Help Bring Joao Paulo Cassongo Back to the UK!
posted by megan | 24.07.2005 19:42
On Monday, June 27 2005, Joao Paulo Cassongo was forcibly removed from Colnbrook detention centre and sent to Angola. He had no prior warning and neither did his solicitor! He had a much-sought appointment for a psychological and physical assessment by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture at 4:30 pm on the same day. At about 12:30 pm he was put into isolation, denied his possessions, telephone contact numbers and access to a telephone. At 4:30 pm ten guards handcuffed him and brought him to Heathrow. He was given his removal order on the way to the airport! The Medical Foundation doctor was told that he had been taken to a court hearing. His solicitor was also so informed!!
Joao Paulo was an obvious victim of brutal torture but this was not discussed in his asylum hearings. In his own words written before deportation:
My name is Joao Paulo Cassongo and I was born in Saurimo, capital city of Lunda Sul in Angola on 19 July 1975. I am twice a victim of the civil war in Angola. During the initial phase of fighting I lost both my father and mother when I was only eight years old. I grew up in Luena, capital of Moxico province, where my adoptive mother lived. In November 2000, I was captured by the rebel movement, UNITA, and forced to fight for them. I was in a convoy on the road to Cacola in Lunda Sul on my way to see my adoptive grandmother. I have not been able to see her or my adoptive mother again.
UNITA took me to their forest camp at Mwatshi Ngwangwa where they beat me into submission. I stayed in that camp for more than 6 months. I cannot trace the time frame exactly as I was under constant mental torture. In July 2001, government troops attacked and I was captured once again, taken to their camp and subject to even greater torture as I was suspected of being a rebel soldier. They put me into a bunker and beat me everyday and gave me very little to eat. There were no windows and no fresh air. One day they took ten of us to cut bushes in the forest area. This was somewhere between Quito and Cunene in Bie province. The forest was being cleared because the hunt was on for Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA. I took advantage of a moment of distraction on the part of the guards to escape through the forest. It took me over one day to find my way to a main road where I boarded a lorry and made my way to Namibia and then to the UK.
My claim for asylum was turned down in 2004 and I have been in detention ever since. I am suffering from nightmares about the war and the torture I was subject to and have severe headaches, insomnia and mental depression. I am not comfortable with myself and my mental state. My adoptive mother died sometime during this ordeal and I have no family to look after me and give me protection. Will you please help me receive the treatment I need to heal the scars of war and torture?
Preliminary research into the situation in Angola in the period referred to above upholds much of Joao Paulo's personal history. In spite of the Lusaka Peace Accords of 1994 between the MPLA government and the rebel force UNITA, there was a resurgence of intense fighting in Angola from 1998 until 2002. Loss of the presidential elections and a split in the rebel movement sent Jonas Savimbi back to the bush. However, by then, UNITA was a much-reduced fighting force and had to resort to guerrilla tactics. Both it and the government forces resorted to press-ganging youth into service (Angola Peace Monitor, vol. 6, no. 1, 29 September 1999). This is what happened to Joao Paulo when he was ambushed on the road to Cacolo. In respect of that particular incident, the Monitor reported “UNITA is reported to have taken control of Luangue, where it has clashed with the Angolan army. The report also suggests that UNITA are moving supplies from Cuango for a possible attack on Cacolo (vol. 7, issue 3, November 2000).”
MPLA government forces counter-attacked whereever UNITA had established strongholds and, by the end of March 2001, even Savimbi had to admit that his troops had suffered defeats. The government then undertook a major offensive to flush him out of the bush. As their troops moved through Bie and Moxico provinces, they deployed a scorched-earth policy against the civilian population. The South African Institute of International Affairs reported in 2003: “The extent of starvation and disease among people living in previously UNITA-controlled areas is a clear sign that the Angolan government's scorched-earth policy had achieved the desired results (SAIIA, Angola: Prospects for Peace and Prosperity, Johannesburg, 2003, p. 30).” The suffering of civilians has had its impact on the reintegration of returning soldiers and families. Not only is “the absorption capacity at the local community level…rather small because of the humanitarian crisis” but “many inhabitants in local communities are unwilling to receive these ex-combatants and their families back (SAIIA, op.cit., pp. 32-33).” The Angola Peace Monitor reports of March and April 2005 show that this situation exists even today. The reports state that young men returning to Moxico province and suspected of having been UNITA soldiers are liable to violence and even lynching by the local population. Even though Moxico was the birthplace of Jonas Savimbi and the location of the earliest UNITA bases, the population resented the intense suffering the civil war caused them. On 22 April, the Monitor reported “there is friction between the local population and former UNITA soldiers returning to the area. Despite calls for tolerance from religious and political leaders, much bitterness remains over the war.” (
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200506150818.html)
Compounding Joao Paulo's suffering from the violence and brutality of the civil war has been the loss of both parents and his adoptive mother, prolonged detention and the dread to return to the situation described above. Without the protection of a family, Joao Paulo cannot chance returning to his home province. Under the Human Rights Convention, signatory governments are obliged to give safe haven to those victims of torture who ask for protection. Not only has the UK government failed him in this respect but it allowed him to be deported by stealth, and be sent without clothes, possessions or money and with documentation which was not sufficient for legal entry in Angola. At this moment, he shelters with friends of a friend and is trying to launch an appeal against his deportation.
