http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_detail.cf...
Print
Freedom in the World - Angola (2008)
Capital: Luanda
Population:
16,300,000
Political Rights Score: 6
Civil Liberties Score: 5
Status: Not Free
Overview
Legislative and presidential elections, originally scheduled for 1997, were delayed yet
again in 2007. The legislative poll is now expected to be held in September 2008,
followed by the presidential election in 2009. Also in 2007, the security forces faced fresh
allegations of widespread abuse and torture, and Angola’s oil-driven economic growth
continued to be plagued by endemic corruption.
Angola was at war continually for nearly three decades following independence from Portugal in
1975. The 1991 Bicesse Accord temporarily ended fighting between the rebel National Union for
the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the government, controlled by the Popular
Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist group. However, the accord disintegrated
when UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, having lost the first round of a UN-supervised presidential
election in 1992, once again took up arms. The collapse of a 1994 peace agreement (the Lusaka
Protocol), ineffective sanctions, and the shooting down of two UN planes caused the United Nations
to end its peacekeeping mission in Angola in 1999. After a 2002 ceasefire between UNITA and the
ruling MPLA, spurred by Savimbi’s death earlier that year and formalized in the Luena
Memorandum of Understanding, UNITA appeared committed to peace and subsequently
transformed itself from a disarmed military organization into Angola’s largest opposition party.
About 80,000 former rebel soldiers were demobilized, and 5,000 were integrated into the armed
forces and police.
The conflict claimed an estimated one million lives, displaced more than four million people, and
forced over half a million to flee to neighboring countries; according to a 2007 estimate by the
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), some 410,000 Angolans had returned
home in the previous four years, while about 190,000 continued to live outside the country. Many
resettled people—particularly those in the peripheral provinces—remained without land, proper
shelter and food, health care, jobs, education, or even identification documents. The resettlement
process was slowed by the presence of an estimated 500,000 land mines and a war-ruined
infrastructure, which continued to make large tracts of the country inaccessible to humanitarian
aid. In March 2007, the UNHCR formally concluded its voluntary repatriation program for Angolan
refugees.
Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer. Due to increased oil production, rising global oil
prices, and the government’s wide access to oil-backed credit, the economy grew by an estimated
13 percent in real terms over the three years ending in 2007. Angola’s leading creditor, China, has
funded multiple billion-dollar development projects to rehabilitate the country’s infrastructure. In
March 2007, Angola cancelled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over an
economic stabilization program, claiming it had sufficient resources to achieve consistent growth
without the fund’s conditional support. Nevertheless, corruption and mismanagement have
prevented most Angolans from benefiting from the country’s wealth. It is estimated that more than
$1 billion in oil revenue goes missing each year, and the bulk of new public investment has been
directed toward the oil sector or the country’s urban coast. Eighty-five percent of the population
engages in subsistence agriculture, and the United Nations estimates that 68 percent of the
population lives on less than $1 a day. Angola’s oil boom has led to a significant reduction in donor
funding for humanitarian programs. In 2007, the World Food Programme, citing lack of funds,
1 of 4
6/30/2009 9:33 AM
http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_detail.cf...
substantially reduced food aid distribution in Angola to just over 200,000 recipients, from 450,000
in 2006.
Though the northern exclave of Cabinda is internationally recognized as part of Angola, the
government has been fighting secessionists there intermittently since 1975. Cabinda accounts for
60 percent of Angola’s total oil revenues. In 2006, the government signed a peace agreement with
former Front for the Liberation of Cabinda (FLEC) leader Antonio Bento Bembe, the ostensible
representative of the Cabinda Forum for Dialogue (CFD), an umbrella grouping of secessionists.
Several factions of the CFD denounced the agreement and vowed to continue fighting.
