimberley definition, including acts perpetrated by those who control the state and their corporate partners. As one cable, originating at the American Embassy in Belgium and disclosed by Wikileaks, states, “Belgium very recently has begun to take steps to monitor the flow of Zimbabwe-sourced diamonds through Antwerp’s Diamond Office … but those involved in the Zimbabwean illicit trade were savvy enough to mingle diamonds with those from other countries such as the DR-Congo, and then send them to other diamond trading centers in …Dubai where they could receive legitimately-issued Kimberley certificates that indicated the source was ‘mixed,’ and then be sent on to Antwerp.”
“What can we do in the face of this?” asked Chindori Chininga, chair of the Zimbabwean Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines. “What is the value of the KP certificate if it comes from places that are also tax havens?” referring to Dubai’s ability to issue mixed origin certificates, eliminating the sources entirely. Chininga, considered a moderate Zimbabwe politician and member of the ruling ZANU party, cautioned that fingering those responsible for establishing or profiting from this corrupt system won’t work if the corruptors are never held accountable. “We must ask who the system is really working for,” said Chininga, who served as Zimbabwe’s minister of mines from 2000 to 2004. Several days after an interview with the authors, Chininga, who headed an investigation into the economic activities of diamond companies, was killed in a car accident ahead of forthcoming elections. At his funeral, some family members claimed he was murdered.
Intelligence dossiers authored by Zimbabwe’s notorious Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) would later reveal that six ZANU moderates including Chininga were “to be stopped,” and that elections were being rigged with the help of two African presidents, one of them Joseph Kabila from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Finally, according to these documents, money and diamonds were passing from African presidents and businessmen from Zimbabwe through to Dubai, Angola, and China. According to a South African Supreme Court document, including a judgment delivered in September 2011, the system works very well for companies like Omega. This document outlines how the company had effectively operated a massive transfer-pricing scheme through Dubai:

“Omega imported diamonds from Angola and Congo through an associated company in Dubai into Belgium. Omega ordered the shipment of diamonds purchased in Angola and Congo in accordance with the legally required Kimberley certificates, for delivery … in Dubai. The diamonds were packed in small parcels. Upon arrival in Dubai the small parcels were retained but repacked into larger parcels, containing diamonds from both Angola and Congo, without physically mixing the stones. Thereafter the new shipment of diamonds was provided with a new Kimberley Certificate indicating that the shipment emanated from the United Arab Emirates and marked ‘diamonds of mixed origin.’ The new shipment was issued with a new invoice … addressed to Omega wherein the value of the diamonds was increased.”

