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United States sponsored secret flights
and clandestine detention centres in Europe and elsewhere have
received plenty of comment recently. Politicians and journalists
tell us the "war on terror" demands extreme measures.
At the same time, in countries which have nothing to do with
that "war", detainees are held incommunicado, without
effective judicial protection and routinely tortured in carefully
ignored prisons. Reports about conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan
are widespread, but almost little appears about what is going
on in Equatorial Guinea, a country friendly to the West. One
of Equatorial Guinea's prisons, surrounded by a tropical sea,
has the same name as a relaxing California beach : Black Beach.
In spite of this, it is not a sunny spot in a lost paradise.
It is an ugly compound in Bioko Island, near Malabo, Equatorial
Guinea's capital.
This tiny country of 28.000
square kilometres and 500.000 inhabitants is located on West
Africa's Gulf of Guinea between Cameroon and Gabon. Until independence
in 1968, it had been a Spanish colony for almost 200 years. Since
the landmark "scramble for Africa" Berlin Conference
in 1884, it has been known mainly for its cocoa production, endless
penury, dictatorships and the natural beauty of its jungles and
beaches.
Until recently nothing much
seemed to change, except now for the beauty and the cocoa, both
for the worse. The country's beauty is being mercilessly spoiled
by pollution from the offshore oil industry and intensive timber
exploitation. The oil industry is controlled by head of State,
Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who seized power from his uncle, through
a coup in 1979. Timber production is controlled by the Minister
of Forestry, Obiang's eldest son. Cocoa production, formerly
run by colonial entrepreneurs, has nose-dived since independence
when international pressure ended Spanish rule.
Following independence, dictatorship
and neo-colonialism (globalization in modern parlance) have grown
and are now even stronger than before. The prison at Black Beach
is an glaring example of their perverse synergy, compounded by
the effects of extreme poverty on the general population. Dictatorship
and neo-colonialism work hand in hand, greased by oil. Wealth
from the oil industry over the last ten years has not trickled
down to the population, its legitimate owner. Instead, it is
channelled overseas to benefit Obiang and his entourage and the
foreign corporations that back them. Equatorial Guinea is the
paradigm of the "curse of natural riches".
Governments in Western capitals
know this very well. International agencies and human rights
organisations routinely criticise General Obiang's rule. However,
those Western governments increasingly support him, steadily
developing economic, political and military ties with his regime.
When it suits them, the United States and Spanish governments,
two of Obiang's major trading partners and close supporters,
declare a willingness to cooperate with Equatorial Guinea's government
in what they call its "democratization process".
This and similar statements
appear in the media to mark political summits and official visits.
The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister told the Spanish Parliament
after a visit to Equatorial Guinea in 2005, "the President
asked Spain to accompany him in his endeavours to modernise the
State and reform the administration". In response, the Minister
said the Spanish government was fully devoted to this task, although
remaining "extremely critical and mindful concerning the
rule of law and encouragement of those citizens willing to contribute
to Equatorial Guinea's democracy and political life".
Some of this "democratization
process, was reported in a press conference in June 2006 by Weja
Chicampo, leader of the banned MAIB (Movement for the Self-determination
of Bioko Island). Chicampo arrived in Madrid after being expelled
from his own country by Obiang. During the two years, three months
and two days he spent in Black Beach, without proper charges,
trial or legal assistance, he says, "they (the jailers)
beat me until I lost my vision; then, after some more beating,
I lost consciousness. My family and children were terrified.
From that moment on a long agony starts and it will last for
days, weeks...... In order to give you an idea I can say that
I was handcuffed for four months in a row. There were many other
instances of torture like this." (Chicampo
press conference of June 22nd, 2006.)
The number of political prisoners
in Equatorial Guinea has averaged 200 in the last six years.
A proportionate comparison would mean a figure of 20.000 in Spain.
It must be noted that some detention centres escape any kind
of control. Prisoners have no contact with the outside world.
They remain at the mercy of their jailers and the jailers' boss:
General Obiang. Chicampo reports that "there are transfers
from Black Beach to other detention centres, in order to obstruct
access of Red Cross teams to the prisoners while visiting facilities.
I was transferred to a military prison (Acacio Mañé
Military Unit) on April the 5th, 2004. Other prisoners that should
not be seen were transferred to Punta Fernanda and other places".
The Spanish government has
plenty of information about this reality and about the torture.
But this does not prevent it from cooperating with the dictatorship
in Equatorial Guinea even as, together with other European Union
governments, it demands the closure of the US government's Guantánamo
prison in Cuba.
