Belinda du Toit is close to tears when she describes the letter she received from her allleged mercenary husband Nick a few days ago, sent from inside Equatorial Guinea’s notorious Black Beach prison, where he is held for his role in a coup plot.
”He says he is so thin that he looks like a grain of rice. He says it is only the thought of his family that is keeping him going.”
She pauses for a moment, collecting her emotions. ”When my home phone rings these days I expect someone from my government to call to tell me that my husband has died.”
It is not only Belinda du Toit who is alarmed by what is happening inside Black Beach prison in Malabo.
According to Amnesty International, conditions inside the prison have deteriorated so seriously in the past six weeks that at least 70 prisoners are at imminent risk of starvation.
And those at risk include 11 foreign nationals — including Nick du Toit — sentenced in what Amnesty has described as an ”unfair” trial last November following the failed ”coup plot” in which Britons Simon Mann and Mark Thatcher were implicated.
Du Toit was one of a group of 15 foreign nationals arrested on 9 March, 2004, in Malabo and accused of being mercenaries and plotting a coup against the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
The majority of these detainees are South African nationals. Their alleged activities and arrests have been linked to the arrest of 64 other suspected mercenaries in Zimbabwe on 7 March, 2004.
They also include dozens of Equatorial Guinean political detainees arrested in 2004 who are being held without charge or trial.
According to Amnesty International, provision of food by the authorities has been reduced from a cup of rice daily in December 2004 to one or two bread rolls a day, and since the end of February 2005 provision of any prison food has been sporadic, with prisoners reportedly going for up to six days at a time without any food.
Prisoners and detainees are now dependent on food handed to prison guards by families. This means that the 11 foreign nationals and dozens of Equatorial Guinean political detainees arrested on the mainland are particularly at risk of starvation because they do not have families in Malabo to support them.
Many of those detained at Black Beach prison are already extremely weak because of the torture or ill-treatment they have suffered and because of chronic illnesses for which they have not received adequate medical treatment.
All those imprisoned are kept inside their cells 24 hours a day and the foreign nationals are also kept with their hands and legs cuffed at all times. The authorities have blocked almost all contact with families, lawyers and consular officials. And so Belinda du Toit and her family — like all the families — must rely on the occasional letter for news forwarded by consular authorities. It was the letter last week that really frightened her.
”We have known about the food problems for some time. It is very little …”, Belinda du Toit breaks down. ”I just don’t know what to say. I can’t believe that there are still places that operate this way. They are locked up 24 hours a day, and even then the whole prison was locked up at one stage without access to water to drink or bathe.”
Even when the men have access to water, says Mrs du Toit, it is not clean.
”They just get water where they can find it. We have been worried about the water situation since there was an outbreak of cholera a few months ago, ” she says.
Concern for du Toit and the others inside Black Beach prison has been rising since the death of a German national, Gerhard Eugen Nershz, who was arrested in connection with the 2004 ”coup” plot. He died on 17 March after what authorities described as ”cerebral malaria with complications”.
He was taken to hospital from the prison some hours before his death and people who saw him reported that he appeared to have severe injuries caused by torture on his hands and feet.
Another detainee, ”Bones” Boonzaaier, who was already ill before he was arrested, was denied any medical treatment at least until a South African delegation met the detainees on 18 March.
Although Amnesty International is a strong opponent of mercenary groups, it has taken up the case of du Toit and his colleagues as it believes that they have the same rights as any other individual not to be subjected to torture, to enjoy a fair trial and not to be abused in prison.
Amnesty International UK campaigns director Stephen Bowen said: ”Such near starvation, lack of medical attention and appalling prison conditions are nothing short of a slow, lingering death sentence for these prisoners.
”The authorities must provide food and medicine immediately and grant access to international monitors.
”Unless immediate action is taken,” Bowen added, ”many of those detained at Black Beach prison will die.” – Guardian Unlimited Â