According to the seized invoices, the increase in value, from Dubai to Antwerp, was estimated at 20 percent to 31 percent. For each shipment, a new price list and a mixed origin Kimberley Process certificate were attached. Omega had systematically under-valued diamonds from Africa via their Dubai-based trading company, Tulip FZE, run by Vivian Hawkins-Green, sister-in-law to Laniado. The company then increased the value when exporting from Dubai to their Antwerp-based entities. This was done by taking advantage of the Kimberley practice of allowing non-producing diamond trading countries like the United Arab Emirates to mix diamond parcels as needed and then issue their own certificates of mixed origins, enabling Dubai to omit the real origins of diamonds—in this case, Zimbabwe, whose diamonds were initially banned from international traffic by the Kimberley Process. By becoming a member of the Kimberley Process, tax havens like Switzerland and Dubai legitimately obtain the right to obfuscate the origins of African diamonds. The entire system rests largely on the integrity of African diamond producing and exporting governments, diamond dealers, and conduit countries like the United Arab Emirates. The goal is to prevent blood diamonds, synonymous with Angola’s former rebel movement, UNITA, or Zimbabwe, from entering the international diamond trading chain.
UNDER-INVOICING
The dubious strategy of under-invoicing was used by Omega, which had exported an average of at least $1.2 billion of diamonds every year between 2001 and 2008—$10 million per month from the Democratic Republic of Congo and $100 million per month from Angola. David Renous, a former Congo-based diamond buyer for Omega, claimed that a substantial number of these diamonds were under-valued and declared neither
in Angola nor the DRC.
Renous told Belgian and American investigators that this systematic under-declaration was done with the cooperation of key Angolan elites, including longtime President José Eduardo dos Santos, and was part of an elaborate scheme to compensate at least one arms trader, Arkadi Gaydamak, for rearming José Eduardo dos Santos’s party, between 1992 and 1998, and in defiance of UN sanctions on Angola’s protagonists. The arms, all of Russian design and East European origin, were supplied in violation of UN arms sanctions. But the arms dealers and other facilitators needed to be paid. In a conflict-ridden, cash-poor country like Angola, hard currency, especially in large quantities, is quite difficult to obtain. Along came diamonds and their merchants.
Gaydamak’s payoff was to become a silent partner in Omega’s monopoly with the Angolan government. Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev, active in Angolan diamonds since 1998, would be the principal financier. The Tulip FZE, Renous claimed, “generated profits. The profits could either be reinjected into the system to grow the capital, or used as desired. [Gaydamak] laundered funds legally. Nobody knew about it.” The system, Renous told investigators, not only allowed Gaydamak to launder his arms wealth outside of Angola through diamonds—an easy-to-access hyper-mobile resource, but also allowed mass profiteering from the value of diamonds. These were sold at rock bottom prices to Gaydamak’s own subsidiaries abroad.
But the alleged money-laundering, under-invoicing, and tax avoidance in Africa, all illicitly taking place under the umbrella of Kimberley Process-certification, were not the problems investigated by the Belgian court. The fraud lay in the fact that Omega and tulip then sought to avoid taxes in Belgium. In fact, Omega never officially kept more than two percent of the profits, in a valiant effort to sidestep taxes payable on such profits. Three of Omega’s connected entities including evaluation company MDC, as well as trading companies DexDiam and MBD, would trade the diamonds—on paper— and send cash onward to various bank accounts largely based in tax havens, such as Luxembourg, Dubai, and Switzerland. Other players in the operation are alleged to have included several Dubai-based diamond merchants, since all the profits would ultimately stay in Dubai. And all the companies, Renous claimed, were under the control of Laniado. Dubai is one of the top three diamond trading hubs, rivaling such historic centers as Antwerp.
There is little doubt why the Belgian investigators closed the file on a four-year-long investigation that stretched from Antwerp to Africa and the Middle East. Tax havens like the Kimberley Process-certified Dubai ensured the paper trail would lead to multiple dead ends. Prosecutors could not prove Omega benefitted from over-invoiced sales from Dubai to Antwerp. As the U.S. Embassy cable from Brussels, released through Wikileaks, quoted an investigator stating, “It’s like our fax line was directly connected to their shredder [in Dubai]." The eerie silence from the UAE in response to official requests for information was answer enough.
DESTINATION DUBAI
Dubai is one of the top three diamond trading hubs, rivaling such historic centers as Antwerp, and the world’s leading cutting and polishing hub, Mumbai. Dubai’s Almas towers, the tallest commercial building in the Middle East, is said to house more than 1,000 diamonds dealers, as well as 300 international and regional companies. In 2003, KPCS was inaugurated in the UAE by the ministry of economy, naming the Dubai Multi Commodities Center Authority (DMCC) the sole point of entry and exit for diamonds in the country. The Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), assessing the UAE’s opacity, ranks it at 80 percent, or “the top end of the secrecy scale." All of which has made Dubai a prime global transit point for diamonds of all provenance, described by Nick Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands, as “one of the filthiest spots on the planet.” And that has nothing to do with hygiene.
“Because of the Kimberley Process certificates, the diamond dealers did not want to ship the diamonds directly from their African buying offices to the market,” says one leading Belgian government diamond investigator, who requested we withhold his name for fear of political reprisals. “The shipments were diverted to the UAE (Dubai). The certificate and invoice was then changed to a desired price and then shipped to a trading center. This way the evaluation office in the trading center received a shipment of rough diamonds with a UAE Kimberley Process certificate ‘origin: mixed or unknown,’ and with a value close to the market price. The full purchase amount, as mentioned on the invoice, is transferred and diverted to different accounts all over the world, private accounts or accounts of individuals. In the bookkeeping, all transfers are attributed to the UAE supplier. It may be clear that the UAE as a transit point was only created to produce ‘new’ documents in order to mask the origin of the diamonds and to create a possibility to divert the payments.”
In another American embassy cable released by Wikileaks, former CEO of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), Noora Jamsheer, claimed that the Kimberley Process system in Dubai was corrupted, and that she was offered commissions to turn a blind eye. In 2007, she resigned because she was “unwilling to make compromises and overlook suspicious shipments of diamonds.” According to the cable, concerning one suspicious shipment, “In September 2006,… Ahmed bin Sulayem, DDE Chief Operating Officer, authorized the release of this shipment.” The Kimberley Process certificate from Ghana was not properly authenticated at the time of its release. As the court cable continued, “Jamsheer believes that Dubai and the UAE are being very short-sighted by not stringently abiding by the KP protocols. She thinks that the desire to make Dubai a hub of the diamond trade is the motivation for a willingness to gloss over some suspicious transactions.”
SETTING UP OURSELVES
In an attempt to gauge how quickly and easily layers of secrecy could be accessed for companies intent on under-invoicing commodities, we contacted Vandort Consulting and Intuit, two leading firms facilitating DMCC company formation. We explained that our primary purpose was to engage in “tax optimization” strategies for our diamonds, meaning to under-invoice by using different price lists, and to Kimberley Process-certify our diamonds in countries other than the countries of origin. We also requested as much non-disclosure and opacity as possible— nominees, anonymity, banking secrecy, and other layers of secrecy.
In seeking to enlist their help as clients, we told them, “We deal in Zimbabwean, Angolan diamonds. We often obtain KPC in Tanzania, South Africa, and Namibia for lower reputational risks, before exporting directly to our trading center. However, our partners have informed us that tax optimization banking would be better suited for a Dubai-based entity [as recipient of our rough diamonds]. Also, that DMCC can offer us use of mixed origin certification.”
Vandort provided a price list: establishment of a new company or subsidiary ($8,200), a flexi-desk ($4,200) or serviced office ($9,600), professional fees ($4,000), visas ($2,100), bank account ($1,500). There were no rules as to who would occupy the office. the entire process would take four to six weeks to establish. The companies could not operate in the UAE real economy, save through locals. Renewal of the trade license requires financials of the DMCC entity, not the parent company.
We explained how worried we were that artificially reducing our profits, avoiding taxes, or using different lists would result in external penetration of our company’s activities. The most accommodating consultant at Vandort suggested, "If you are worried about privacy of your economic activities for tax optimization purposes, you could…incorporate an off-shore company in, for instance, the British Virgin islands (BVI) which can hold the shares in the DMCC company. The costs to incorporate a BVI company are $2,500 including our costs.” The company informed us that DMCC would require all corporate papers, including beneficial owners, but that there had not yet been any government inquiries. Intuit suggested a more proximate tactic for the additional secrecy layer, using the Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) free zone in Dubai, which allows anonymity of ownership and the ability to protect assets legally from claims by others. It would take just a week to incorporate.
ROOTED IN ARMS TRADE
To understand the full implications for the Kimberley Process’s credibility and the industry’s claim to be its own best policeman, only one key fact is essential. The persons who’ve benefitted most from contributing to UNITA’s destructive 10-year campaign to seize power by way of a diamond-funded war were the very ones who allegedly benefit most from the Omega deal.
UNITA and its late leader Jonas Savimbi, along with former Liberian President Charles Taylor, were among the main reasons KPCS was implemented in the first place—to cut off their movements from financial oxygen.
To place this in its full historical perspective: twenty years ago, UNITA founder Jonas Savimbi angrily rejected his narrow loss to incumbent Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos in UN-supervised elections, re-igniting one of Africa’s most brutal civil wars. In a country blessed or cursed, depending on your perspective—with some of the richest alluvial diamond deposits in the world, buyers from Antwerp were enlisted as financiers of the war.
In 1994, in an effort to deprive Savimbi of his source of cash for weapons, the UN slapped sanctions on all diamond dealings with the rebel leader. Faced with a major crisis of legitimacy and a threatened worldwide boycott of the diamond trade, the world’s largest diamond producer, De Beers, and the South African government initiated the Kimberley Process. Its chief aim was to sever all rebel movements from the formal diamond trade. Between 2001 and 2003, more than 50 countries and over 90 diamond traders formally signed up for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme—including the government of Dubai, then just a tiny player with little more than $5 million in annual turn-over.
By 1997, the luanda regime found itself trapped. though their military campaign had pushed UNITA out of every major Angolan town, the government’s ability to pay for their mercenaries and expensive military hardware was increasingly constricted. Documents brought to light by the “Falcongate” investigation in Paris implicated the late french President François Mitterrand’s son Jean-Christophe and a clique of top African officials in gun-running and money-laundering. Through this probe, it emerged that Gaydamak—vying with goldberg and leviev for control of Angola’s prolific diamond production—hit on a method that not only circumvented un arms sanctions, but also contributed greatly to undermining the very foundations of the Kimberley Process.
The meteoric rise of Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s president, to the position of Africa’s first woman billionaire can be traced to this system. First floated by Gaydamak in the mid-1990s, her goal was to create a diamond-buying monopoly, much like De Beers’ scheme in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. Her company, TAIS, was set up in 1997 and incorporated in Switzerland for the sole purpose of diamond trading. Two years later, as mercenaries helped the Angolan armed forces establish control of Angola’s prolific Lunda Norte diamond fields, President José Eduardo dos Santos decreed that henceforth only ASCorp Ltd—an Omega subsidiary based in Angola—would be permitted to buy and export Angolan diamonds. Total control, with zero accountability, coupled with an official monopoly produces its own set of opportunities—as events in Angola would so clearly illustrate.
By early 2004, these partners took full advantage of the higher legal hurdle set by the newly-created Kimberley Process by dropping the price they would pay officially for Angolan rough diamonds to below $200 a carat, thereby fattening the margin they in turn would make when selling to Antwerp and Tel Aviv. In 2007, the World Bank criticized the practice “based on concerns about special and privileged treatments.” In effect, the Luanda regime actively promoted a scheme that would rob their own country of several billion dollars of revenue lost to Omega—the intermediary that made it all happen.
Omega’s diamond-laundering scheme, a daisy-chain of briefcase companies registered in tax havens, all controlled by either Goldberg or Laniado’s clan, would launder money through blind investment trusts in jurisdictions ranging from Luxembourg to Cyprus. But Omega is just one company in this sordid tale. There are thousands of such companies working the murky world of Africa’s diamond fields. Actual losses to African countries from widespread under-invoicing and other form of illicit activities, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), could be as high as $200 billion each year.
For their part, since 2011, Omega and the Angolan regime, notably President José Eduardo dos Santos, his military, and corporate allies, circumvented potential obstacles by operating out of another tax haven. In Geneva, they were able to continue business-as-usual through acquisition of shares in companies like De Grisogono, founded by the king of black diamonds, Fawaz Gruosi—publicly uninvolved in prior ASCorp dealings.
REBOOTING KIMBERLEY
Not all governments are equal. The difference between diamond-producing countries and non-producing tax havens is vast. The latter provide the legal and financial-secrecy infrastructure enabling illicit activities, while the former struggle to generate revenue for citizens’ needs. But efforts to interdict the trade in rebel-produced diamonds fail to take into account the role of diamond-producing governments. Whether authoritarian, undemocratic, or corrupted, they may be far more pernicious than rebel movements. For unlike rebel groups, these regimes are legitimately accepted as global players—exploiting national resources in the name of citizens, but abusing or diverting national wealth for the profit of their rulers or criminal elements with ties to the leadership.
Alas, most of these activities still take place in a technically legal way within the bounds of the Kimberley Process, using the process to provide a veneer of legality to deeply criminal undertakings. Designed to shut out the violent activities of one specific group—rebel organizations, as a means of protecting revenues of the world’s largest diamond players—it has become a process that merely lubricates this spiral of illicit operations.
Instead, the geography needs to be broadened to include other forms of violence and violations—including economic violence from under-invoicing and tax avoidance; and political and civil rights violence, when harsh authoritarian or one-party state regimes are financed through revenues, facilitating directly and indirectly, cultural, social, and collective violence.
The Kimberley Process definition has enabled a 99 percent clean diamond industry to exist largely because the real violence of the industry is whitewashed, ignored, or excluded entirely from the framework—the criminal portion of which continues to exist entirely on the periphery. In the end, if the Kimberley definition remains limited to rebels, rather than the far broader array of often unsavory players who have forced their way into the industry, violating the letter and spirit of the system, there may be no fundamental way to save the diamond industry. The Kimberley Process as it is currently defined is a system that produces the wrong kind of results.
It would be difficult, if not politically impossible, to reform the Kimberley Process in its current form, particularly as it took the better part of two years to originally negotiate with all the diamond industry players. Still, a few tweaks could help curb the illicit off shore-based trade. The definition of conflict diamonds must be broadened to include economic and political conflicts—rather than simply violent conflicts—underwritten by illicit profits. No country that does not actually produce diamonds should be allowed to issue Kimberley Process certificates, and producing countries governed by authoritarian regimes, or dominated by big corporate players, who refuse to disclose pricing policies to investigating authorities should be suspended from the process. Better policing of the diamond police themselves—the key demand of clean diamond campaigners like Global Witness and Fatal Transactions, which unmet, led to their withdrawal from the negotiations process— appears to be the single most important aspect that could be quickly addressed. Finally, tax havens—including Dubai, Luxembourg, and Switzerland—should be barred from playing any role whatsoever in the diamond pipeline, save as end consumer destinations of diamonds themselves.
To accomplish these changes, of course, would take another injection of good faith from all the original signatories of the Kimberley Process—which, given the abuses and the loopholes that have clearly emerged, should be attainable. And while the stakes are high, if these revisions are not quickly implemented, the Process itself will soon become little more than another failed and empty gesture.
Comments
Tulip FZE’s Vivien Hawkins, sister-in-law to Laniado, responded to repeated interview requests stating, “We choose not to be interviewed and accordingly do not want to comment on subjudice matters and reserve our rights to invoke appropriate legal remedies against any public comments on subjudice matters.” Since then, court actions have terminated and a settlement has been reached. Still, Omega Diamonds, including Serge Majer (M.D.C) and Aslan Piha (Margaux) and its listed auditors, WF & Co, failed to respond to repeated interview requests.

