Mass evictions in Angola: Rights body

LUANDA – Angola’s government has illegally evicted thousands of poor residents in Luanda to free up land for development in the African nation’s post-war economic boom, human rights groups said in a report yesterday.

US-based Human Rights Watch and Angola’s SOS Habitat accused Angolan security forces of destroying about 3 000 houses and the government of seizing an undisclosed amount of cultivated land during 18 mass evictions between 2002 and 2006. The groups said the evictions had left some 20 000 people homeless, often were carried out without proper notice or compensation as required by law and usually were marked by violence and intimidation.”Police officers, sometimes accompanied by members of private security companies, fired shots in the air or on the ground to intimidate the unarmed population.Police often arbitrarily detained evictees, and many of those arrested told Human Rights Watch and SOS Habitat that they were physically abused while in police custody,” the report said.”Human rights defenders present during evictions were harassed and sometimes arbitrarily arrested.”The report, which echoed similar charges made by rights group Amnesty International earlier this year, accused Angolan authorities of worsening a dire housing situation in the southwestern African nation, which was devastated by a 27-year civil war that followed independence from Portugal in 1975.Angola’s government has consistently denied that it ordered mass evictions in Luanda or elsewhere.It says it has only forcibly removed people who were trespassing on land.But the groups said thousands in Luanda remain vulnerable to future evictions because of inadequate land title registration procedures and weak enforcement of housing laws in the booming city of 4 million.Many Luandans do not have formal land titles, a legacy of the country’s tribal customs as well as the chaos that ensued during the civil war.The end of the war has led to a property boom in Luanda, the hub of Angola’s fast-growing economy.Nampa-ReutersThe groups said the evictions had left some 20 000 people homeless, often were carried out without proper notice or compensation as required by law and usually were marked by violence and intimidation.”Police officers, sometimes accompanied by members of private security companies, fired shots in the air or on the ground to intimidate the unarmed population.Police often arbitrarily detained evictees, and many of those arrested told Human Rights Watch and SOS Habitat that they were physically abused while in police custody,” the report said.”Human rights defenders present during evictions were harassed and sometimes arbitrarily arrested.”The report, which echoed similar charges made by rights group Amnesty International earlier this year, accused Angolan authorities of worsening a dire housing situation in the southwestern African nation, which was devastated by a 27-year civil war that followed independence from Portugal in 1975.Angola’s government has consistently denied that it ordered mass evictions in Luanda or elsewhere.It says it has only forcibly removed people who were trespassing on land.But the groups said thousands in Luanda remain vulnerable to future evictions because of inadequate land title registration procedures and weak enforcement of housing laws in the booming city of 4 million.Many Luandans do not have formal land titles, a legacy of the country’s tribal customs as well as the chaos that ensued during the civil war.The end of the war has led to a property boom in Luanda, the hub of Angola’s fast-growing economy.Nampa-Reuters