ANGOLA PROVINCIAL NOTES - HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 LUANDA 000785

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/S, EB AND DRL
STATE PASS TO USAID AFR/SD ELOKEN, IMACNARIN
STATE PASS TO USAID DCHA/DG ECONNERLEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017
TAGS: PGOV EMIN PHUM ECON PREF PINR KDEM SOCI AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA PROVINCIAL NOTES - HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION
IN DIAMOND RICH LUNDA NORTE LIMITED BY CAPACITY AND
POLITICAL WILL (PART 3 OF 3)

REF: A. LUANDA 696

B. LUANDA 700

Classified By: CDA Francisco Fernandez for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Diamond prospecting, legal or otherwise, is
the only game in town for the majority of the people in Lunda
Norte province. Lunda Norte's diamond riches come packaged
with reports of human right abuses committed by both
government and private security forces against iLLegal
diamond prospectors, but the situation on the ground is a
complex and incestuous web of economic need and greed. The
inadequate judicial system can't keep up with aLLegations of
abuses and, without outside pressure, provincial leaders lack
the political wiLL to investigate and punish offenders.
Luanda-based authorities are slowly bringing more attention
to the issue. End summary.


2. (U) This cable is part three of a three part series on
Lunda Norte province. Poloff visited Lunda Norte province
from June 6-8th, 2007 with Dutch and British Emboffs. This
cable focuses on human rights; reftel A covers economic
development and voter registration, reftel B covers viLLage
life.

Concessions or No Concessions, Folks Gotta Eat


3. (U) The GRA legaLLy considers diamonds as state property
and grants exclusive concessions for aLLuvial and kimberlite
mining through ENDIAMA, the state diamond parastatal. Any
mining without state authorization is technicaLLy iLLegal,
thus aLL independent garimpeiros (diamond prospectors) are
subject to punishment by the state. Garimpeiros working
iLLegaLLy on concession lands run the highest risk of
detection by private or government security forces.
Concession owners generaLLy employ private security companies
and can also request supplemental support from police and/or
military forces. Government security forces patrol
throughout the province, but with limited personnel and
wide-open spaces they must direct the majority of their
efforts to areas with known diamond reserves. These same
reserves are magnets to garimpeiros, who generaLLy have no
economic option other than diamond prospecting.


4. (C) Civil society leaders told Emboffs that the root of
the problem is the exclusive land use granted to concession
holders. When a concession is granted aLL residents are
driven from the land and given compensation. Human right
activists classify this compensation, generaLLy a few hundred
doLLars, completely inadequate to start a new life,
especiaLLy given the extremely high prices and scarce
employment options in Lunda Norte (reftel A). Economic need
pushes people to return time after time to diamond producing
areas. In addition, concession areas within that territory
are poorly delimited and understood by both sides, opening
the door for mistakes by garimpeiros and security forces who
don't always know where concessions begin and end.


5. (C) For example, SDM (the Angolan Association for Mineral
Development),a joint venture between Endiama and the
Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, employs 700 locals
for aLLuvial mining in a concession area along a remote 25
mile-long stretch of the Cuango River. Outside the company's
gates, however, lies a boom town with an estimated population
of 14,000 people, with no identifiable source of income (or
water) other than diamonds in that same river. The
inevitable iLLegal garimpeiros are thus vulnerable to threats
by both public and private security forces when prospecting
on the margins of the concession area.


6. (C) Provincial Governor Manuel Francisco Gomes Maiato
conceded that exclusive use was a problem and laid out his
proposed solution: concession owners would aLLow farming on
the land and would also be required to employ and register
Angolan miners who would pan the river for a salary but turn
over aLL diamonds to the concession owner. Parliamentary
Leader for the opposition Party for Social Renovation (PRS)
Lindo Bernardo Tito told Poloff that Endiama plans to start
issuing garimpeiro licenses to Angolan citizens in 2008, but
expressed concerns that licenses wiLL not be issued in a fair
and transparent manner and that garimpeiros wiLL not be
offered a fair market price for their stones.

