Angolans must institute legal action against a host of western multinational companies and banking institutions which enabled that country’s government to commit crimes of humanity against its people, a Namibian rights group said on Tuesday.
The National Society for Human Rights said in a statement from Windhoek these companies had ”propped up” the Angolan government allowing it to carry out destructive policies.
”Through such policy, characterised by massive population transfer and starvation, the Angolan government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos had committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide… even after the April 4, 2002 ceasefire agreement.
”Human rights organisations, humanitarian organisations as well as certain UN aid agencies are unanimous in that the present humanitarian catastrophe in Angola has directly resulted from deliberate scorched earth policy of the Angolan military,” it said.
The society said media reports indicated that since the early 1990s the Angolan government had neglected to promote the welfare of its citizens. Instead it was investing huge amounts of cash to acquire war material.
”Particularly those multinational oil corporations, international banking institutions and multinational mining companies based in Switzerland and France had made it possible for the Angolan government to acquire lethal war material which was indiscriminately used against the Angolan government.
”Diamond mining mercenary companies have both directly participated in the actual fighting and training of Angolan armed forces.
”Consequently, they have not only prolonged the conflict but also aggravated the suffering of the Angolan people,” the society said.
It also said that several prominent western politicians and businessmen had publicly supported the 1998 ”peace-through-war” strategy of the Luanda government.
The society said latest statistics had shown that as much as 80 percent of Angolans were without access to justice, and between two and four million displaced people required emergency aid.
A total of 450 000 Angolans were refugees and 500 000 people in former Unita-controlled areas, until recently, had no access to humanitarian aid.
According to Transparency International’s global corruption report, Angola was among the five most corrupt countries in the world, it said.
”Hence such western corporations and individuals must be sued for having deliberately propped up a kleptocratic, illegitimate, odious, immoral and repressive regime in Luanda.” – Sapa