EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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30apr05
Equatorial Guinea politician plans reappearance in Madrid.
Exiled Equatorial Guinean politician Severo Moto will speak publicly in his country of residence Spain on Saturday, his deputy said, after his disappearance sparked concern he had been killed.
Moto, who heads a self-styled government in exile based in Spain, was reported missing by his family earlier this month. Spain's Foreign Ministry expressed concern and Spanish newspapers reported authorities suspected he may have been killed.
A Croatian newspaper said earlier this week Moto was hiding in Zagreb where he had fled in March in what the opposition politician said was an attempt to avoid assassination.
"Severo Moto will be here in person, in flesh and blood, to answer questions," Armengol Engonga, number two in Moto's government in exile, told Reuters on Friday.
Moto is a sworn enemy of Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang, who accused him of being behind a coup attempt in the tiny central African country last year.
Human rights groups accuse Obiang's government of widespread abuses and many foreign critics say it has pocketed much of the country's oil wealth. Obiang and his ministers deny the charges.
A former Spanish colony split between a mountainous jungle mainland and volcanic islands in the Gulf of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea has been ruled since 1979 by Obiang, who seized power in a coup. It is sub-Saharan Africa's third-biggest oil producer.
[Source: Reuters, Madrid, 30Apr05]
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