Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe Say Coup Nixed

[La_Serpiente]

Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe Say Coup Nixed

DAKAR, Senegal - Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea say they have arrested 79 suspected mercenaries who were plotting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang.

Most of the suspects were arrested after arriving on a jetliner in Harare, Zimbabwe, allegedly to pick up weapons before heading to the oil-rich west African nation. Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said they could face the death penalty.

The foreign minister of Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, convened diplomats including the Spanish ambassador to tell them about the alleged coup attempt, a Spanish Foreign Ministry official in Madrid said Wednesday.

Twenty South Africans, 18 Namibians, 23 Angolans, two Congolese and one Zimbabwean carrying a South African passport were arrested Sunday when their aging Boeing 727 was impounded at Harare International Airport. Zimbabwean state television described the passengers as mostly whites.

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Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe Say Coup Nixed

Equatorial Guinea has one of the world's worst human rights records.

Human Rights Abuses

On the 11th of March 1998, Amnesty International (AI) released a report titled “Equatorial Guinea: Detainees Severely Tortured – Five Already Dead.” Several dozen members of the minority Bubi ethnic group, native to Bioko Island, were detained in connection with attacks on military barracks there in January of that year. AI expressed concern that the detainees were being held simply because of their ethnicity.

The detainees were subjected to foot beatings to extract confessions and were denied access to medical care. There were two documented cases of people dying from these conditions. However, AI adds that “Unconfirmed reports suggest that an unknown number of other Bubi detainees recently died in detention and were buried in mass graves by members of security forces.”

Upcoming legislative elections in 1999 inspired the government to commit similar abuses in an attempt to intimidate the Bubis who have been disenfranchised by the Obiang government and who thus have reason to support opposition parties. More than ten CPDS candidates were arrested at about the same time, some being placed in detention centers and others confined to their villages. There were reports of torture in these cases as well, detainees being forced to beat their hands on a wall for half an hour, and another candidate having his feet beaten with electric cables (14).

Beginning on 14 March 2002, security forces conducted a series of arrests of tens of military personnel and civilians connected with FDR and UP. Those arrested included at least one pregnant woman. All were held without charge in Bata Public Prison and then transferred to other locations, including the Presidential Palace. Some eyewitnesses saw visible marks of torture. Obiang’s public explanation was that those arrested were involved in a “diabolical” coup plot against him, although three sons of the former parliamentarian and leader of the FDR, Felipe Ondo Obiang, and his niece, the pregnant woman mentioned above, were apparently arrested only by reason of being related to the FDR leader (15). It was later determined that the exact number of those arrested was 144, sixty-eight of whom were later found guilty of attempting to overthrow the government. Those found guilty are being held in Black Beach Prison which is notorious for overcrowding, lack of hygiene, lack of adequate food and water, and lack of medical care (16).

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2003/0816blind.htm

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. The oil wars are in full swing.

Bush said he was eyeing Africa, looks like he wasn't joking.