Washington D.C. — Rafael Marques, an Angolan journalist and human rights advocate who spent 41 days in a Luanda prison late last year, was reportedly barred by his government from traveling to Washington to attend this week's National Summit on Africa.
Marques was arrested in October after being accused of defaming the country's president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in a July issue of the newspaper Agora. In an article entitled "The Lipstick of Dictatorship," Marques said dos Santos was "responsible for the destruction of the country and the promotion of corruption." After his arrest, Marques was held incommunicado for ten days and no charges were filed. At the time of his release in late November, he was formally accused of defamation. Presently, he is awaiting trial and barred from leaving the country.
"He is being punished even before being tried for a 'crime' the world no longer recognizes," said Deborah A. Harding, vice president of the Open Society Institute in New York and sponsor of Marques' planned visit. Marques serves as coordinator of the Open Society Initiative for southern Africa, which is part of the worldwide non-governmental network backed by financier George Soros.
Earlier this month, Marques and attorney Joao Faria were able to visit another detained Angolan reporter, Andre Domingoes Mussamo, who has been held in the northern provincial town of N'Dalatando since early December. According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Mussamo is accused a stealing documents from provincial government offices. An article he wrote based on the documents was never published but was reportedly found during a search of his office by the security services.
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According to Harding, more than 20 Angolan journalists, most of them from privately owned news organizations, have been detained and questioned on defamation or national security grounds during the past year. The dos Santos government is engaged in an ongoing fierce war with the rebel movement Unita, led by Jonas Savimbi, a conflict which has persisted virtually unabated since Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975.
Continuing harassment of journalists in Angola and other countries has broad implications, pro-democracy advocates say. "In times of transition, if you don't have a strong independent media, you are not going to have a lasting democracy," says Kakuna Karina, Africa project director for the International League for Human Rights. "What people underestimate is the role media play as defenders of civil society in the most challenging times."