Nevertheless, the deal appeared to hold in 2007. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC), between 80 and 90 percent of FLEC fighters have either joined the army or demobilized.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties
Angola is not an electoral democracy. Angolans freely elected their representatives only once, in
UN-supervised balloting held in 1992. While the 2002 Luena Memorandum of Understanding
created a “government of unity and national reconciliation, the MPLA dominates the 220-seat
National Assembly with 129 seats; UNITA holds 65 seats (after expelling five of its lawmakers in
2006). The National Assembly, whose members serve four-year terms under the constitution, has
little power, and 90 percent of legislation originates in the executive branch. The president, who is
supposed to serve five-year terms, directly appoints the prime minister, cabinet, and provincial
governors.
General elections originally planned for 1997 have continually been delayed. In 2004, they were
scheduled for 2006 to give time for voter registration, civil disarmament, and the formation of
proper electoral authorities. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in 2006 put the votes off for at
least another year, citing dilapidated infrastructure and a stalled registration process. Then, in
March 2007, the Council of the Republic, headed by the president, announced that legislative
elections would be held in 2008, followed by a presidential vote in 2009; in December, legislative
elections were set for September 2008. While an MPLA victory in both polls is likely, opposition
parties and civil society organizations have accused dos Santos of stalling for political gain.
In September 2007, the government ended its voter registration drive, claiming that eight million
Angolans had successfully registered. However, the electoral laws—amended in 2005 to allow dos
Santos to run for a third consecutive term—have been widely criticized as inadequate for free and
fair elections. In March 2007, a team from the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
recommended that the government ministry tasked with organizing the elections be replaced by a
more independent body. It also echoed opposition and civil society activists in objecting to the
structure of the MPLA-dominated National Electoral Commission (CNE).
UNITA remains the most significant opposition party facing the ruling MPLA. Eighty-seven other
opposition groups have formed a coalition with negligible weight. A total of about 125 parties are
registered in Angola. While political violence has decreased significantly in each year since 2002, it
is still a problem, and UNITA officials have argued that violence has increased during the voter
registration process. UNITA leader Isaias Samakuva claims that 13 party members were killed for
political reasons in 2006 and 2007, a claim the government denies. In March 2007, Samakuva
accused police officers of trying to assassinate him during a tour of Kwanza Norte province, but the
government denied that the incident took place. In February, members of the opposition Angolan
Party for Progress and Democratic Assistance (PADEPA) were arrested and held incommunicado for
five days before being released without charges.
Corruption and patronage are endemic in the government. Bribery underpins much of Angolan
business in both rural and urban areas. In 2005, a World Bank survey found that outdated, poorly
implemented, and corruption-prone bureaucratic regulations made Angola one of the world’s most
hostile environments for microenterprise. A 2007 report by the Norway-based Chr. Michelsen
Institute found that state budget making in Angola was extremely opaque and that budget
execution was hampered by the country’s inefficient public finance system and weak budget-related
institutions. Angola was ranked 147 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s
2 of 4
6/30/2009 9:33 AM
http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_detail.cf...
2007 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Following the 2002 ceasefire between the government and UNITA, media restrictions became less
stringent. However, despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression, journalists are
often subject to intimidation, dismissal, detention, and legal sanction by authorities; the result is
self-censorship. Defamation of the president or his representatives and libel are criminal offenses,
punishable by imprisonment or fines. In May 2006, the government enacted a new Press Law that
ended the state monopoly on television broadcasting, called for the creation of a public broadcaster
that ensures the “right of citizens to inform, seek information and be informed,” and allows
journalists to use the truth defense in libel and defamation trials. However, the law includes
several restrictive provisions concerning journalistic “duties,” journalists’ access to information, the
right to practice journalism and to establish new media outlets, and the registration of both
journalists and media outlets with the government.
The only daily newspaper and the sole television station are state owned. Private media outlets are
often denied access to official information and events, and they report problems with funding. In
addition, high-ranking government officials pressure independent media to cover the government
in a more favorable light. There are several independent weekly newspapers and radio stations in
Luanda that criticize the government, but the state dominates media elsewhere. As of 2007,
authorities continued to prevent the outspoken Roman Catholic radio station Radio Ecclesia from
broadcasting outside Luanda. Internet access is limited to a small elite, as most citizens lack
computers or even electricity.