Deutsche Bank Luxembourg responded, “Please be informed that banks in Luxembourg are bound by a duty of professional secrecy pursuant to the law dated 5 April 1993 on the financial sector. Based on this duty of professional secrecy, please [accept our] apologies that we are not entitled to answer your request and provide you with any information.”
Neither Angola’s Ministry of Finance, nor Angola’s state diamond companies including endiama and Sodiam, replied to multiple interview requests.

Representatives of the Kimberley Process, based in the DRC, also failed to respond at the time of print. Lev Leviev responded with threats of a lawsuit seeking “substantial damages” for unspecified issues. Attempts to contact Arkadi Gaydamak were unsuccessful. Jamsheer declined to be interviewed.

In Dubai, the Kimberley Process office and its listed head Mariam al-Hashemi were contacted. But the request was forwarded to the DMCC’s public relations office. Jade Mamarbachi, director of the public relations consultants Brunswick group, responded only by inquiring about the nature of the story, including “who else [we] were interviewing.”
Following several email exchanges, interview requests with the DMCC were denied. We replied “Dubai is both a major diamond trading hub and a tax haven,” central to the illicit activity. Mamarbarchi stated in a subsequent e-mail, “I understand, and they know that. I have gone through it with them. This is their stance.”

---

Corruption MPLA Soviet style Regime is a pervasive phenomenon

Corruption in the MPLA soviet style Regime in Angola is a pervasive phenomenon, hindering economic growth and government-sponsored liberalization programs.

1970s and 1980s
The Soviet press, despite the close relationship between Angola and the USSR, accused the ruling MPLA party of clientelism, corruption, and nepotism, accusing the government of illicitly accumulation US$1 billion. Ogonek said that "corruption has flourished on a scale which is unprecedented even in Africa... the ruling party in Angola... being pro-communist by nature, was ready to sacrifice everything and everybody." [1] 1990s
In April 1999 Gustavo Costa, a journalist for Expresso, wrote an article entitled Corruption Makes Victims, accusing José Leita-o, the chief presidential advisor, of embezzling government revenue. Police arrested Costa and charged him with defamation and injury. The Angolan Supreme Court found him guilty, sentencing him to eight-months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined him $2,000.[2] Rafael Marques, a journalist and human rights activist, wrote "The Lipstick of Dictatorship," an article criticizing corruption in the Angolan government and President José Eduardo dos Santos, on July 3.

The National Criminal Investigation Division (DNIC) questioned him on October 13 for several hours before releasing him. Later that day Morais gave an interview with Radio Ecclésia and repeated his criticism of the dos Santos government. Twenty armed members of the Rapid Intervention Police arrested him along with Aguiar dos Santos, the publisher of Agora, and Antonio José Freitas, Agora staff reporter, on charges of defamation on October 16, 1999. Marques said dos Santos bore responsibility for the "destruction of the country... for the promotion of incompetence, embezzlement and corruption as political and social values."[3][4]
In May 1999 the World Bank threatened to cut off aid to Angola if the government did not take serious steps to counter corruption, beginning with an audit of the petroleum and diamonds industries, Angola's primary sources of income.[5] 2000s
In 2002 the International Monetary Fund found the Angolan MPLA Regime could not account for more than US$900 million in 2006 due to "extensive corruption". Bestos de Almeida, spokesman for the Angolan Finance Ministry, denied any financial inconsistency existed. [6] Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2003 found the governments of Angola and Zimbabwe the most corrupt in Southern Africa. On a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 the most corrupt and 10 the most transparent, TI rated Angola 1.8 and Zimbabwe 2.3, some of the highest corruption ratings in the world.
[7]

In 2004, Human Rights Watch found the government could not account for US$4 billion spent between 1997 and 2002.[8] Transparency International ranked Angola 142 out of 163 countries in the Corruption Perception Index just after Venezuela and before the Republic of the Congo with a 2.2 rating.[9] The The Heritage Foundation gave a 47.1% "free" rating in its Index of Economic Freedom in 2008. [10]
Negocios are corrupt business deals in Angola. [11] References
1990's to Present
Since 1961 Angola has been at war. First against the Portuguese colonial administration, then since 1975 against the unelected communist dictatorship. When the 50,000 Cuban mercenaries left Angola by 1991, Angola enjoyed over a year of rare peace. Until the UN supervised elections of September 1992. The widespread MPLA fraud surrounding that shameful excuse of an election was followed by the worst outbreak of massacres committed by the MPLA troops ever seen in Angola. In just 3 days MPLA mobs murdered over 10,000 Bakongo and Ovimbundu Natives. The war exploded again with a ferocity never before seen in the region. More people died in the 2 years following "the election" than in the previous 30 years of war which it was meant to end!
Instead of punishing the Marxist MPLA soviet style regime for the electoral fraud and cold-blooded massacres of their opponents, Western governments inexplicably imposed total economic sanctions on the victims - those who supported UNITA. This blockade has prevented even food aid and medicines from being delivered to the millions of people living in Free Angola. So while Western governments continued to sell weapons of mass destruction (including napalm fuel-air bombs) to the MPLA Marxists aparatus in Luanda, they enforced severe sanctions against humanitarian aid reaching the victims of these attacks.
Elections?
Observers already point to several deficiencies in the election campaigns, such as intimidation of the opposition, tight control over the media, MPLA's use of oil and diamond resources to buy off political supporters, etc.
The state remains heavily centralised in the office of the presidency, who in several instances has overruled government ministries. Dos Santos governs through an extensive patronage network of friends, MPLA allies and relatives, popularly known as the Futungo. Members of this patronage network , have been provided with attractive positions in the political administration of Angola. This ruling elite enjoys virtually unchecked access to state funds and is widely accused of depriving Angolans of benefits from the lucrative oil deals.

The resource-rich patronage system has resulted in extreme inequalities in Angola, with the United Nations estimating that 70% of the population live on less than US$ 1 a day. This has raised concerns over Angola's long-term stability. Economic reforms have been limited and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concerns that economic growth derives solely from high oil prices and not from sectors outside the oil industry.

Public spending is generally high, but low in social sectors (far below its regional neighbours), making public spending highly unsustainable. Each year, large amounts of oil revenues disappear from the state budget through clandestine channels to the ruling elite, and international observers have estimated that more than US$ 1 billion in oil revenues is lost annually.
Public services
Public services in Angola are highly inefficient and sometimes non-existent at sub-provincial levels, which are completely dependent on transfers from the central government. Public servants generally compensate for their low salaries by demanding bribes in return for public services, thus spreading corruption to virtually all sectors and levels of society. This pattern is aggravated by the fact that the 18 provincial governments are ruled by powerful provincial MPLA governors loyal to the president.

These individuals administer their provinces as small kingdoms with little interest in broad social and economic development. The ineffective and corruption-plagued public services, especially at the local level, coupled with the non-responsiveness of the Angolan government, has resulted in a loss of political legitimacy for the government, leading several observers to question the sustainability of the fragile democratic process in Angola.

References

1. ^ Light, Margot (1993). Troubled Friendships: Moscow's Third World Ventures, 77. 
2. ^ James, W. Martin (2004). Historical Dictionary of Angola, 41. 
3. ^ Marques gets six months for defaming president (HTML). Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
4. ^ Views of the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Eighty-third session, Communication No. 1128/2002 (HTML). Open Society Institute via United Nations Human Rights Committee. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
5. ^ Vines, Alex (1999). Angola Unravels: The Rise and Fall of the Lusaka Peace Process. Human Rights Watch, 93. 
6. ^ Justin Pearce (2002). IMF: Angola's 'missing millions' (HTML). BBC News. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
7. ^ ZIMBABWE: Corruption increasing, Transparency International (HTML). IRIN Africa (2003). Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
8. ^ Angola: New OPEC Member Should Tackle Corruption Not Critics (HTML). Human Rights Watch (2006). Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
9. ^ J. Graf Lambsdorff (2006). Corruption Perceptions Index 2006 (HTML). Transparency International. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
10. ^ Index of Economic Freedom (HTML). The Heritage Foundation (2008). Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
11. ^ James, W. Martin (2004). Historical Dictionary of Angola, 112. 

---

DE BEERS A DIAMOND IS FOR EVER

And so it is  the MPLA Regime in Angola

In 2010 a further eight kimberlites were added to the De Beers Angolan portfolio bringing the total number to 158 discoveries in the past five years. The Lunda NE concession has yielded the most prospective portfolio at both an early and advanced stage of exploration, with 114 kimberlite discoveries. In 2010 the work programme focused on the deposit assessment phase which was successfully completed on the Mulepe-1 deposit of three adjacent pipes with a combined size of around 20 hectares. 100 carats of diamonds were recovered from these pipes for revenue determination purposes, and Mulepe-1 has now moved to the desktop phase which should be completed in Q2, 2011.

The way and manner in which the MPLA Regime exploits the Lunda State
The following is a list of Diamond Mining sites in the Lunda Region

 

CATOCA DIAMOND MINING SITE
The Catoca Mine is the world’s 4th largest kimberlite and is currently being operated by SMC (Sociedade Miniera de Catoca), which is in turn owned by Endiama (32.8%), Russia's Alrosa (32.8%), Brazil’s Odebrecht Mining (16.4%) and the Diamond Finance CY BV Group (18%). The mine produced just over 2.6 Mct in 2001. The kimberlite yields quality diamonds, of which 35% is gem quality, fetching prices of around $75 - $100/carat. Reserves are estimated at 60 million carats. SMC intends increasing production to as much as 5 Mct per year.

