EG denies jail starvation claim

2005-04-15 10:40

Malabo - Equatorial Guinea on Thursday flatly denied charges by Amnesty International that scores of prisoners at a jail in the capital Malabo, including convicted mercenaries, were at risk of dying of starvation.

Jailers at Black Beach prison have stopped providing at least 70 prisoners with meals and blocked all contact with their families, lawyers and consular officials over the past six weeks, the group said, calling on the authorities to provide immediate food and medical care.

A large number of the prisoners, including at least 15 foreign nationals, are already weak from torture, untreated illnesses and general lack of care, the London-based human rights group claimed.

In November a court in Equatorial Guinea gave stiff jail sentences to five alleged South African and six Armenian mercenaries, including 34 years for South African Nick du Toit, for their involvement in a coup plot.

"The information provided by Amnesty, which for us is a faceless organisation made up of people with unstated aims, is false and unfounded," Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumu, a special adviser to President Teodoro Obiang Nguema with responsibility for the press.

"All prisoners receive daily food rations and the mercenaries, who do not have the same eating habits as us, have an adequate diet and a special budget to this end," he said

"Amnesty is trying to put pressure on the government to free the hostages," he said.

In addition to the food problem, Amnesty painted a grim picture of the prisoners' daily routine, describing how they are kept in their cells 24 hours a day, with the foreign inmates handcuffed and shackled at all times.

"Amnesty International is calling on the Equatorial Guinea authorities to immediately provide regular and adequate food, medical care to all who need it," it said.

"Such near starvation, lack of medical attention and appalling prison conditions represent a scandalous failure by the Equatorial Guinea authorities to fulfil their most basic responsibilities under international law," said the director of Amnesty's Africa programme, Kolawole Olaniyan.

"The Equatorial Guinea government is using this as a political tool to keep undesirable dissidents at bay," Olanyian said.

"Unless immediate action is taken, many of those detained at Black Beach prison will die."

Last December, food rations were reportedly cut from a daily cup of rice to one or two bread rolls, and since February, provision of any prison meals has been sporadic.

Detainees with family in Malabo rely on supplies handed to guards by their relatives, according to Amnesty.

But six Armenians, five South Africans and four Nigerian nationals at the prison are at a particular risk of starvation as they lack the family support.

- AFP