How You can help:
Joao Paulo and his friends and supporters have set up a campaign to persuade Tony McNulty, Minister of Immigration to reconsider with a view to revoking the deportation order and to investigate the procedures that led to deportation by stealth and deception. To this end, they have drawn up a model letter and a petition, which they are asking people to dwnload print, circulate and send off. Petitions should be returned to the campaign office: when sufficient signatures have been collected, the campaign will present them to the Minister.
How you can help:
Go to the following link and complete the form letter and sign the petition:
http://www.ncadc.org.uk/newszine60/joaopaulo.htm
My name is Joao Paulo Cassongo and I was born in Saurimo, capital city of Lunda Sul in Angola on 19 July 1975. I am twice a victim of the civil war in Angola. During the initial phase of fighting I lost both my father and mother when I was only eight years old. I grew up in Luena, capital of Moxico province, where my adoptive mother lived. In November 2000, I was captured by the rebel movement, UNITA, and forced to fight for them. I was in a convoy on the road to Cacola in Lunda Sul on my way to see my adoptive grandmother. I have not been able to see her or my adoptive mother again.
UNITA took me to their forest camp at Mwatshi Ngwangwa where they beat me into submission. I stayed in that camp for more than 6 months. I cannot trace the time frame exactly as I was under constant mental torture. In July 2001, government troops attacked and I was captured once again, taken to their camp and subject to even greater torture as I was suspected of being a rebel soldier. They put me into a bunker and beat me everyday and gave me very little to eat. There were no windows and no fresh air. One day they took ten of us to cut bushes in the forest area. This was somewhere between Quito and Cunene in Bie province. The forest was being cleared because the hunt was on for Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA. I took advantage of a moment of distraction on the part of the guards to escape through the forest. It took me over one day to find my way to a main road where I boarded a lorry and made my way to Namibia and then to the UK.
My claim for asylum was turned down in 2004 and I have been in detention ever since. I am suffering from nightmares about the war and the torture I was subject to and have severe headaches, insomnia and mental depression. I am not comfortable with myself and my mental state. My adoptive mother died sometime during this ordeal and I have no family to look after me and give me protection. Will you please help me receive the treatment I need to heal the scars of war and torture?
Preliminary research into the situation in Angola in the period referred to above upholds much of Joao Paulo's personal history. In spite of the Lusaka Peace Accords of 1994 between the MPLA government and the rebel force UNITA, there was a resurgence of intense fighting in Angola from 1998 until 2002. Loss of the presidential elections and a split in the rebel movement sent Jonas Savimbi back to the bush. However, by then, UNITA was a much-reduced fighting force and had to resort to guerrilla tactics. Both it and the government forces resorted to press-ganging youth into service (Angola Peace Monitor, vol. 6, no. 1, 29 September 1999). This is what happened to Joao Paulo when he was ambushed on the road to Cacolo. In respect of that particular incident, the Monitor reported “UNITA is reported to have taken control of Luangue, where it has clashed with the Angolan army. The report also suggests that UNITA are moving supplies from Cuango for a possible attack on Cacolo (vol. 7, issue 3, November 2000).”
MPLA government forces counter-attacked whereever UNITA had established strongholds and, by the end of March 2001, even Savimbi had to admit that his troops had suffered defeats. The government then undertook a major offensive to flush him out of the bush. As their troops moved through Bie and Moxico provinces, they deployed a scorched-earth policy against the civilian population. The South African Institute of International Affairs reported in 2003: “The extent of starvation and disease among people living in previously UNITA-controlled areas is a clear sign that the Angolan government's scorched-earth policy had achieved the desired results (SAIIA, Angola: Prospects for Peace and Prosperity, Johannesburg, 2003, p. 30).” The suffering of civilians has had its impact on the reintegration of returning soldiers and families. Not only is “the absorption capacity at the local community level…rather small because of the humanitarian crisis” but “many inhabitants in local communities are unwilling to receive these ex-combatants and their families back (SAIIA, op.cit., pp. 32-33).” The Angola Peace Monitor reports of March and April 2005 show that this situation exists even today. The reports state that young men returning to Moxico province and suspected of having been UNITA soldiers are liable to violence and even lynching by the local population. Even though Moxico was the birthplace of Jonas Savimbi and the location of the earliest UNITA bases, the population resented the intense suffering the civil war caused them. On 22 April, the Monitor reported “there is friction between the local population and former UNITA soldiers returning to the area. Despite calls for tolerance from religious and political leaders, much bitterness remains over the war.” (
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200506150818.html) Compounding Joao Paulo's suffering from the violence and brutality of the civil war has been the loss of both parents and his adoptive mother, prolonged detention and the dread to return to the situation described above. Without the protection of a family, Joao Paulo cannot chance returning to his home province. Under the Human Rights Convention, signatory governments are obliged to give safe haven to those victims of torture who ask for protection. Not only has the UK government failed him in this respect but it allowed him to be deported by stealth, and be sent without clothes, possessions or money and with documentation which was not sufficient for legal entry in Angola. At this moment, he shelters with friends of a friend and is trying to launch an appeal against his deportation.
How You can help:
Joao Paulo and his friends and supporters have set up a campaign to persuade Tony McNulty, Minister of Immigration to reconsider with a view to revoking the deportation order and to investigate the procedures that led to deportation by stealth and deception. To this end, they have drawn up a model letter and a petition, which they are asking people to dwnload print, circulate and send off. Petitions should be returned to the campaign office: when sufficient signatures have been collected, the campaign will present them to the Minister.
How you can help:
Go to the following link and complete the form letter and sign the petition:
http://www.ncadc.org.uk/newszine60/joaopaulo.htm
posted by megan