Angola denies rape charges
2007-12-08 13:00
Luanda - Angola's army has denied
allegations that its soldiers have raped, beaten and tortured
illegal Congolese migrant workers before deporting them across
the border, the state-run Jornal de Angola said on Saturday.
The denial came after the French humanitarian group Medecins
Sans Frontieres (MSF) accused Angolan soldiers of committing the
rights abuses in the diamond-rich northern Angolan province
Luanda Norte, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"We are going to investigate, but I want to assure everyone
that our soldiers are not engaging in this kind of activity,"
General Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda, the assistant chief of staff
of the Angolan Armed Forces, told the newspaper.
MSF described the rapes of Congolese women as "pervasive and
systematic" and said some migrants had died as a result of the
violence, while others had been exposed to HIV and other
sexually transmitted diseases.
Male migrants also have been beaten and tortured, MSF said.
An estimated 400 000 Congolese live in northern Angola, with
a large number of them employed illegally in mines. Angola,
Africa's third largest diamond producer, has ramped up efforts
to expel the migrants.
An estimated 44 000 have been sent back to the DRC in the
past year, according to the United Nations.
MSF's allegations, which it said were based on interviews
conducted with at least 100 women in the DRC after their
expulsions from Angola, followed similar reports by other human
rights groups.
Angola's government typically does not respond to criticism
from Western rights groups. It has, however, described illegal
immigration as a major problem for the booming south-western
African nation.
Diamonds helped to fuel a 27-year civil war between the
Angolan government and rebels from the National Union for the
Total Independence of Angola. Since the conflict ended
five years ago, migrants have flocked to the country to seek
work in the mines.