Religious freedom is widely respected, despite colonial-era statutes that ban non-Christian religious
groups. The educational system barely functions, suffering from underpaid and often corrupt
teachers and severely damaged infrastructure. According to UNICEF, 47 percent of girls and 53
percent of boys attend primary school.
The constitution guarantees freedom of assembly and association. Increasingly, authorities are
allowing opposition groups to hold demonstrations in Luanda, though crackdowns are common in
the interior. The right to strike and form unions is provided by the constitution, but the MPLA
dominates the labor movement and only a few independent unions exist. Hundreds of
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civic groups operate in Angola, many of them
demanding political reform, government accountability, and human rights protections. In particular,
churches have grown more outspoken. However, the government often denies NGOs access to
Cabinda on security grounds. In February 2007, British researcher Sarah Wykes, who was
investigating corruption in the oil industry for the NGO Global Witness, was detained by Angolan
police in Cabinda and accused of spying. She was allowed to return to Britain in March but may still
face espionage charges in Angola. In 2006, Angolan military forces raided the headquarters of the
Cabindan NGO Mpalabanda, which opposed that year’s peace agreement, and arrested leader Raul
Danda. Now banned, Mpalabanda in August 2007 alleged that members had been arrested ahead of
a visit to Cabinda by dos Santos.
The judiciary is subject to extensive executive influence, though courts do occasionally rule against
the government. The government has yet to establish a Constitutional Court, as mandated by the
constitution. Supreme Court judges are appointed to life terms by the president without legislative
input or approval. Local courts rule on civil matters and petty crime in some areas, but an overall
lack of training and infrastructure, a large backlog of cases, and corruption inhibit access to and
functioning of the judiciary. Despite government efforts to train more municipal magistrates,
municipal courts are rarely operational. As a result, traditional or informal courts are utilized.
Accused criminals are commonly detained for long periods while awaiting trial, and prisoners are
subject to torture, severe overcrowding, sexual abuse, extortion, and a lack of basic services.
Despite government efforts to reform security forces through increased resources and human rights
training, officers continue to commit abuses with impunity. In September 2007, separate reports by
Amnesty International and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) noted that
Angolans still faced arbitrary detention, abuse, and torture by security forces, and denial of access
to legal counsel. An estimated four million weapons in civilian hands threaten to contribute to
3 of 4
6/30/2009 9:33 AM
http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_detail.cf...
lawlessness, and Angola’s diamond-mining industry is afflicted by murders and other abuses by
government and private security personnel. The government created a national justice
ombudsman’s office in 2005 to improve human rights observance, but activists and civil society
groups objected to their exclusion from the process.
Accusations of severe rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, have been leveled
throughout the duration of the Cabinda conflict. In September 2007, UN investigators reported that
civilians were being held incommunicado at military bases in Cabinda.
Eight provinces (about 50 percent of the country) contain areas that were heavily mined,
restricting freedom of movement. At least 80,000 people have lost limbs to mines over the years.
Angolans have the right to own property, but it is very problematic in practice. Since 2003, forced
evictions from informal settlements in and around Luanda have displaced 20,000 people and
destroyed over 3,000 homes, according to Human Rights Watch and SOS Habitat. These groups say
the government usually fails to give prior notice or provide adequate resettlement and
compensation. The government claims the residents are trespassing on state land that is needed
for public development purposes. Land laws passed in 2004, requiring the registration of ownership
within three years, have generally been welcomed in rural areas and opposed in urban areas.
Women occupy cabinet positions and National Assembly seats. Nevertheless, despite legal
protections, de facto discrimination against women remains strong, particularly in rural areas.
Violence against women is widespread, and spousal abuse is common. Women are often killed or
injured by land mines as they search for food and firewood. Child labor is a major problem, and
there were reports of trafficking in women and children for purposes of prostitution or forced labor.
A recent study by the state’s National Children’s Institute and UNICEF found “a significant and
growing” trend in the abuse and abandonment of children accused of witchcraft after the death of a
family member, usually from HIV/AIDS.
4 of 4
6/30/2009 9:33 AM