EFL - An article that male Rantburgers can present to their wives as a reason for going for the bouquet of roses Valentine’s Day option for the ninth year in a row.
Angolan troops and police have driven at least 10,000 Congolese from northern Angola’s diamond zones in a bloody month-old campaign, Congolese officials and witnesses said Thursday. The alleged crackdown comes amid growing complaints from Angola that Congolese and other foreigners are plundering its diamond fields -- one of the world’s largest sources of diamonds. Angolan authorities refused comment Thursday on the alleged forced expulsions. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luanda, the Angola capital, spokesman Joao Pedro said he was "unable to confirm or deny these allegations."
He must not be the "Information Minister."
Alleged survivors reaching safety near Congo’s border told The Associated Press attacks by Angolan security forces started at the end of December.
"Yeah. I'm a survivor, by Gawd!"
"Well, you allege you are. Got any proof?"
"I'm breathin'!" |
"The Angolan army and police started firing at us and burning our huts," said Congolese Puis Kabanga, reached by telephone in southern Congo, where he and other refugees from Angola had taken shelter with local clerics. Kabanga said he and other Congolese were attacked in the Angola city of Kambani. They fled, walking 11 days to the Congo border, he said. Angolan civilians armed with machetes attacked and robbed the fleeing Congolese, Kabanga said. At the border, Angola’s army and police confiscated the refugees’ remaining belongings, he said.
This is worse than the treatment that I get from the IRS.
News of the scale of the alleged expulsion drive became public Thursday with a report by Congolese rights group Voice of the Voiceless.
| That's a fine name. Very poetic and a contradiction in terms to boot... |
Beyond the 10,000 Congolese driven from Angola, hundreds more remained under arrest in Angola in "unhuman conditions," said Floribert Chebeya, president of Voice of the Voiceless.
| But nobody could hear him when he said it... |
Congo authorities said they were in negotiations with Angola over the alleged expulsions and arrests. Congolese officials were told the Congolese who were driven out or arrested had been mining diamonds without permits, Interior Minister Theophile Bemba said.
| That's why they were robbed twice on the way out of the country. |
Congo, like Angola, is coming out of a war fueled in part by diamond sales. Congo is estimated to have lost millions of dollars through illegal plundering of its resources during its war. News of Angola’s crackdown came as Congo announced a record year for diamond sales from its territory -- more than 27 million carats.
Almost sounds like genocide. Maybe the UN ought to study this problem so that nobody will get genocided.
| Voice of the Voiceless has been trying to tell 'em about it, but nothing comes out when they move their lips. |
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