The Border'S Revolving Door


7. (C) ILLegal Angolan garimpeiros are only part of the
problem; iLLegal immigrants from the neighboring DRC and

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southern and western Africa are drawn to Lunda Norte,s
diamond riches. The Angolan media often portrays the Lundas
as being "invaded" by iLLegal immigrants and Immigration,
Police and Military officials run "cleansing operations" on a
semi-continuous basis throughout the province. A current
operation, referred to as Operation Tranquility in some
media sources, resulted in the expulsion of thousands of
foreign and domestic garimpeiros from concession areas.
According to reports, Angolan garimpeiros were directed to
return to their homes and foreign garimpeiros, primarily from
the DRC, were trucked to and left at border crossings between
Angola and the DRC.


8. (SBU) Governor Maiato expressed frustration over iLLegal
immigration and stated that the GRA simply does not have the
capacity to protect and monitor its borders or the vast
interior of the province. He estimated that 80% of
garimpeiros are iLLegal immigrants who simply return again
and again through the porous border each time they are
rounded up and deported. Maiato bluntly affirmed the GRA's
right to control its borders and stated that iLLegal
immigration needs to be hit hard. A senior National Police
official stated that iLLegal diamond trafficking is a gateway
for aLL forms of transnational crime, including trafficking
of drugs, arms and people.

A Thin Line Between Legal and ILLegal


9. (C) While soapbox talk of foreign migrant invasions plays
weLL in the media, the GRA has created a legal mechanism to
seLL artisan diamonds regardless of their source of
production. ENDIAMA subsidiary SODIAM (Angolan Diamond
Trading Company) was created to buy and seLL Angolan produced
diamonds, and their local offices buy artisanal diamonds with
no questions asked. SODIAM, originaLLy created to stem
UNITA's iLLegal diamond trade, works to ensure that artisanal
diamonds stay in-country and under ENDIAMA's control. GRA's
recognition that iLLegal mining wiLL occur has led them to
expand SODIAM's buying power through a partnership with
Lazare Kaplan International (LKI),which operates SODIAM's
buying offices for the informal sector in parts of Lunda
Norte and Sul.


10. (C) There is a low risk/high reward situation for the
middle men greasing the wheels of the artisanal diamond
trade. Middle men seLL the garimpeiros' diamonds to SODIAM
buying offices. Uneducated garimpeiros, especiaLLy iLLegal
immigrants and ethnic Chokwe garimpeiros (who may not speak
Portuguese) use the middle men to avoid direct contact with
authorities who may question their citizenship or simply
seize the iLLegaLLy panned stones without compensation.
According to anecdotal evidence, these middlemen are often
foreigners iLLegaLLy living in Angola. One civil society
leader described the diamonds as iLLegal until the second
they enter the SODIAM office, at which point they are legaLLy
sold to the state with no questions.


11. (C) Poloff met with one woman who works for the
provincial government by day, teaches and is active in civil
society organizations by night, and runs five garimpeiros on
the side. She buys the garimpeiros food and supplies for
extended stays in the bush, seLLs their finds to the local
SODIAM office, takes out her up-front costs and splits the
rest with them 50-50. She acknowledged that her garimpeiros
were running a risk and would simply "need to flee" if found
by the police. She sends them far from concession areas and
works to keep abreast of planned police operations to better
direct their prospecting activities. This divorced mother of
eight says that this type of "entrepreneurial enterprise" is
common practice in the province, a comment that matches the
"everybody's doing it!" spirit encountered in conversations
with other locals.

Lack of Capacity Makes it Easy to See No Evil


12. (SBU) The province faces severe capacity limitations in
the protection of human rights. The predominately rural
province has one court, one judge, two prosecutors and one
very overcrowded prison, aLL located in the provincial
capital of Dundo. Municipal police only have smaLL temporary
holding centers and must transport inmates to Dundo for
long-term trial and imprisonment. Until recently there were
no practicing lawyers in Lunda Norte to bring legal attention
to human right violations, and the presence of international
NGOs is extremely limited. Development Workshop and MSF
HoLLand are the only international NGOs with a confirmed
permanent presence in Lunda Norte, and the latter is closing

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down its program.


