JOHANNESBURG (AP) â€" Angola's government used intimidation and baseless threats of a return to civil war to deter pro-democracy protests in the country where the president has been in power for 32 years, Human Rights Watch reported Thursday.
More than 20 people were arrested ahead of a planned protest that was inspired by the popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. The demonstration was called by an anonymous group using the Internet and cell phone text messages, but the protest did not materialize Monday.
Those detained were held for 10 hours and interrogated before being released.
New York-based Human Rights Watch denounced their arrests along with anonymous death threats that were sent to opposition politicians and human rights lawyers. The cars of two lawyers have been torched in the past week, the group said.
"Angola's ruling party should not scare people with renewed violence to deter them from freely expressing their views," Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "Such disrespect of basic political freedoms does not bode well for Angola's upcoming general elections in 2012."
Residents in Angola's capital reported an atmosphere filled with fear in the days leading up to the demonstration that ultimately did not happen, leading those with money to stock up on groceries and lock themselves in their homes. Streets usually clogged with traffic were empty.
Some families close to the ruling party fled temporarily to neighboring South Africa and as far as Brazil and Portugal, said the residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
On Sunday, some 17 musicians were arrested after one of them yelled for President Eduardo dos Santos to step down as they distributed pamphlets in the city center urging people to march.
Angolans also wanted to protest about corruption that keeps the proceeds of the country's rich oil and diamond fields in the hands of a few.
Luanda police spokesman Jorge Bengue said the musicians had been arrested to avoid potential clashes with an unidentified group of residents allegedly heading for the same location.
The rights group also said it had credible reports that officials forced teachers and other government workers in Luanda and several provincial capitals to participate in a pre-emptive "peace march" on Saturday. An estimated 20,000 people marched in Luanda.
"Teachers were threatened with job loss or salary cuts and obliged to press their students to participate by threatening them with 'problems' if they stayed home," said the statement.
Angola still is recovering from a 27-year civil war prolonged as it became a surrogate for the Cold War with Cuban troops fighting U.S.-funded rebels.
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