Court case for espionage is intended to silence critics

The Society for Threatened Peoples ((GfbV) charged the government of Angola on Friday with trying to silence the critics of its oil industry and the plundering of its rich oil exclave Cabinda. The British human rights worker Sarah Wykes is threatened with a charge of espionage. Wykes was arrested in mid-February and then released on bail, but is not allowed to leave the country. "Evidently the Angolan authorities want to make an example of her and thus scare off awkward foreign critics from carrying out further investigations into the corruption in the oil industry”, said the GfbV Africa expert Ulrich Delius. In Angola itself the government has already made sure that hardly anyone dares to criticise any more the corruption and embezzlement of government income. On the 2006 corruption index of Transparency International Angola is in place 142 out of 163.

At least 4,000 million US dollars in oil revenue have disappeared without trace between 1997 and 2002. When on 9th November 2006 more than 100 demonstrators protested against this scandalous embezzlement they were arrested. 27 of those arrested and an opposition politician were sentenced to terms in prison. The renowned journalist and civil rights worker Rafael Marques de Morais, who has protested for years against the corruption in the oil industry, is being deprived of his professional existence on account of his commitment and being treated as an enemy of the state. Marques has already had to serve a prison sentence for his criticism of state President Dos Santos.

Sarah Wykes, who works for "Global Witness”, was arrested shortly before a meeting with human rights workers and environmentalists in Cabinda. Civil right workers and also Catholic priests have constantly criticised the plundering and impoverishment of Cabinda. The exclave has been promised ten percent of the proceeds from the export of oil, yet only a fraction of this has actually been received.

The former Portuguese colony Cabinda, which has been struggling for its independence for three decades is the guarantee of some 60 percent of the oil exports of Angola. The income from oil makes up 42 percent of the GNP and 90 percent of the government budget. The south-west African country is today the most important oil producer for China. In December 2006 Angola joined the OPEC and is with a production of 1.4 million barrels per day the eighth most important exporter of oil. Production is to be increased by at least double by the end of 2008.