13. (C) The case backlog and sheer size of the province leave
both urban and rural areas dependant upon traditional justice
to resolve problems and conflicts. People try to resolve
problems at the local level, as taking issues to higher
levels takes more time, resources, and know-how than most
people have. Human rights activists note that the lack of
provincial oversight and the failure of police investigators
to thoroughly investigate claims lead to situations in which
so little hard evidence is gathered or available that it
becomes difficult to confirm, much less prosecute, human
rights violations.

That Pesky International Community!


14. (C) A lackadaisical approach is reflected at aLL levels
of the provincial government. Governor Maiato described the
human rights problems as "blown out of proportion" by the
international community, and stated that iLLegal garimpeiros
need to take responsibility for their decision to pan
iLLegaLLy. Maiato and police officials noted that the police
have increased human rights training for officers, and the
aLLegations of abuses have declined markedly in recent years.
They did not address our questions of aLLegations directed
towards private security firms.


15. (C) Civil society leaders counter that police training
doesn't "stick" due to the government's failure to punish
human rights violators or those who ignore violations that
take place on their watch. Civil society leaders state that
aLLegations of abuses are simply not investigated or are
quickly covered-up at the lowest possible level; even cases
that make it to the provincial level are rarely acted upon.
Space for criticism of the government is also limited. Civil
society leaders reported self-censorship of their activities
and criticism, as most are employed by the provincial
government, which has a virtual lock on non-diamond
employment in Lunda Norte.

Outside Pressure Creating Space for Change


16. (SBU) National and international authorities are
beginning to fiLL gaps in action at the provincial level.
Police and Ministry of Justice officials in Luanda have
reacted quickly to cases for which hard evidence is brought
to their attention by outside actors, such as the UN Human
Rights Office or journalist and researcher Rafael Marques.
A new program stemming from a partnership with the national
Attorney General's office and the UN Human Rights Office
(UNHRO) is training Human Rights Monitors at the provincial
and municipal level. In addition, five recent law school
graduates were hired and sent to Dundo in early July to
create a Legal Assistance Center. The center, which is
sponsored by the Luanda-based Bar Association, UNHRO, and
Ministry of Justice, wiLL offer legal services on aLL legal
matters, but the UNHRO wiLL pay the legal expenses in human
rights related cases.


17. (U) The USG is also working to create a space for
dialogue between civil society, communities, and the
government at the municipal level through the USAID-sponsored
Municipal Development Program (MDP),which Development
Workshop is piloting in one Lunda Norte municipality. The
MDP aims to create sustainable community forums, comprised of
municipal administrators and community leaders, to discuss
community development needs. Through visits to viLLages
throughout Chitato municipality DW identifies and trains
community organizers and leaders to coLLectively determine
and communicate community development needs and projects. In
anticipation of the GRA's plans to decentralize planning and
funding, the MDP also works to train municipal administrators
to involve civil society in local development. The MDP is
funded in Lunda Norte by LKI.


18. (C) Comment: The lure of diamond riches brings people to
the Lundas in droves to strike it rich. As long as there are
no other options for Angolan residents of Lunda Norte, they
wiLL continue to pan for diamonds in the province's rivers,
even with the threat of police and security guard action
against them. The same is true of the foreigners crossing
the porous border trapped in a revolving door of iLLegal
entries and deportations. The GRA is attempting to put
measures in place, such as licenses for garimpeiros and
diamond buying offices for the informal sector, to legitimize
employment and ensure that diamond profits remain in GRA
coffers. International attention, including acknowledging

LUANDA 00000785 004 OF 004


the difficulty of the task and offers of capacity building
for police and border guards may be the most useful tools
available to improve the situation. There is no easy answer
to the problem and given the capacity constraints it wiLL
take a long time to organize artisanal diamond prospecting
legaLLy and in fuLL observance of human rights.

FERNANDEZ