Angolan police briefly detained dozens of protesters in the
capital Luanda after they tried to march in support of a group of activists
jailed for planning a rebellion, witnesses said late on Saturday.
The witnesses said armed police rounded up the
protesters as they gathered at Independence Garden for the abortive march in
support of 17 activists sentenced last month for plotting against President
Jose Eduardo dos Santos's government.
Police kicked three people gathering for Saturday's
demonstration, leaving one bleeding and unconscious, before a police vehicle
took them away, a Reuters witness said.
"They assaulted us for no reason at all while in
custody," Adolfo Campos, an activist who said he was briefly detained
along with 24 other protesters, told Reuters.
Police were not
immediately available to comment.
Dos Santos,
who has been in power since 1979 and is Africa's second longest-ruling leader,
is accused by critics of mismanaging Angola's oil wealth and making an elite
vastly rich in a country ranked amongst the world's most corrupt. He has said
he intends to step down in 2018.
The jailed
activists were arrested in June after organizing a reading of U.S. academic
Gene Sharp's 1993 book "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual
Framework for Liberation". The book's cover describes it as "a
blueprint for non-violent resistance to repressive regimes".
The
activists were accused of acts of rebellion, planning mass civil disobedience
in the capital and producing fake passports, among other charges. Their
sentences ranged from two years and three months to eight years and six months.
Reuters
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário