For Immediate Release:

U.S. Should Spotlight Nigeria, Angola Abuses

(New York, July 26, 2002) - As Walter Kansteiner, U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa, traveled to Angola and Nigeria this week,
Human Rights Watch urged him not to overlook serious human rights
concerns in both countries. Human Rights Watch said that this Africa
visit was an opportunity for the Bush administration to integrate human
rights into its meetings.

"Nigeria and Angola are both oil-producing countries the United States
wants to continue to do business with," said Peter Takirambudde,
executive director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch.
"However, these countries can only be sustainable and reliable trading
partners in an environment where there is respect for human rights and
the rule of law."

In the five-page letter, Human Rights Watch called on the U.S.
delegation visiting Nigeria to address the increasing political tensions
and in-fighting, as well as actual violence, in the lead-up to
presidential elections scheduled for 2003.

Research by Human Rights Watch in southeast Nigeria has uncovered
serious human rights abuses by vigilante groups responsible for brutal
executions, systematic torture and unlawful arrests and detentions,
often with the active support of state government authorities. In the
north, vigilante groups are sometimes used to enforce the application of
Sharia law.

Human Rights Watch also expressed its concern that the Nigerian police
force and the military continue to be responsible for systematic and
widespread human rights violations without any sanction. In one
particularly notorious incident in Benue State in 2001, the military was
responsible for summary executions, rape of women, and ill-treatment,
harassment and extortion.

Since President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in May 1999, there has
been an increase in inter-communal violence across Nigeria. Several
thousand people have been killed in fighting between different ethnic
groups, particularly in the central Middle Belt states as well as the
southwest, in the Delta and in the north. These conflicts could explode
again at any time. There is also likely to be continuing tensions, often
politically manipulated, in some of the northern states, around the
extension of Sharia law. There have been a number of Sharia punishments
meted out following unfair trials, with limited rights of appeal, and
sometimes no legal representation.

In the Niger Delta, there have been numerous protests directed at oil
companies, as well as violence between different communities, often
directly or indirectly linked to the division of oil money. It is likely
that active conflict will heat up as the 2003 elections become closer.

Human Rights Watch also highlighted the plight of the internally
displaced in Angola, noting that the United Nations and the Angolan
government are not providing sufficient protection for hundreds of
thousands of people displaced during Angola's civil war. As many as
one-third of Angola's 13 million people are internally displaced.

Since the ceasefire agreed in April 2002, and progress in implementing
peace, the need for attention to the displaced has become, if anything,
more urgent. As access to previously rebel-held areas opens up, there
has been a rise in the number of Angolans seeking immediate assistance,
exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and raising the specter of new
human rights abuses.

The internally displaced in Angola continue to face serious security
threats, including harassment by government forces, restrictions on free
movement, and possible forced return to areas where they would be at
risk of political persecution and human rights abuses, Human Rights
Watch said. Hundreds of thousands continue to live in poor conditions in
government-run camps without access to basic food or medical care.

Kansteiner's visit comes just before a formal resettlement process for
some 50,000 displaced persons begins, and there are concerns that some
of these people may be forcibly sent home. While the United Nations and
the Angolan government have plans on paper to protect the internally
displaced population, these laws and programs are not being implemented
on the ground. Although there are several U.N. agencies working with the
internally displaced in Angola, there is no single U.N. agency with
clear formal responsibility for protection of internally displaced
persons, contributing to the neglect they have suffered.

Human Rights Watch said that, in principle, it considers the Office of
the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to be the most
appropriate U.N. agency to assume operational responsibility for the
protection of the internally displaced in Angola, based on its practical
protection experience and expertise with forcibly displaced communities.
However, UNHCR has been forced to phase out its involvement with the
internally displaced in Angola, following the termination of U.S. and
Japanese support for the program.

To read the letter to Assistant Secretary of State Kansteiner, please
see: http://hrw.org/press/2002/07/walter0723-ltr.htm

For more information, please contact:

In London, Carina Tertsakian: +44-20-7713-2783
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz: +322-732-2009
In Boston, Binaifer Nowrojee: +1-617-493-2990

--
Jeff Scott
Africa Division
Human Rights Watch
Phone: +1-212-216-1834
Fax: +1-212-736-1300
http://www.hrw.org/africa/index.php
en français, http://www.hrw.org/french/africa/