This mine site is used by the MPLA Regime to pay its debt to Russia and China, there is strong presence of Israeli firms and personnel at this site also specially in the provision of technology equipment and staff.

LUÓ DIAMOND MINING SITEDiamondWorks, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Branch Energy, has numerous interests in Angola, including alluvial and kimberlite operations. DiamondWorks operated the Luo and Yetwene kimberlite mines. The Camatchia and Camagico diamondiferous kimberlite pipes are also located within DiamondWorks’ license areas. The Luo mine began production in 1997 and has produced almost 200 000ct, with diamonds fetching between $120 and 350/carat. The largest diamond recovered to date has been a 232.6 carat stone. The Yetwene mine began production in June 1998. Exploration activities on this property have been suspended due to the security situation.

DiamondWorks have alluvial concessions in and around the kimberlite operations, including the Luarica property (North of Luo) and the Alto Kwanza property in the Bie province of central Angola. The Alto Kwanza concession is Diamondworks’ largest, with an area of 18 000km2.

In this mine is from where the MPLA Regime operates his financial centre, and provides military and security logistic to beat, intimidate and assassinate the Lunda Tchokwe Native Population.

CAMAFUCA DIAMOND MINING SITESouthern Era is currently investigating the Camafuca - Camazambo kimberlite pipe in the Calonda area of the Lunde Norte province. Camafuca is estimated to be the world’s largest undeveloped diamondiferous pipe with a surface area of 160 hectares. The pipe is approximately 3.3 kilometres in length and 500 metres in width, and lies 40 kilometres north of the Luo concession on the Chicapa River. Camufuca was the first kimberlite pipe to be discovered in Angola. Recent sampling of the Camafuca pipe yielded just over 1000 carats from a bulk sample of 3 500 m3treated. This represents a significant increase from previous historical estimates. Grades ranged from $126 - $140/carat, with 32% of the diamonds being greater than 1 carat in size and 21% greater than 2 carats.

A feasibility study to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the project is essentially complete and was presented to the Camafuca partners in April, 2000. Plans are to develop the higher grade portions of the pipe first - an exercise that is estimated to cost $14 million. The partners have accepted the feasability study and now plan to move ahead with the development of Phase 1 that intends developing the southeastern part of the kimberlite that contains 6.1 million cubic metres of material at an average grade of 0.18 carats per cubic metre. Mining of Camafuca has been complicated by a major river that dissects the kimberlite - initial mining will utilise dredging methods.

Ownership of the project is outlined as follows: SouthernEra Angola LDA 32%, followed by Endiama 20%, SML 15% and the Welox Limited 33%. Welox Ltd is part of the Leviev Group of companies . In mid 2002, the Angolan Government formally approved the operating agreement and formation of the operating company, to be called Sociedade Mineira do Angola, Lda (SMC). 

This mine is the biggest diamond site in the Lunda State it is situated in the locality of Calonda, which provides direct income and revenue to the fortune of the Jose Eduardo dos Santos family. The MPLA Regime never speaks of it in “government” , it is never mentioned, and there exists a total obscurity on the matter.

CAMITONGO SASWAHA DIAMOND MINING SITE
This mine is managed directly by the manager of the Catoca Project, the income of this mine goes to the Regime MPLA elite and cronies, among them people from Sao Tome, Cabo Verde, Guine and Portugal.

PROJECTO LUANGUE DIAMOND MINING SITE
This mine is under the direct control of the MPLA leaders, and its revenue is shared by the top brass of the MPLA Regime, specially the ones committed to the Regime 100%, the Regimes hard liners.

CUANGO ALUVIAL DIAMOND MINING SITE
This mining site is the crown of the Generals of the Armed Forces of the MPLA Regime. In this mining site it is practised slavery acts found in the XVI century world, it is also where anyone and anything is and can be killed no questions asked nor any enquiries will ever exist, people are constantly going missing and disappear in this mining site.

ALTO CHICAPA DIAMOND MINING SITE
This mining site was given to the criolos (individuals) that helped the MPLA Regime gain power in its struggle and war against the Portuguese, it is also know as the centre of enrichment of the dominant families in Angola.

BAIXA DO MINUNGO DIAMOND MINING SITE
The Dictator José Eduardo dos Santos, gave the exploration of this mining site to his wife, Ana Paula dos Santos.

LUNGUENA DIAMOND MINING SITE
This mining site is located in the River Lueji a tribute river of the larger River Luangue, this is the site which was given to the MPLA Regime elite in particular the top brass of the SINFO, SIE and the secret services under the Control of the MPLA Regime. This site was set up as the revenue and reward for the loyalty and special services given to the MPLA Regime.

CAZOMBO COPER AND ALUMINIUM MINES
The Regime top brass who have been given the rights to exploit this sites are
General João de Matos and General Led senior officers in the MPLA Armed Forces.

MPLA Generals Colonizing the Lunda, steal their wealth
further evidence of corruption at the epicentre of the MPLA regime Dictator

August 6, 2010

The corrupt general Kopelipa is also formally represented in the diamond industry, as a shareholder of Lumanhe. On February 13, 2004, a group of six generals had to give, equally, shares in mining company Lumanhe in favour of the current minister of state and head of the Military House of the President. This transfer occurred at a moment of frank rising power of General Kopelipa and its increasing control over the Armed Forces (FAA) and the generals now have seven each from 14:28% of the capital.

The corrupt Generals Armando da Cruz Neto, General Hendrick Vaal Carlos da Silva and General Adrian Mackenzie Makevela remain active at official functions, respectively, as governor of Benguela, the Inspector General Staff of FAA, and head of the Directorate of Primary Education and Preparation of the State Troops General Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA). The other three generals dedicate themselves exclusively to the business and are the former chief of General Staff of FAA, Chief of Staff and Chief of Army Commands, including Joao de Matos, and the brothers Luis and Antonio Coquette.

Five days after the entry of General Kopelipa corrupt in society, February 18, 2004, Hendrick Vaal General Carlos da Silva, signed as a representative of Lumanhe an agreement with Endiama and ITM Mining for the establishment of the Mining Society Chitotolo. The state, through Endiama, transferred, in this way, 15% of the share capital of the generals Chitotolo. The Lumanhe also owns 21% of the Cuango Mining Society (SMC), in partnership with Endiama (41%) and ITM Mining (38%).

The SMC is responsible for systematic violations of human rights in the village of Cafunfo in Cuango basin, where it has a large mining concession. Killings, torture, destruction of mines, and arbitrary police actions are part of the routine of the Mining Society Cuango against the villagers and miners. SMC enjoys the impunity of the generals who profit from the deal. A new report on human rights in the region is expected shortly.

A European government is also involved with the shady dealings of corrupt generals. This is the Portuguese government. In June 30, 2009, the consortium ITM Mining / Lumanhe terminated their contract operations in Calonda Mining Society, where he maintained a 50% stake, while the Mining Society of Lucapa, which holds the concession for diamond mining, guaranteed the other half actions. The Parpública SGPS, a holding company owned 100% by the Portuguese State, controls 81.13% stake in Sociedade Portuguesa de Empreendimentos (SPE), which in turn holds 49% stake in Sociedade Mineira do Lucapa. To the Angolan state has in the Endiama company the majority of the shares.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos a man that had only 2 shirts and a pair of suits. Has it is well remembered in the memory of those who meet and lived with him. Now he has his photo in all bank notes and Identification Cards of each Angolan.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos a man that had only 2 shirts and a pair of suits. Has it is well remembered in the memory of those who meet and lived with him. Now he has his photo in all bank notes and Identification Cards of each Angolan.

37 Million US Dollars in Mr. Jose Eduardo dos Santos bank account

The Bank "Banque Internationale du Luxemburg", in a document signed by its directors A. Roelants, J. Rieter and J. Bodoni declare that the beneficiary and owner of the Panamanian registered Company “Camparal Inc.” with the bank account numbers: 275748 and 275903 belongs to Mr José Eduardo dos Santos of Luanda, Angola. Furthermore, the French police confirms that COMPARAL of José Eduardo dos Santos represented in Paris by Mr Elísio de Figueiredo. And in the bank account of COMPARAL (of Mr Eduardo dos Santos) the balance is USD$ 37,112,567.46

The company TUTORAL (registered in the name of Elísio de Figueiredo) has USD$ 7,331,199.53

Mr. Pierre Joseph Falcone owner of the Bank Accounts 01-88-126279-03 and Acc.45885 of the Bank Leumi Le-Israel Geveva, Acc CO-325794 of the Bank UBS Geneva and of the Bank account 1.038.915 of the Bank Ferrier Lullin & Cie in Geneva has deposited USD $59,954,664.00

This moneys came out from the State Company SONANGOL of its Account CO-101457 Escrow Agreement 3.06.97 of the Bank UBS Geneva, where it was deposited USD$ 774,193,545.00 and distributed in several accounts.

