Guinea-Bissau:Human defenders face increased government harassment
"Human rights defenders and political opponents in Guinea Bissau are facing a sustained clamp-down on peaceful opposition and criticism of government policy," Amnesty International have warned, adding that the government was also increasingly interfering in matters outside its jurisdiction.
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
4 February 2002
AFR 30/003/2002
22/02
"Human rights defenders and political opponents in Guinea-Bissau
are facing a sustained clamp-down on peaceful opposition and
criticism of government policy," Amnesty International warned
today, adding that the government was also increasingly
interfering in matters outside its jurisdiction.
Victims of the latest wave of harassment include Fernando
Gomes, founder and former president of the Liga Guineense dos
Direitos Humanos, (LGDH), Guinea-Bissau Human Rights League, and
currently president of the political party Aliança Socialista da
Guiné (ASG), Socialist Alliance of Guinea-Bissau, and João Vaz
Mané, a vice -president of the LGDH. They were arrested and
accused of misappropriation of LGDH funds donated by a foreign
non-governmental organization (NGO) in 1999.
Fernando Gomes was arrested at his home in the morning of
Saturday 2 February 2002 by three police officers. A warrant for
his arrest had been issued on 25 January 2002 but was not carried
out as he was abroad at that time. Reports say the arrest warrant
was withdrawn on 30 January, the day after his return to the
country. He is being held at the main police station in Bissau,
known as Segunda Esquadra.
João Vaz Mané was arrested in the afternoon of Saturday
26 January 2002, also by three police officers who had tried to
arrest him the previous day. He was held at the Segunda Esquadra
until his release on bail on 1 February. He has to report to the
Bissau court weekly.
Guinea-Bissau law stipulates that arrest warrants are
carried out at the weekend only in exceptional circumstances,
when the person sought is a highly dangerous criminal and there
is a risk of the person fleeing the country.
Amnesty International is seriously concerned about the
interference of the government in the internal affairs of the
NGO, especially as neither the foreign NGO nor the LGDH have
lodged a complaint against Fernando Gomes and João Vaz Mané; and
there seems to be no evidence of wrong doing.
"The arrests of Fernando Gomes and João Vaz Mané appear
to be politically motivated and part of the Guinea-Bissau
authorities' attempts to silence criticism, including
interference in the judicial process, the arrest of Supreme Court
judges in November 2001, and the clamp down on the media,"
Amnesty International said.
On 4 January, João Vaz Mané and the current President of
the LGDH were summoned to the President's office and questioned
about a weekly radio program on human rights in which the LGDH
had called on the authorities to present evidence of an alleged
attempted coup in December 2001 which resulted in the arrest of
about 40 former soldiers.
In related developments involving freedom of expression
and the press, Carlos Schwarz, director of the local NGO Ajuda e
Desenvolvimento (AD), Aid and Development, and Agnelo Regalla,
the owner and director of Radio Bombolom, appeared before the
Procurator General on 4 February 2002, to answer questions
related, respectively, to the functioning and statutes of a
community radio, Voz de Quelele, sponsored by AD and Radio
Bombolom.
"The Guinea-Bissau government should immediately and
unconditionally release Fernando Gomes and João Vaz Mané and any
other people detained for criticizing government policy, or
charge them with a recognizable criminal offence," Amnesty
International said, urging the authorities to ensure that NGOs
and the media are allowed to carry out their functions without
governmental interference.
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