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afrol News, 16 April - The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea, an institution significantly pressuring the dictatorial government since 1979, might now see an end of its mandate. While African countries push for the end of the UN mandate, the Rapporteur himself and human rights groups say continued monitoring is essential. Since the oil boom that started in 1997, Equatorial Guinea has not only been a target of pressure to improve its disastrous human rights situation, it has also been able to spend its new riches on pressuring other countries not to intervene in its affairs. Now an "African Switzerland", repression of the political opposition is stronger than ever but outside pressure remarkably low. Since the 1979 military coup that put incumbent President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in power by having his uncle - the ex-president - killed, the United Nations has been monitoring human rights in Equatorial Guinea. A UN Commission on Human rights of Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts or Special representatives to that country have been appointed without interruption since 1979. A pending decision of the 58th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights to put an end to the mandate of the Special Representative on Equatorial Guinea "is likely to compound the deteriorating human rights situation in the country," Amnesty International said in a statement yesterday. "International monitoring in Equatorial Guinea is essential, especially now when human rights violations are still being perpetrated, including the incommunicado detention for a month of more than fifty suspects who are at risk of being tortured to death", the group said. In his January 2002 report, presented before the Commission, Mr Gustavo Gallón, the Special Representative of the Commission for Equatorial Guinea stressed that: "The human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea has been a matter of concern to the Commission on Human Rights for longer than that of any other country". He recommended that the situation of human rights in that country "should continue to be monitored in order to ensure the implementation of the recommendations repeatedly made by the Commission over the last 20 years." However, African countries represented on the Commission have asked it to terminate Gallón's mandate. The 12 African countries of the 53-member Commission, headed by Equatorial Guinea's neighbour and oil partner Nigeria, will ask for the mandate to end. Commission officials told the UN media IRIN today that these African members of the commission felt the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea had improved. Representatives of African countries had "said the government has improved the situation and ratified conventions," an official said. "They want the energies of the commission to be focused on technical cooperation instead of monitoring." Human rights groups and the Equatoguinean opposition could not agree less. According to Amnesty, "the need for ongoing international monitoring has dramatically increased since March 2002 when more than one hundred people, both civilians and military and security personnel, were arrested and are still held in detention, for alleged links with the Fuerza Democrática Republicana (FDR), Republican Democratic Force, a not-yet-legalized opposition party." A wave of arrests - officially because a military coup was planned, allegedly in preparation of the upcoming presidential elections - has claimed its first victims. Guillermo Nguema Elá, a former Minister of Finance and opposition leader, reportedly died by the injuries he sustained during torture in detention. Relatives of FDR leader Felipe Ondó Obiang, former President of the Equatoguinean parliament, also fear he has succumbed to torture in a Bata prison. Three of the latter's sons and a pregnant woman are also detained for their family relations to opposition politicians. Amnesty also deplored "the fact that the families are being denied access to their relatives and that nobody knows where they are currently being held." The group had received "reliable information from eyewitnesses" who saw some of these detainees in prison with visible marks of torture during their first days of detention. It therefore group agrees to the opposition's allegations that "torture by security forces is routine in Equatorial Guinea," further stressing the need for Mr. Gallón's mandate to be extended. - The UN Commission on Human rights should make a strong statement in the interest of human rights in Equatorial Guinea by renewing the mandate of the Special Representative to that country, Amnesty concludes. "The international community must not send a signal that it is turning a blind eye to serious human rights violations." New arrests in Equatorial Guinea are continuously reported. Latest reports from the country indicate that a government party MP, Feliciano Obama Nsue Mangue - locally know as "Bató" - was arrested yesterday. Bató, a former torturer under the ancièn régime, is only the last of tens of detainees close to the governing circle. Many come from the very clan - originating in the mainland town of Mongomo - controlling the presidency and government since 1968.
Sources: Based on UN, Amnesty, ASODEGUE and afrol archives
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