---

Rigged: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, Gas and Minerals

8 February 2012

The intensifying competition for commercial access to the world’s remaining deposits of oil, gas and minerals brings with it a serious risk of exacerbating corruption and violent conflict. Our new report shows that in Angola and Nigeria there is a risk that complex deals struck between governments and corporations for access to natural resources could be used corruptly to benefit vested interests in these countries, rather than the citizens. The report also points to major concerns over opaque sales of mining assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo to offshore companies.

Our research reveals two major problems in the government allocation of oil contracts:

Governments are not making clear the grounds for why a particular company is given a contract. In certain cases, they appear to allow certain companies special or preferential access to oil licences, leading to doubts about the integrity of the process.
Governments are awarding the licences to companies whose beneficial owners remain undisclosed. In certain cases, there are grounds for suspicion that some of the companies may be owned or controlled by government or their private sector proxies.

If citizens do not know why particular companies have been awarded natural resource licenses, it can lead to suspicions of wrongdoing, especially in countries like Nigeria, Angola and the DRC with track records of natural resource related corruption. Transparency is crucial for citizen’s ability to trust that there has been no conflict of interest and to ensure that Angola, Nigeria and the DRC use their natural resource revenues for development and poverty reduction.

Read the full report: Rigged: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, Gas and Minerals
 

---

Bribery, Money Laundry and CorruptionCriminal state of affairs, and wide spread Endemic Corruption MPLA Regime
 Daylight theft and pillage of the state assets

This Report was elaborated in 2010

This report focuses among other in the commercial activities of of the Minister of State and Chief of the Military House of the Presidency of the Republic of Angola, General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”.   It is to this individual is the responsibility of the regime sectors of defence and security of state of Angola. With this individual the Chief of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic, General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento “Dino”, and the president of the Administration Board and Director-General of the State Oil Company Sonangol, Manuel Vicente, form the so called triumvirate, which today completely dominates the political economy of Angola, without any distinction between public and private funds   Manuel Vicente joins also the accumulated powers of the Generals and those of the State Oil Sonangol, the fact that he is one of the most influential members of the Political Bureau of the MPLA party, has the protégé of the President of the Republic and the responsible for the fiscal inspection of the private businesses of the MPLA Party.   The State Oil Company Sonangol is the biggest company of Angola, and the largest contributing to the coffers of the State, several analysts have considered Sonangol as the principal instrument of maintaining the Corrupt Regime of José Eduardo dos Santos in the domains of the financial, political and diplomatic circles internationally, like wise is the single source of illicit enrichment of the leaders of the MPLA Regime.   In certain cases, they show solidarity with other junior members in the administration who are accomplices in allowing the theft of public money, by showing gratitude and sharing in the heist, these are normally members of the executive, and public senior officials who where involved and assisted in the theft, pillage of the public funds.   Strategic sectors such as the Oil sector, telecommunications, baking, social communication, diamonds, all make part of the empire build by this regime figures.   The companies which relate to what we have just mentioned above are: Movicel, Biocom, Banco Espírito Santo Angola, Nazaki Oil & Gás, Media Nova, World Wide Capital and Lumanhe.  Movicel At present (2010) there are only two mobile phone service operators in angola one is Unitel and the other is Movicel.   Unitel Operates since 2001, it is a result from the association by equal shares of (25%), between Sonangol, through its subsidiary  MSTelcom (ex-Mercury), and Portugal Telecom, GENI and Vidatel. Movicel was created by the government in 2003, as a subsidiary of the state company Angola-Telecom.   Through the Resolution N.° 67/09 of 26 August 2009, the Council of Ministers decreed the meditate privatization and without public tender the privatization of the company Movicel, they allocated the company to a consortium of angolan companies  by the value of 200 millions de dollars.   For such effect, the MPLA Regime, invoked the difficulty on the mobilization of other investors for the privatization of the companies.   The MPLA Regime also argued of the urgency in generation funds to the coffers of government in "face of world financial crisis"; That decision, according to the government resolution, had into account the identification on the "structure of the national investment partners, that secures the financial resources vitals to the immediate application  of the investment plans of Movicel and the financial backup awaited by the national treasury".   Mean wile 59% of the capital of the company Movicel was transferred to two companies linked to high ranking officers under the State Minister and Chief of the Military House, General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”, the company Portmill and the company Modus Comunicare, as we will describe. On the 10 of June 2009, General Kopelipa, and General Dino and Manuel Vicente, formally separated from the company Portmill Investments and Telecommunications from which they where both proprietors, with control of  99,96% of the company shares equally divided between themselves. They gave their shares by the intermediary of a portuguese citizen called Ismênio Coelho Macedo, to a group of high ranking officials of the Unit of the Presidential Guard (UGP), as per the grid shown under. In the case of the company Portmill, the Lieutenant-Coronel Leonardo Lidinikeni, official of the Presidential Escort has 99,96% of the shares of the company. In the company Modus Comunicare, the Lieutenant-Coronel Tadeu Agostinho dos Santos Hikatala, responsible for the presidential escort, is the share holder of 99,92% of the shares of the company. The United of Presidential Guard (UGP) is subordinated to the Military House (Casa Militar).   The private administrator of the Businesses' of General Kopelipa, Mr. Ismênio Coelho Macedo, made the operation of purchase, selling and restructuration of a small company of communications, publicity and marketing called Modus Comunicare – Comunicação e Imagem Lda., which had already had expression in the market, and placed in its ownership list high ranking officials of the Presidential Palace.   The company was transformed into an anonymous society, dedicated to telecommunications on the 14 August 2009.   That date indicates that the process of recognition of such transaction, its transformation into an anonymous society and alteration of its business scope, only was concluded two weeks after the government of President José Eduardo dos Santos, atributed 19% of the shares of the company Movicel to this new company.   On the 29 July 2009, the Council of Ministers approved  the privatization of 80% of the capital of the company Movicel in favour of the angolan companies Portmill Investimentos and Telecomunicações (40%), Modus Comunicare (19%), Ipang – Indústria de Papel e Derivados (10%), Lambda (6%) and Novatel (5%).   By its turn the state companies Angola Telecom and the Empresa Nacional de Correios e Telégrafos de Angola have the following shares 18% and 2% of the social capital of the company Movicel.   We now present the list of beneficiary share holders on the companies:   Portmill, Investments and Telecommunications (40%) Partner Function Lieutenant-Coronel Leonardo Lidinikeni Official of Presidential Escort Francisco Ndeufeta Unit of Presidential Guard Manuel dos Santos Rodrigues Cardoso              Nelson Paulo António                     Lieutenant-Coronel Francisco Mbava Psychological Action, Military House Modus Comunicare - Telecomunicações (19%) Partner Function Lieutenant-Coronel Tadeu Agostinho dos Santos Hikatala Official of Presidential Escort João Ricardo Belarmino Unit of Presidential Guard Lieutenant-Coronel João José António Soares Advisor to the Chief of the Presidential Unit Guard, General Alfredo Tyaunda José Kakonda                José Luís Alves                         Ipang - Indústria de Papel e Derivados, Limitada (10%)   Share holders N'datembu - Comércio Geral, Importação e Exportação Lda. Ipang is the only beneficiary company that presents in its formal share holders structure businessmen. N’datembu has among its share holders Mr. Miguel Domingos Martins and sons, the lawyer Ildeberto Manuel Teixeira and the Portuguese José Mamade Etbal. Another name associated to the Ipang company is the Spanish businessman Óscar Ouersagasti Soraluce.   The capitalization of Movicel is the only company activity publicly known Ipang.   Lambda (6%) Partner Function José Carvalho da Rocha Minister Telecommunications and Technologies of Information Aristides Safeca Vice-Minister das Telecommunications and Technologies of  Information Zulmira Mitange da Rocha Wife of the Minister José Carvalho da Rocha Arminda Vireya Safeca de Sá Family relative of the Vice-Minister Aristides Safeca Antónia Dias dos Santos Caxinda                                      As national director of Telecommunications Mr Aristides Cardoso Frederico Safeca, integrated the Commission for the Negotiations of Movicel, in accordance with the government edict No. 67/07 issued by the ex-Ministry of Finances Mr José Pedro de Morais (December 2002 to October 2008), dated of 19 January 2007.   That commission was headed by the then economic assessor of the President José Eduardo dos Santos, Archer Mangueira.   Since 2 October 2006, Aristides Safeca has the functions of President of the Administration Council and Director of the Belgian Company Parisa, S.A.   The same Aristides Safeca, in association with his Brothers Alcides Safeca, Secretary of State for Budget (Secretario de Estado do Orçamento - Ministry of Finances) and Amílcar Safeca, Director of UNITEL, are majority partners in the company Trans Omnia, in which the associate themselves with General Fernando Vasquez Araújo, Chief of the Main Department of Armament and Technical of the Army General Staff of the FAA. The companyTrans Omnia has been privileged in multimillion contracts to the supply of food to the Angolan Armed Forces FAA.   Aristides Safeca accumulates the public functions with private sector functions, which is a norm in the MPLA Regime The Vice-Minister for Telecommunications is also the President of the Administration Board of the foreign Company Parisa (Based in Belgium), making multiple business with the Angolan State for self enrichment and of those family members and associates.     Novatel (5%) Partner Function Hélder Bruno da Gama Bento                Paula Sammer Pinto Jorge           Aurélio Vimbuando Muelecumbi          Onezandro Catinhe Mauro Santos Piedade              Marília da Conceição dos Santos Kissuá     The  attribution of a quota to Novatel, in the privatization of Movicel constitutes another proof of public funds being diverted in determent of the State.   Novatel was created on the 29 April 2009, after the presentation of the recommendations of the Commission for the Negotiation of Movicel and 3 months before the formal announcement of the beneficiary companies by the Council of Ministers.

