Champion of freedom defies Angola’s president, generals and the power of diamond companies
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Version 0 of 1. Wearing a suit given to him by an Angolan shopkeeper who stopped him in the street and said he was sick of seeing such a national hero walking around so badly dressed, Rafael Marques de Morais last week picked up a prestigious award on a London stage. This week, in the same suit, he will stand in a court in the Angolan capital of Luanda faced with nine years in prison and being sued for $1.2m (£800,000) for calling his government corrupt and exposing brutality and human rights abuses in Angola’s diamond mines. The investigative journalist goes on trial over nine charges of defamation, accused by seven Angolan army generals and the directors of the Cuango Mining Company after alleging they had criminal responsibility for the killings, torture and farmland grabs that have been going on in the lucrative diamond fields. He said he will fight the charges all the way: “I’m feeling OK, I’m feeling like, ‘let’s go in there and rock the boat’. “I’m not afraid to go to jail because it will be an opportunity to do human rights work inside jail.” The 43-year-old has run his investigative website Maka Angola since 2008 from the tiny kitchen of his home, from where he also wrote his 2012 book Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola, which detailed more than 100 killings and over 500 cases of torture carried out by security guards and members of the Angolan army against local people and small-scale miners (garimpeiros) in the diamond fields of the Cuango region. He alleged that the generals and company directors were complicit because they were reaping great profits from blood diamonds but doing nothing to stop the violence. The generals and their business associates filed a lawsuit against him and his publisher for libel in Portugal, Angola’s former colonial ruler, which was dismissed by the Lisbon public prosecution office, citing lack of evidence, in 2013. “Some powerful men saw a golden opportunity to have me convicted in a European court, but did not realise that although they can use their wealth to buy up Portugal’s houses, they cannot buy its judiciary. Their defence is that, ‘Yes, we owned the private security firm and, yes, we are significant shareholders in the diamond mines. But we have nothing to do with the management’. “I am saying they are morally responsible. They ask me: ‘Have you seen us fire a gun, hold a gun?’ But you do not have to shoot to be morally responsible.” Marques has been imprisoned before after calling Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the 73-year-old who has been president of Angola since 1979, a dictator. He spent 43 days locked up without charge, going for days at a time without food or water in solitary confinement. A constitution introduced in 2010 now limits the president to serving two five-year terms, although it does not count terms to date, allowing dos Santos to remain in power until 2022 after he won a decisive presidential election victory in 2012. Some 30 years of unrest and civil war in Angola ended in 2002, and the country is still struggling with its legacy despite an oil and diamond industry worth billions. The government’s reputation for involvement with human rights abuses and corruption have made it difficult for the country to attract as much foreign investment as it would like. Angola, the fourth-biggest diamond producing country by value, is relaxing restrictions to exploration and development after producers, including South African giant De Beers, cut back operations in the country during the global financial crisis. The move is causing concern among environmentalists as well as local people and the rise in numbers of anti-government protests is an irritant to the authorities who are keen to make an example of Marques with a successful prosecution. In his speech as joint winner of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expressions in Journalism award last week, one of several international honours he has received, Marques said that the trial would make him “stronger”. “It will show Angolans there is nothing to fear and challenge them to hold the authorities to account,” he told the Observer later. Vicky Baker, deputy editor at Index’s magazine, said he was an inspirational figure: “Rafael is an extraordinarily resilient reporter. He works as a one-man band, uncovering corruption and human rights abuses in an extremely intimidating environment, and refuses to back down despite threats and bounties put on his head. The world is in debt to people like Rafael, who selflessly hold the powerful to account.” Last week the International Federation for Human Rights and Angolan rights group AJPD said Marques was unlikely to get a fair trial: “Rafael Marques has been targeted by the authorities for years. This trial is another illustration of the regime’s willingness to hamper his freedom of expression and undermine his reporting on human rights abuses committed in the sector of extractive industries. The procedural irregularities observed since Marques was indicted in January 2013 clearly show that he may not benefit from a fair trial.” Marques knew when he caught the plane home from the UK this weekend that the best arguments of his legal team may not save him from jail. “I came back to Angola because it’s not just a question of patriotism. It’s quite often in Africa that people who do good work have always got to be on the run, been victimised, and that’s how crooks are in power,” he said. “Journalists are subdued. But I said no, that would not happen to me. You will not silence me, I will keep on talking, writing. That’s what good citizens do. And as a journalist it’s my duty to expose such abuse.” The president and government cannot prevent Angolans seeing Marques de Morais on international stages picking up awards, he said: “Now they can get social media on smartphones everyone can see the truth of what is happening outside Angola. That will send a message. Also, they are vain, the Angolan generals and officials. It will trouble them to see a man such as me wearing such a nice suit!” Seven journalists have been murdered in Angola since 1992 and many others intimidated or imprisoned. This month two activists, Marcos Mavungo and Arao Bula Tempo, were arrested in Angola’s northern oil-producing province Cabinda, hours before an anti-government protest was due to take place. They have been jailed on charges of sedition. Previous demonstrations have been broken up using what Human Rights Watch call “excessive force” and last year a female student was hospitalised after a beating by police after taking part in a march. |