'Dialogue' Opens In E.Guinea Without Key Opposition Leaders

Equatorial Guinea on Monday began a "national dialogue" put forward by its autocratic leader in the absence of key opposition figures as political prisoners remained behind bars.

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jul, 2018 ) :Equatorial Guinea on Monday began a "national dialogue" put forward by its autocratic leader in the absence of key opposition figures as political prisoners remained behind bars.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema -- who has ruled the tiny West African state since 1979 -- announced the initiative on June 11, declaring a "dialogue and political interaction" would take place "to preserve peace and development." The five-day event -- the sixth such "dialogue" in Obiang's nearly 39 years in office -- comes on the heels of an attempted coup last December and a crackdown on the opposition.

Obiang later issued a decree granting what he described as a total amnesty, releasing political prisoners to enable "broad attendance by all political actors" -- a condition set by leading opposition figures at home and abroad.

He vowed that all who took part would be guaranteed freedom and safety.

Interior Minister Clemente Engonga Nguema Onguene told state television that the dialogue would discuss "issues such as democracy, human rights." But political leaders living in self-imposed exile abroad did not show up on Monday and the leading opposition, the Citizens for Innovation (CI) party, said that none of its jailed members had been freed.

"We expect nothing from this dialogue, given the political backdrop," CI leader Gabriel Nse Obiang told AFP.

Leading exiled figure Severo Moto Nsa boycotted the meeting, attacking it as a "PR operation." - Crackdown - The CI was banned on February 26. Twenty-one of its members, including the party's sole MP, were subsequently sentenced to 30 years for "sedition, public disorder, attacks on authority and serious bodily harm.

" Dozens of its supporters have been tortured, according to the CI which says two have died in custody.

The crackdown against the party was purportedly over scuffles that took place before legislative elections last November.

But it came on the heels of the latest in at least half a dozen attempted coups against Obiang, which reportedly involved a group of men from Chad, Central African Republic (car) and Sudan.

For the first time, civil society, the church and the international community have been invited to the dialogue, and the country's 17 permitted parties have said they will take part part.

The last such event was held in 2014 and five opposition parties were legalised after that, including the now-banned CI.

Obiang also issued an amnesty ahead of the 2014 forum, but Amnesty International says that not all political prisoners were freed.

Obiang, 76, has ruled the West African state since 1979, a tenure widely criticised for corruption and human rights abuses. Most of its 1.2 million people live in deep poverty despite the country's oil wealth.

Obiang seized power in the former Spanish colony by ousting his own uncle, first post-independence president Francisco Macias Nguema, who was then shot by firing squad.

He won a fifth seven-year term in 2016 with nearly 94 percent of the ballot. General elections last November saw his party win 92 percent of the vote. Both elections have been criticised as fraudulent.

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