---

 

Fábrica em Benguela avaliada em 294 milhões de dólares Segunda maior cimenteira quer liderar mercado interno

A Heidelberg, o segundo maior grupo cimenteiro mundial, arranca com a construção da fábrica em Benguela durante o ano de 2013. A empresa vai se associar com a Tecnimóvel (Angola), Grupo Galileu (Portugal) e com a Caixa Social das Forças Armadas Angolanas para criar a SLN – Fábrica de Cimento e Clinker de Benguela.

O capital da nova fábrica está distribuído em 55% com os alemães da Heidelberg, 34% com a Tecnimóvel, 11% com o Grupo Galileu e 10% com a Caixa Social das FAA.
O contrato de investimento foi assinado, em Dezembro de 2009, ainda por Aguinaldo Jaime (que liderava a Agência Nacional de Investimento Privado – ANIP) mas só agora as condições estão criadas para o avanço definitivo do projecto. Mais: o Novo Jornal sabe
que uma alta figura do grupo Heidelberg aterra, dia 8, na Catumbela (província de Benguela), para liderar os acertos finais.

O investimento está avaliado em 294 milhões de US dólares. A parte angolana entra com cerca de 25 milhões de US dólares de capitais próprios e 71 milhões de dólares em maquinaria e equipamentos e outros bens fixos e corpóreos. Do exterior virão cerca de 26 milhões de US dólares e outros 169 milhões USD para importação de máquinas e equipamentos. O financiamento da fábrica foi estabelecido em
moldes semelhantes.

O projecto arranca com capitais próprios de 59 milhões de dólares, sendo que 49% pertencem aos investidores angolanos (25 milhões de dólares). Os restantes 51%, ou 30 milhões US dólares, pertencerão ao investidor externo. Os capitais alheios, avaliados em 235 milhões de US dólares, serão negociados junto da banca. 30% no mercado financeiro nacional e os restantes 70% no mercado internacional.

As autoridades nacionais, no acordo de investimento (que o Novo Jornal consultou em parte), comprometemse a conceder uma área de mil metros quadrados para o projecto, a investir nas ligações ferroviárias da região de Benguela para facilitar a ligação ao Porto do Lobito e a fornecer água e energia para garantir a operação.

Também serão concedidas as isenções fiscais estabelecidas na lei Nº 17/03 de 25 de Julho, para além de estarem garantidas as questões burocráticas envolvidas em processos deste género.

No acordo de investimento ficaram também garantidas as questões ambientais, mediante a apresentação de um estudo de impacto de ambiental, como prevê a lei. Esta é, com certeza, uma das questões mais sensíveis do investimento. A província de Benguela está inserida numa região com forte apetência turística e num ecosistema relativamente frágil – com zonas de habitação e reprodução de
animais e alguma apreensão pelo suposto avanço do deserto do Namibe.

A recente estiagem deixou em sobressalto a região sul de Angola.

---

MPLA has now the control of the private media in Angola

21 February 2012

Protests demanding reform and led by the youth and reported on national media challenged the despotic dictator José Eduardo dos Santos, who completed 32 years in absolute power.
Source: Committee for the protection of Journalists (Comitê de proteção de Jornalistas)
The Parliament, dominated by the MPLA party of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, analyzed legislation to "combat crimes" in the domain of technologies of information and social communication. The Law Project, since last year (2011), intends to harden the sentences for defamation and to criminalize the electronic diffusion of  "recordings, images and videos" from anybody without the express consent of those in such recordings, images or videos.
In declarations to the Nations Radio Station, the Communist Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos, em clara alusão a jornalistas cidadãos, atacou o uso da Internet para organizar "manifestações não autorizadas com o intuito de insultar, denegrir, provocar tumulto e confusão". (Um usuário do YouTube, kimangakialo, postou mais de 150 vídeos de protestos).

In the same speech made in April 2011, Jose Eduardo dos Santos afirmou que os jornalistas gozavam de total liberdade para criticar sua liderança. Porém, pesquisas do CPJ indicam que as forças de segurança agrediram, prenderam e obstruíram o trabalho de jornalistas independentes que cobriam protestos e eventos oficiais. Personalidades e funcionários públicos usaram as forças de segurança e os tribunais para acertar as contas com os repórteres que investigavam denúncias de abuso de poder, corrupção ou má conduta.

Two journalists, Armando José Chicoca and William Tonet, where condemned to prison, due to their critical coverage of the MPLA Regime; both appealed to their sentences and where released on the end of 2011.

José Manuel Gimbi enfrentou intimidação por parte das forças de segurança enquanto realizava reportagens do enclave militarizado e rico em petróleo de Cabinda. Ataques ao serviço de navegação (DoS), targeting sites hosted in the exterior such as the popular Angolan Independent news sites Club-K and Angola24horas, where taken from the internet in October 2011, closed down by the MPLA Regime.
Principal Happenings
Law of "crimes" on the internet, restricts news and of social network sites.

Incarceration or treat of incarceration,  and aggression to journalists to make them to refrain or be afraid in reporting in cases of corruption, involving members of the MPLA Regime.
Important data
Attacks and Persecution of Journalists in Angola 2012 by the MPLA Regime Security Apparatus

7 of March 2012 On the 7 of March 2012 the Journalist Francisco Mukkuta also known as "Coque" from the "Radio Station Despertar" was followed by elements of the MPLA Security Apparatus on a 4X4 Land Cruiser, of grey colour and without any number plaque which is issued by Frescangol, after conducting and interview on the Radio at 18:30 with two young Human Rights activist Mário Domingos and Kimbanba who have been earlier kidnapped and beating by the MPLA Security Forces apparatus in the vicinity of the Water Tank of the shanty town Cazenga, Luanda then taken to the area of the Sanitary Installations bordering the Cazenga, Cacuanco and Viana areas.

The Land Cruiser followed the Journalist from the door of the Radio Station to the car park next to his house.

Hand written message on a pamphlet with death treat to the Journalist Francisco Mukkuta also known as "Coque" from the "Radio Station Despertar". The message in hand writing reads:
 "Koke is better if you move neighbourhood, take care thief.
  Koke you are not afraid, better look out"

The note was delivered on the 21 March 2012 to the Journalist Francisco Mukkuta
25 Attacks on journalists in 2011 by the MPLA Regime Security Apparatus
In 2011 it saw an increase of attacks to journalists in Angola perpetrated by the MPLA Regime. Several cases of physical aggression, censorship, arrests and treats have severely increased in 2011 in comparison to 2010. Many of the Journalists involved, who where targeted where those journalists who covered the many youth protests against the MPLA Regime following the inspiration of the Arab Spring protests in north Africa in 2011.
List of attacks to Journalist in Angola by the MPLA Regime per year and the amount of fatal or attacked journalists.
2007 - 4
2008 - 4
2009 - 7
2010 - 7
2011 - 25
2 Two the number of independent Angolan Newspapers
With the exception of only two independent private newspapers the rest of the newspapers in Angola are in the hands of MPLA Party Officials, Civil Servants or are under the control of shareholder ownership by companies aligned with the MPLA Regime, including family members of the MPLA Regime ruling elite.
2 List of the two independent Angolan Newspapers
Agora
Folha 8

Note:
Folha 8 a weekly newsletter had its offices raided by the MPLA Regime Security Forces on the 12 March 2012, all the Computers where removed and taken form Folha 8 offices.
It is to be known that the Editor of Folha 8 publicly revealed a few months ago that he had written documents on the state of Foreign Bank accounts in the Name of the Dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Is this a way for the MPLA Regime find out what those documents are and who made them available?

Luanda, Angola, 10 March 2012

All photos where taken on the 10 March 2012, the anniversary of the first Demonstration of 7 march 2011 in Luanda.
Those in the picture are among others the secretary of the Democratic Bloc Political Party and Civil Activists, on of them is a well known rapper.


7 Seven is the number of the Angolan Newspapers controlled by the MPLA Regime:
O País
Expansão
Exame
Angolense
A Capital
Semanário Angolense
Novo Jornal

8 years of prison
In the law of Internet in Angola, it is proposed a severe punishment "to those without consent, supply, transmit, facilitate, distribute recordings, films and photos of other peoples by means of a system of information".

At present the MPLA Regime as passed 4 Laws that criminalize news gathering activities.
Restrictive Laws:
1886 The Legal Law inherited from colonial era, determines 6 months of imprisonment for defamation of public officers.  
2002 A Lei do Segredo de Estado impõe uma pena de dois anos de prisão por posse de documentos oficiais considerados ‘sensíveis’. 2006 A Lei de Imprensa permite que tribunais suspendam meios de comunicação por um ano.
2010 A Lei de Crimes Contra a Segurança do Estado estabelece uma pena de dois anos de prisão por "insultos através de palavras, imagens, textos ou áudio" contra o presidente ou instituições oficiais.
2 the number of independent radio stations in Angola
Apart from controlling the public radio stations, the MPLA Party officials also control all Radio Stations in Angola apart from only 2 Independent and private Radio Stations.

