In a
repressive state with the veneer of democratically elected institutions, such
as Angola, the ways in which abuse is rationalized can sound like a parody.
Journalist
Coque Mukuta, 28, experienced such a parody on January 4, 2013, while
interviewing women street vendors about how they had been arbitrarily beaten by
the police while selling in the streets of Viana, in the outskirts of Luanda.
“I personally saw, while doing my work, six police officers severely lashing
women street vendors with electric wires with the plastic insulation removed
(fios eléctricos descascados),” said Mukuta.
Rather
than leaving the area, the journalist, who is the correspondent for the
Portuguese service of Voice of America, remained adamant in finishing the
recording of his third interview on site.
“They [the
six police officers] came straight at me, hauled me off into their vehicle,
confiscated my equipment, and slapped me several times, and told me I would be
thrown in jail,” he said.
At the
municipal command of the National Police in Viana, the journalist got back his
tape recorder and one of his mobile phones, while waiting for the public
prosecutor to hear his case. According to the journalist, the officer in charge
returned the material to avoid getting them mixed up in the bundles of
confiscated materials they had in store.
“So, I
used my phone to send an urgent text message to the personal phone of the
commander-general of the National Police, commissar Ambrósio de Lemos, on my
arrest”, explained Coque Mukuta.
Eventually,
the top police commander saw his message and called his subordinates in Viana
for a briefing on what was happening.
And, this
is where the story takes a new turn. “The officer in charge of operations came
to me, informed me of the commander’s phone call and told me that I was free,
after holding me for five hours.”
“He then
told me that I look too shabby, I am too small [1,62 m] and simple to be
recognized as a journalist by his men,” said Coque Mukuta. “He told me that I
have chosen a risky profession and, therefore, wished me more courage in
bearing the risks,” remarked the journalist.
That was
it. The shabby, short and simple journalist, according to police profiling,
walked free.
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