Rafael Marques (journalist)

Rafael Marques de Morais ( born August 31, 1971 in Luanda, Angola) is an Angolan human rights activist, journalist and writer. He became internationally known with reports of corruption in the government of Angola and the diamond industry. He runs an anti- corruption website MakaAngola ( www.makaangola.org ).

The Lipstick of Dictatorship

He wrote the article " Presidencia da República: O Epicentro de Corrupção em Angola " ( German: The Angolan Presidency: The epicenter of corruption " ). In 1999 he wrote the essay" O Baton as Ditadura " ( German: " The Lipstick dictatorship " ) in which he criticized President José Eduardo dos Santos sharp the title is a play on words. on the one hand, the word" Batom " in Portuguese lipstick, andererseit is meant by the word" Baton " the baton of the police.

Due to this publication Marques de Morais was, on 13 October 1999 by the DNIC, Direcção Nacional de Investigação Criminal: interviewed ( German National Directorate of Criminal Investigations ) and detained for several hours. Later he gave an interview to Radio Ecclesia, by repeated his criticism of the government dos Santos. On October 16, 1999 arrested him twenty armed members of a Rapid Reaction Force of the police, together with Aguiar dos Santos ( publisher of Agora ) and Antonio José Freitas ( Agora Reporter). The accusation was slander.

Marques de Morais says dos Santos bear the responsibility for the " destruction of the country .... and the promotion of incompetence, embezzlement and corruption as political and social values." He also referred to President dos Santos as a " dictator." On 31 March 2000, a court in the capital Luanda Freitas was innocent, Aguiar and Marques de Morais, however guilty. The court ordered Aguiar to two months in prison and fined 6,000 U.S. dollars. Marques de Morais has spoken for the violation of Article 43, 44, 45 and 46 of Law No. 22/91 guilty and received a sentence of six months. He then denied for eight days food intake in order to protest against the ban to speak with his lawyer Anacleta Perreira and to meet his family. The police released him on bail on 25 November free, but forbade him to leave or talk to journalists Luanda.

" For outstanding courage," he was awarded by the National Association of Black Journalists in the United States the Percy Qoboza Award in 2000. In 2006 he received the award for moral courage of the " The Train Foundation ", formerly Northcote Parkinson Fund. He also has several reports on human rights abuses in the diamond trade wrote: "Hunger harvest on Angola's diamond fields " (2008), "Operation Kissonde: The diamonds of misery and humiliation " (2006) and " Lunda: The stones of Death" (2005) co-financed by the Author Rui Campos.

Swell

• Website Maka Anti -Corruption Watchdog (English / Portuguese)
• Anne Jung Unit: The shiny sides of the war - exploitation of natural resources in Africa ( German, PDF, 232 kB)