2 Two independent Radio Stations:
Radio Ecclésia
Radio Despertar
8 Eight Radio stations controlled by the MPLA Regime:
Radio Nacional de Angola
Television Pública de Angola
FM Radio LAC
FM Radio Comercial de Cabinda
FM Radio 2000
FM Radio Morena
Radio Mais
TV Zimbo

10 Journalists Killed since 1992
10 Journalists where killed by the MPLA Regime because of their work in the last two decades in Angola. Many more deaths of journalist occurred during the civil war committed by the MPLA Regime apparatus, which no one has ever been brought to justice for it.
Details of killing of Journalists in Angola by the MPLA Regime since 1992:
7 journalists assassinated
2 journalists killed by supposedly crossed fire
1 journalist killed during a reporting mission
0 Zero the number of detentions by the Police or by the Regime in reference to the assassinations of the Journalists in Angola

THE MPLA IS BUYING THE NEWSPAPERS IN PORTUGAL
Tobis -The MPLA Regime bought this Film Archive company which holds the Film from the decolonization era. The buying company was Filmdrehtsich Unipessoal, they paid 4 million euros for the Lumiar Studios. The archive - which includes the Colonial war time - was taken out from Tobis before it had become classified as national patrimony.
 

Cofina - The company Newshold controls 15,08% of Cofina, this company is controlled by the MPLA Regime is the source of the financing, it has almost 22% of the editorial and controls the following press titles in portugal: Correio da Manhã, Record, Sábado and Jornal de Negócios. This information clarifies why in the recent years, and more noticeable in the recent 6 months jornalists and editorial staff have been removed and fired for publishing articles which are not favourable of the MPLA Regime actions.Newshold - This company has now achieved 1,7% in the portuguese media group SIC, Expresso, Visão and Caras, among other titles. The MPLA Regime is trying to purchase 23% of shares that the Company Ongoing has in the company, which if they are allowed to purchase it, they will have the control of 25% of the Newshold media group.

---

The Russian / Chinese Mafia

The Russian and Chinese Mafia is lead and composed by Sam Pa [(Xu Jinghua) president the China International Fund (CIF) (?) and of China-Sonangol, Wang Xiangfei [Non Executive Director of China International Trust and Investment Company (CITIC Group)], Jin Liqun ( President of the Counsel of Supervision of China Investment), Wu Yang (one of the Directors of Group 88 Queensway), all conected to the Ministry of Security of the Communist Chinese State, and Lev Avnerovich Leviev (Russian Businessman Billionaire (Bukharian)-Israel), Arcadi Aleksandrovich Gaydamak (Russian Businessman Billionaire).

Lev Avnerovich Leviev sold his participation of 18% in the Diamond Mines of Catoca to China Sonangol International Holding Ltd for US$400 Million USD, having acquired that participation in the decade of the 1990 for only US$20 Million Dollars.

Xu Jinghua comes to Luanda monthly to get bags of Diamonds valued at of more than US$66,2 Million Dollars – All this information given to us by Superior Officers of the Angolan Counter Intelligence Unit.

Xu Jinghua [(Sam Pa), old soviet time student colleague of José Eduardo dos Santos in one of the Military Collages of the KGB. Xu Jinghua during the civil war he always appeared next to the Russians as a consultant, and the funny thing is that this same individual was also the agent of the counterintelligence of china in Angola. As is was told to us by one of the most close collaborators of General Helder Viera Dias “Kopelipa,” who asked for anonymity.

Xu Jinghua, Manuel Domingos Vicente and José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos have always been involved in the management of China Sonangol International Holding Ltd, in both ways visible and invisibly...

Before the creation of China-Sonangol, Xu Jinghua served as intermediary of crude oil between the Angolan regime and the communist Chinese regime!...

The General Manuel Helder Vieira Dias Júnior (Kopelipa) occupied and was in charge of the protocol aspects, maximum security and Manuel Domingos Vicente was in charge of the administrative and logistic matters … while that, José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos learned with his “adoptive uncle” Xu Jinghua, in Hong Kong, the secrets of the transnational administration …

José Filomeno de Sousa dos Santos was thus prepared to administer Billions and Billions of US Dollars and to abandon the administration bosy of China-Sonangol, some time in la second part of 2012, leaving behind Manuel Domingos Vicente, who staid as the Executive Director of China-Sonangol...

Due to his health conditions of Domingos, it is Francisco Lemos José Maria, supposedly direct cousin of Ana Paula Cristóvão Lemos dos Santos, who has travelled to Hong Kong regularly in the name of the President of the Republic of Angola.

Question: Who is the real owner of China Sonangol International Holding Ltd Group and of Endiama China International Holding Limited owned by the Group 88 Queensway, localized in Hong Kong?

And more so... lets find out, the destination of Angola Gross domestic product (GDP), estimated at more than US$115.9 Billions Dollars (2011 estimate), oil & gas, raw materials, mining and derivates, farm land, etc.
 

China International Fund (CIF)

China International Fund (CIF) is a Chinese-owned officially private company based in Hong Kong that describes its major businesses as including "large-scale national reconstruction projects and infrastructure construction in developing countries". The China International Fund CIF and its associated companies in Hong Kong and Singapore invested upwards of $US 20 billion mainly in unstable African dictatorships.

They have made agreements with the Angolan and Guinean governments to explore for various resources in those countries. These agreements will result in billions of dollars of money being invested in the two countries.

The Company is under the suspicion of being a state-owned company, because “key personnel have ties to Chinese state-owned enterprises and government agencies.”
In a conversation between American Ambassador Dan Mozena and Chinese Ambassador Bolum Zhang, Zhang said, "the China International Fund CIF made many promises to Angola, and that while the company has a large presence in Angola, its weak management and lack of leadership have stalled many of the projects. Zhang said that as the China International Fund CIF is a "private company," the Chinese embassy does not actively participate or monitor its relationship with Angola. He added that China International Fund CIF continues to benefit from the Hong Kong-based owner's "close relationship" with President Dos Santos."

Xu Jinghua (Sam Pa)

Does Xu Jinghua (Sam Pa) hides the money of José Eduardo dos Santos?

By Prof. N'gola Kiluange

Who really is Xu Jinghua (Sam Pa)? 
The son of a original Chinese Revolutionary, well connected, Xu Jinghua has several names, among others: Sam Pa, Sampa, Samo, Sam King, Sa Muxu, Xu Songhua, Xu Jinghua, Ghui Ka Leung.

With José Eduardo dos Santos, Jinghua frequented an ex-military academy of the KGB in Baku (capital of Azerbaijan), in the end of the decade of 1960.

During the civil war in Angola, Jinghua was directly connected to the department of Chinese intelligence and facilitated the delivery of secret services of arms and weapons to the MPLA, in the name of the Chinese Communist Government.

He was always seen at the side of the Russians has a consultant in the neighbourhood of Futungo of Belas, Miramar and the airport military of Luanda, as per the confirmation of one of the more direct collaborators of General Helder Viera Dias “Kopelipa,” who asked for his name not to be divulged.
His involvement in the Civil War in Angola was so lucrative to the point that Jinghua publicly claim that is slice of cake in the construction of Angola was worth more than US$ 30 Billion Dollars.

After the assassination and death of Dr Jonas Savimbi, Dos Santos gave to Jinghua “obscure contracts” of construction in Angola, allowing him to in a short period of time to open several real-estate and civil construction companies in China, where he created the following companies: China Steel 20 (Zhongtie 20), Guangxi Guangxi (construction and engineering, water and electricity), Sichuan Nanchong, Sichuan Uingshan, Fuikan Ningde e Jinghend International.

Jinghua has a  Diplomatic Passport of Angola, and has acted as an intermediary of sale of the Cabinda and Angolan petrol to the Chinese Government: he buys the crude oil at US$50 per barrel and sells it at the daily market price. For example if a crude oil barrel costs US$90, less US$50, immediately there is a profit of US$40. With whom does Jinghua shares the profits with?

Cheap work force from china is also a lucrative business for Jinghua, that through China Sonangol and other companies by him created, he brought to Angola more than 270,000 Chinese ex-prisoners. Generals and High Ranking Officials in the Angolan Regime also benefit from this “business.”

Xu Jinghua was also able to create the following companies China Sonangol International Holding Ltd, Endiama China International Holding Limited, Sonangol Sinopec International Limited, Dayuan International Development Limited, Sonangol Asia Limited e New Bright International Development Limited.

The sad thing about all this, is that no one knows the presumed share that the Angolan partners (through the Angolan Regime)
have in the partnerships with this companies. State secret?

Recently, the Company China Sonangol was accused of trafficking diamonds in Zimbabwe, but Wee Jee Kin, Chief of Juridical Services, recognised that the company only has business in the mines of Catoca, as per 100Reporters.com.

In reference with a report by 100Reporters.org, at lease once a month, a private jet Aibus 319CJ, registered as VP-BEX, takes of from Lanseria International Airport, Code: HLA (Johannesburg, South Africa), with the flight path of Harare, Luanda, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The airplane that transports Xu Jinghua (Sam Pa), who goes to those places to get those diamond parcels raw uncut... "the aircraft is supposedly granted access to the South African space without having any inspection of cargo", informs us the report. As per a Security Specialist of private security in South Africa, the airplane landed in Luanda without registering in the local system.

