VZCZCXRO7355
RR RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0785/01 2122122
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 312122Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4202
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE

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 
 
LUANDA 00000785  002 OF 004 
 
 
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 
 
LUANDA 00000785  003 OF 004 
 
 
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