999 Today, UK
April 14 2005

Prisoners starving to death

Author: Rachel Sharp14 Apr 2005

At least 70 prisoners held in Equatorial Guinea’s Black Beach prison
in Malabo are at imminent risk of starving to death, Amnesty
International has claimed.

It said 11 foreign nationals sentenced in an unfair trial in November
2004 and dozens of Equatorial Guinean political detainees arrested
throughout 2004 and held without charge or trial were among those at
most risk.

Amnesty International said conditions had drastically deteriorated
with the authorities halting the provision of prison food and
blocking all contact with families, lawyers and consular officials
over the last six weeks.

Many of those detained at Black Beach prison are already extremely
weak because of the torture or ill-treatment they have suffered and
because of chronic illnesses for which they have not received
adequate medical treatment, it said.

“Such near starvation, lack of medical attention and appalling prison
conditions represent a scandalous failure by the Equatorial Guinea
authorities to fulfil their most basic responsibilities under
international law. Unless immediate action is taken, many of those
detained at Black Beach prison will die,” said the Director of
Amnesty International’s Africa Program Kolawole Olaniyan.

It said the provision of food by the authorities was reportedly
reduced from a cup of rice daily in December 2004, to one or two
bread rolls, and since the end of February 2005, provision of any
prison food at all has been sporadic.

Prisoners and detainees are now dependent on food handed to prison
guards by families. This means that the 11 foreign nationals and
dozens of Equatorial Guinean political detainees arrested on the
mainland are particularly at risk of starvation because they do not
have families in Malabo to support them.

All those incarcerated are kept inside their cells 24-hours-a-day and
the foreign nationals are also kept with their hands and legs cuffed
at all times.

In addition to the six Armenians and five South Africans convicted
last November, Amnesty International has also learnt that four
Nigerian nationals have been held in Black Beach prison for several
months without charge or trial and without their embassy being
notified.

Two former Black Beach prisoners are now being held at Malabo’s
central police station. Convicted of attempting to overthrow the
government in June 2002 after an unfair trial, Amnesty International
considers them to be prisoners of conscience and is seriously
concerned that they may now be tortured.

Amnesty International is calling on the Equatorial Guinea authorities
to immediately provide regular and adequate food, medical care to all
who need it, remove any hand and leg cuffs, end all incommunicado
detention, and grant international humanitarian organisations such as
the International Red Cross Committee immediate access to all those
detained.

But the Equatorial Guinea authorities have denied the allegations and
said that prisoners were assured their basic rights.