EXTERNAL (for general distribution)AI Index: AFR 12/04/94

Distr: UA/SC

UA 406/94 Extrajudicial executions by government forces and

deliberate and arbitrary killings by UNITA

17 November 1994

ANGOLA Eduardo Domingos and others

Amnesty International is concerned that, while the government and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, are preparing to sign a new peace agreement for Angola, both sides are deliberately killing suspected opponents.

Government forces reportedly gunned down Eduardo Domingos in the southern town of Lubango in October. UNITA troops are said to have executed prisoners before fleeing from their stronghold, Humabo, which government forces recaptured in November 1994. Government forces, according to UNITA, have extrajudicially executed suspected UNITA sypathizers in Huambo and in Uige.

A new peace agreement, known as the Lusaka Protocol, is due to be signed in Lusaka on Sunday 20 November. A previous peace agreement, the Peace Accords for Angola, signed in May 1991, broke down after elections held in September 1992. UNITA had disputed the election results and reassembled its army. Between October 1993 and January 1994, government forces extrajudicially executed hundreds of suspected UNITA supporters in the capital, Luanda, in Lubango and other cities. Since then both sides have deliberately killed prisoners.

Even on the brink of peace, both sides have shown an utter disregard for human rights. Eduardo Domingos, a 42 year-old professor of economics, was killed on 2 October 1994, allegedly by government security officials. Eduardo Domingos had been among many UNITA supporters arrested in January 1993. He was released a month later but his house had been wrecked and his car burned. He then wanted to leave Lubango but the authorities refused to allow him to leave. Amnesty International is continuing to inquire into UNITA allegations that government forces extrajudicially executed UNITA sympathizers as it attacked or entered towns held by UNITA.

Between 6 and 9 November 1994 the government army took control of Huambo, which UNITA had captured in March 1993. Journalists who visited the city on 13 November found the bodies of prisoners who had apparently been executed several days earlier. There were three bodies of men in the courtyard of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office which UNITA had used as a prison and in private houses which had been used to hold prisoners. Some of the bodies, which were dressed in prison-issue long T-shirts and grey trousers, showed injuries which appeared to have been caused by torture. In other areas bodies had been thrown into shallow wells. The journalists spoke to local people who had come to identify the bodies and told how their relatives had been arrested on suspicion of supporting the government. In some cases they had been allowed to visit their relatives in prison but in other cases they never saw them again. UNITA has denied that it killed prisoners.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Angola has a long history of mass killings of political opponents by both the government and UNITA. Even during the implementation of the May 1991 peace accords, which was monitored by the United Nations (UN), there were further political killings. These were never adequately investigated, with the result that the use of violence as a political weapon increased. If the Lusaka Protocol, due to be signed on 20 November, is to bring a lasting peace, the cycle of killings and other human rights violations must be stopped. Amnesty International has called for the new peace agreement to include strong measures to protect human rights. Among other things, it has urged that human rights monitors, working with a UN coordinator, should be deployed throughout the country.

Representatives of both sides initialled the Lusaka Protocol at the end of October. The protocol is the result of a year's negotiations led by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye. On 15 November the two sides signed a truce which is to come into force at 20.00 hours on 16 November and last until 24:00 hours on 22 November when a full cease-fire is due to come into force.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/telexes and airmail letters either in Portuguese, English or in your own language:

- calling on both the government and UNITA to communicate to their forces immediate instructions to stop extrajudicial executions and deliberate and arbitrary killings;

- calling on both sides to encourage thorough and independent investigations into all suspected extrajudicial executions or deliberate and arbitrary killings including those of Eduardo Domingos and of the people who were killed in Huambo and Chinguar;

- calling on both the government and UNITA to make firm, public commitments to respecting human rights.

APPEALS TO

President

Sua Excenência José Eduardo dos Santos

Presidente da República

Futungo de Belas

Luanda

República de Angola

Telegrams: Presidente da República, Luanda, Angola

Telexes: 3072 lugol an / 3345 gab pres an.

Salutation: Your Excellency

UNITA President

Sua Excelência Jonas Malheiro Savimbi

(please send appeals via the UNITA office in your country, if there is one)

COPIES OF YOUR APPEALS TO:

Diplomatic representatives of Angola accredited to your country and Embassies of countries involved in the peace process in Angola or are, like Angola, members of the Southern African Development Community: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Swaziland, USA, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 29 December 1994.