U.N. rights investigators report abuses in Angola

GENEVA - U.N. human rights investigators say people are still being arbitrarily detained, tortured and often denied access to a lawyer in post-war Angola.

Wrapping up a 10-day visit to the southern African country, they also cited credible allegations that civilians are held incommunicado at military facilities in Cabinda province and "never produced before a judge", akin to "secret detention".

The United Nations working group on arbitrary detention, composed of independent experts, held private interviews with around 400 detainees during its visit at the government's invitation. It issued a statement late on Thursday.

"The working group concludes that there is still no effective system in place which can prevent instances of arbitrary detention from occurring," it said.

"The right to access to a lawyer and a corresponding legal aid system as guaranteed by the Constitution exists only in theory."

The investigators, led by Algerian lawyer Leila Zerrougui who chairs the group, said they were denied access to Cabinda military prison and to Viana Immigration Detention Centre.

However they had received "credible allegations in Cabinda that civilians are or were detained incommunicado at military institutions and never produced before a judge".

"It would like to stress that secret detention puts the persons concerned at risk of ill-treatment, disappearance and other serious human-rights violations", the group said.

The U.N. investigators also voiced concern at allegations about torture and other forms of ill-treatment to extract confessions during the crucial early stage of legal proceedings.

"A number of detainees at Cacuaco Prison and also at Viana Prison showed visible signs of torture," they said.

Oil-rich Angola, still emerging from a 27-year war between the government and rebels which ended in 2002, is reforming its judicial system, still dominated by the interior ministry, according to the U.N. group.

A shortage of qualified judges adds to a large backlog of criminal cases, and the release of wrongfully held detainees, particularly in the capital Luanda, "often depend on bribes rather than on following legal procedure", it said.