The United States government
too has the same information. Its Department of State has even
made it partially public in its annual reports. The one released
in March 2006 notes of Equatorial
Guinea: "The government's human rights' record remained
poor, and the government continued to commit or condone serious
abuses... security forces reportedly killed several persons through
abuse and excessive force... The following human rights problems
were reported: arbitrary arrest, detention, and incommunicado
detention... There were reports of politically motivated kidnappings,
there were continuing reports of government figures hiring persons
in foreign countries to intimidate, threaten, and even assassinate
citizens in exile." What can "abuse and excessive force"
be except mealy-mouthed diplomatic jargon for torture?
Despite this, inter-governmental
relations are excellent, according to the US ambassador in Malabo.
In his 2005 Independence Day remarks at the US embassy, in front
of Obiang and some members of Obiang's regime, he said: "We
value our relations with Equatorial Guinea and are pleased that
they are excellent and indeed, growing closer. I personally had
the pleasure of accompanying his Excellency President Obiang
Nguema Mbasogo on his June visit to Baltimore and Washington.
In both cities, the President was well-received. Among both business
and government leaders, he made an excellent impression and called
effective attention to further opportunities to strengthen our
relationship."
Beyond the specious political
discourse, attention should really focus on the United States'
role in Equatorial Guinea: the enormous growth of its oil industry
and the consolidation of dictatorship in the face of mounting
internal opposition and foreign criticism. United States oil
companies operating in Equatorial Guinea have made it the third
largest African oil producer South of the Sahara in just ten
years of industrial activity. The US embassy, formerly closed
because of political differences with the Obiang regime, as was
hinted at in the State Department report quoted above, was reopened
once the oil companies established themselves, even though the
dictatorship did not change its policies.
A review of the hard facts
corrects the ambassador's rosy picture. ExxonMobil, Chevron-Texaco,
Amerada Hess, Marathon Oil and other companies transfer vast
profits to the United States from exploiting Equatorial Guineas's
oil. For exploitation rights these companies pay huge sums of
money directly to Obiang and his family into United States bank
accounts. It is crystal clear that these sums should benefit
all the people of Equatorial Guinea, not just the ruling family.
But that is not happening.
The European Union has reported:
"Equatorial Guinea's GDP growth was the world's highest
between 1995 and 2001 and well above average growth in the region
...although it had one of the lowest only ten years ago. However,
this increase in resources has not yet been matched in the social
sphere by a similar improvement in the living conditions of the
population, which still show worrying indicators."
Equally illustrative of the
level of corruption among the country's elite are the findings
of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
in their "Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption"
report, made public on July 15th, 2004. Among other issues, the
report deals with Obiang's - and his family's - accounts in Riggs
Bank: "The Subcommittee investigation found that Riggs
opened multiple personal accounts for the President of Equatorial
Guinea, his wife, and other relatives." The total amount
of bank deposits held by Obiang in the United States and other
countries is unknown, but it is believed that to exceed seven
hundred million US dollars, in addition to the value of luxurious
villas and other real estate investments.
In the meantime, Equatorial
Guinea's Human Development Index is near the bottom of the medium
human development group: position 121 out of 177 countries in
the UNDP 2005 Human Development Report. The country has experienced
some minimal improvement: in 1999, it was in position 131 out
of 174 with GDP per capita (PPP$) 1.817 in 1999, while in 2005
it was 19.780. The fact that not a single country in this medium
human development group has a similar current GDP per capita
indicates the grotesque injustice of wealth distribution in Equatorial
Guinea.
Self-evidently, the triangle
in Equatorial Guinea formed by Obiang's dictatorship, the country's
oil wealth and Western economic interests results in prisons
like Black Beach and another one in Bata (second most important
city in the country). In other words: the Obiang clan's machinations
thoroughly greased by United States oil companies, have turned
them into plutocrats amidst an impoverished, oppressed population,
who barely enjoy even the most meagre crumbs while the dictator's
family and the oil companies feast.
General Obiang is a dictator.
Backed by Western governments, he denies fundamental human rights
to his compatriots. The United States government and its allies
hypocritically tolerate Obiang's dictatorship so long as their
international companies enjoy rights to exploit Equatorial Guinea's
oil wealth. While an exclusive minority obtain huge benefits,
the majority only enjoy a notional "democratization process",
which in practice means occasional fraudulent elections, Presidential
birthday "pardons" for prisoners, and empty political
speeches on Independence Day, all under the complacent gaze of
Western ambassadors.
Agustin Velloso is a lecturer at the Spanish National
University for Distance Learning. He can be reached at: a.velloso@reading.ac.uk
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