Equatorial Guinea
Arrests of "coup plotters" in Equatorial Guinea

afrol News, 22 March - The government now has confirmed the wave of arrests in Equatorial Guinea, thus far only reported by the opposition. According to the government, several high officials from the opposition were plotting to recruit ex-soldiers to participate in a coup d'état. Their arrest is confirmed.

Clemente Engonga, Equatoguinean Minister of Home Affairs, yesterday confirmed that his government had take action against the country's former Parliament Speaker, Felipe Ondó Obiang Alogo. Ondó was accused of recruiting ex-members of the armed forces to stage a military coup d'état in the tiny Central African dictatorship.

The government-controlled broadcasters also announced the arrest of Ondó and others of the opposition parties Democratic Republican Force (FDR) and Popular Union (UP). The two parties were allegedly involved in planning to stage a coup. According to opposition sources, also several ex-members of the armed forces have been arrested in what has been described as a wave of arrests.

The Ministry of Home Affairs again refused to disclose the whereabouts of the detained, namely Felipe Ondó Obiang, Guillermo Nguema Elá, Emilio Ndong Biyogo and other unnamed Equatoguinean oppositional citizens. According to several opposition sources, they have been tortured by police officers or other security officials. 

Various sources maintain the detained have been moved from Malabo (the capital, on the island of Bioko), where they were last seen, to the Rio Muni mainland. The prison of Evinayong and several buildings in the town of Bata have been mentioned. Ondó's family reportedly had been permitted to bring him food in the "Palacio África" - and old Salesinian mission house in central Bata - on Sunday morning, but later that day, they were told he had been transferred to an unnamed place.

Meanwhile, in Malabo, the government had invited all the legal opposition parties to a meeting of the Commission for Monitoring and Following of the National Pact. The aim of the meeting was to give "information about the letters written by [the opposition party] CPDS to the Ministry of Home Affairs about the detention of Felipe Ondó Obiang, Emilio Ndong Biyogo and Guillermo Nguema Elá," according to the scheduled program. The Group for Social Democracy (CPDS) earlier had assured high publicity for its letters denouncing the disappearance of the opposition politicians. 

During the meeting, the independent opposition parties, in particular CPDS, were accused of being "the legal arm of the terrorist formations," which allegedly threatened the regime by plotting a coup. Government officials and leaders of the so-called "satellite parties" - former opposition parties in reality taken over by the government party PDGE - called for the prohibition of the "terrorist" opposition parties and for the detention of their leaders. 

The party leadership of the CPDS yesterday in Malabo expressed its "energetic rejection" of the accusations made against it by the government party PDGE and its allies. The accusations were "unfounded, threatening and intimidating," CPDS held. 

Observers hold that the enhanced attacks on the "democratic opposition" (as opposed to the "satellite parties" in Equatoguinean political language) are the beginning of the government's preparations for the upcoming presidential elections. Although no date has been set so far, elections are expected to be celebrated at the end of this year or at the beginnings of 2003. Rumours say cancer-sick President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is preparing the political terrain for his son and Minister of Natural Resources, "Teodorín", to contest the upcoming elections. 

Except for the 1968 elections, leading the Spanish ex-colony into independence, there have not been any free elections in the country, ridden by two succeeding dictatorships. President Macias Nguema, the uncle of incumbent President Obiang, ruled the country from 1968 to 1979, until he was toppled and finally killed in a military coup headed by his nephew. 

Sources: Based on ASODEGUE, La Diáspora, EFE, RENAGE and afrol archives

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