He is involved in several criminal processes in Hong Kong, Xu Jinghua is involved in illicit business activities in Angola, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Venezuela, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Guinea Equatorial, etc.

References bibliographical:
Uncovering African Agency: Angola's Management of China's Credit Lines
By Lucy Corkin
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Pa
http://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=42493&ArticleTitle=China+Sonangal+Denies+Ever+Buying+Rough+Diamonds+From+Zimbabwehttp://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=42414&ArticleTitle=Report+Tackles+Mystery+of+Zimbabwe%27s+Disappearing+Diamondshttps%3A%2F%2F100r.org%2F2013%2F02%2Fdisappearing-diamonds%2F

---

2008 elections

The National Electoral Commission of Angola selected Indra to carry out the integral process of the legislative elections of 2008, including the counting, totalisation and reporting of results, as well as the supply and distribution of the Electoral Kit with all the material and equipment required for the elections.
INDRA PREPARING LUBANGO AIRPORT IN ANGOLA FOR THE 2010 AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS
The contract amounts to euros 7M and is part of the effort the country is making so that facilities are ready in January
Indra acquires an important reference in information systems for passenger management in this continent

Elections 2012

Chairmen of CNE, André Silva Neto (left) and Indra, Jesus Ortega
CNE and Indra sign service delivery agreement 
The National Electoral Commission (CNE) and the Spanish company Indra, concluded Wednesday, in Luanda, an agreement to provide service in the field of supply of voting materials and technology solution.

The agreement was signed by the CNE chairperson, André Silva Neto, and Jesus Ortega, for Indra, in a ceremony attended by members of both institutions.

At the end of the ceremony, the CNE spokesperson, Julia Ferreira, said Indra won the tender promoted by the CNE out of the nine candidates registered, for having presented a technical and financial proposal that meets the requirements enshrined in the law.

She added that the company will provide two services considered essential for the elections: the provision of essential logistics of the elections and the technological solution concerning the equipment to be used in the 31 August polls.

According to Julia Ferreira, the kits are defined in the ballot papers, ballot boxes and clothing to be used by members of polling station and logistic supervisors (a figure that is created by the CNE to monitor the electoral process).

In addition, the spokeswoman said that there were already defined modes of minutes, forms and statements that will be used in the electoral process, adding that the material should arrive in the country in late July.

The official welcomed the fact that the CNE has performed this act, taking into account the closeness of the election date (August 31, wishing a good performance by Indra, to continue to assist the institution in implementing these tasks.

Javier Monzón

Economist. He started his professional career in Caja Madrid, being Director of Corporate Banking. Later, he was Chief Financial Officer and General Director of Corporate Development in Telefónica, where occupied also the position of Chairman of Telefónica International. He is Chairman of Indra since its creation in 1993. He has been and is Director in other listed companies spanish and international and in different business associations and foundations.

Daniel García - Pita

Born in 1947. Graduated in Law. He has developed his entire professional career in J&A Garrigues Law Firm to which he joint in 1969 and where he was Managing Partner. He is specialized in Corporate Law and Financial Market Regulations; he has been professor in Corporate Law at the Central University of Madrid and deputy of the Governing Assembly of the Madrid’s Bar.
Legal adviser in many companies and Secretary of the Board of Directors of relevant listed companies like Indra where he was Secretary non member until June 2009.

Manuel Lagares

Degree in Economics (E-2) by the “Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE)” and Master in Public Finance and Tax. He has served as Tax, Customs and Excise Duty Inspector, and State Auditor. As Tax Inspector he has developed several public responsibilities. Additionally he has been Professor of Public Finance at Alcalá Henares University and of Tax issues at Colegio Universitario CEU Luis Vives.

He is General Manager of Banco Financiero y de Ahorros since September 2011. Before joining Banco Financiero y de Ahorros he was Managing Director at Grupo Neinver, where he joined as General Manager in 2004. Besides that he has been Chairman of IRUS European Retail Property Fund.

Regino Moranchel

Graduated in Economics and Technical Telecommunication Engineering. He has developed his whole professional career in Indra, having held office in the different areas of activity of the Company. Before his appointment as Chief Executive Officer in 2001 he was the General Chief Operations Officer. On December 2010 is appointed President


Javier de Andrés

He is Economist, MBA by the IESE and EOI. He started his professional career in the actual Fujitsu, S.A. España, having held different office of responsibility in the financial area, and becoming Economic and Financial Director. He held also this office in Tupperware Iberica, S.A. and in Cyanamid Ibérica, S.A./ Wyeth Orfi. He joined Indra in 1999 where he held office as Management Control Director from 2002 to 2007. In 2007 he is appointed Corporate Control, Purchase and Logistic Systems Senior Vicepresident. In 2009 he is appointed CEO of the BPO Division. In December 2010 is proposed CEO , being formalized his appointment in June 2011.

---

Unmasking Angola’s Diamond Giants

by Susanb    20 June 2011

Much has been written about the subject of diamonds in Africa, from the plethora of the luxury jewel on the African continent to the human rights abuses that often surround the harvesting of diamonds.

What fewer people know is that diamond-rich countries like Angola survive by arranging complex business deals with resource-needy countries like China and billionaires such as Lev Leviev—a Uzbekistan-born Israeli-based real estate magnate and diamond merchant.  Rather than contribute to Angola’s Gross Domestic Product and advance the country’s standing in the global economy, these business deals serve to help those that head Angola’s already lucrative oil companies collect even larger personal profits rather than directing funds to the government and Angola’s citizens.

Lev Leviev’s close ties with Angola’s central government allowed him to gain primary control of the country’s rough-diamond supply circa 2000, according to a profile of Mr. Leviev published in New York magazine.  China is where Lev Leviev and Angola collide, via a business called China Sonangol—a joint venture between Angola’s state oil company Sonangol and Hong Kong-based private Chinese investors in the China International Fund.  China-Sonangol is part of the 88 Queensway Group—a group of companies named after the address of the building in Hong Kong where they are registered, and which the U.S. government suspects is “nothing more than a cover for activity conducted by the People’s Republic of China’s foreign intelligence.”  

Headed by chairman and CEO Manuel Vicente, Sonangol is described in news sources as one of Africa’s “least transparent oil companies.”  Case in point, research into the corporate structure of China Sonangol reportedly revealed links to the Chinese state and its agencies.  China Sonangol is said to have a “ruthless business style in Africa” that is “reminiscent of some of South Africa’s mining conglomerates,” and to work in alliance with Lev Leviev, who’s regarded with “great suspicion by established industry leader De Beers.”  It is through Lev Leviev that China Sonangol bought an 18 percent share in Angola’s largest diamond consortium, Catoca.   

A May 31, 2011 news story published on industry website Mining.com reported that Lev Leviev sold his 18 percent stake in Angola’s Catoca diamond mine to China’s Sonangol International for $400 million, having acquired the stake in Catoca in the 1990s for only $20 million.  The deal is slated to be wrapped up in June 2011 when Sonangol will become the first Chinese company to own part of a diamond mine.  Last year, Catoca had $527 million revenue from rough diamonds and reported a net profit of $111 million.

The end result of transactions like Lev Leviev’s profitable sale of shares in Catoca equates to Chinese intelligence gaining an increasing foothold in Angola, not to mention the United States, where the 88 Queensway Group has acquired a significant amount of property.  And if history repeats itself, it looks like the future holds more in store for China and Angola.  In April 2011, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met with Sonangol’s Manuel Vicente, calling on the two sides to work together to “further enrich the Sino-Angolan strategic partnership.” Unfortunately, rather than enriching underdeveloped countries like Angola, these business deals solely benefit the world’s most powerful CEOs. 
 

---

When money stops talking, The sound of dissent in oil-rich Angola

In "The Economist" 31st March 2012

Mr Dos Santos’s Regime does not like surprises. The constitution it enacted in 2010 means that Angola’s next president will be chosen not by popular vote, but by the ruling party, which since independence in 1975 has been the MPLA (or Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola). One of Angola’s last two independent newspapers, Folha 8, was recently raided for lampooning the president (12 March 2012). Other media outlets have long since been bought off.

Nobody expects an effective challenge from the host of brave but impotent opposition parties. Yet despite being banned on government radio, the lyrics of popular musicians like MCK and other rappers sound a constant subversive drumbeat:

"The boss is the coloniser
in the Banana Republic…
We either put an end to corruption
or corruption puts an end to us."

 

Music by MCK on the wide spread corruption, of the MPLA Regime in Angola

---

THE LIST OF CRIMES OF THE MPLA REGIME AND OF THE COMMUNIST
DICTATOR JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS

MENU  -  SITE MAP

 

SUBMISSION OF CASES OF CORRUPTION

If you have any questions or wish to add information to any of these cases, you are welcome to send us any updated information in regards to the theft of public funds and illicit enrichment in Angola and occupied Cabinda, we are also keen on any information related to foreign multinationals, banks, financial institutions, government officials and governments relations with the MPLA Regime Nomenclature in cases of Public Corruption, Traffic of Influences, Criminal Activities between the MPLA Regime and Foreign Partners.

Contact Us

africafederation@gmail.com

cabinda@gmail.com