- The Equatorial Guinea government has lashed out on the international human rights latest report alleging widespread corruption and mismanagement of oil revenue in the West African State.
Human Rights Watch in its latest report, published earlier this week, has criticised the abuse of oil revenue by the government of President Teodoro Obiang while its citizens continue to sink in abject poverty.
The government statement signed by the head of the information at the presidential office, Miguel Oyono, termed the rights organisation's accusation as a blackmail saying the government would refuse to bow to Non Governmental organisations.
The statement further accused the organisation's agents of having spent years gathering information which lacked objectivity, stating that some were even trying to get the government to buy its services in exchange for ending the disinformation campaign.
"The government of Guinea is not for sale. Human Rights Watch start cleaning your house because of the financial setbacks of the global crisis provoked by your financial and business institutions," it read.
It further said the rights organisation's accusation were fallacy only aimed at blaring the country’s image. "Nothing that these NGOs say worries us, we have our doors open to all international organs of proven moral solvency such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the UN system to verify the accusation were malice," it said.
According to the report, since the discovery of oil in the early nineties, the GDP of Equatorial Guinea has increased by more than 5000 percent, and the country has become the fourth largest oil producer of Africa Sahara, but said however, the standard of living of the 500,000 inhabitants of the country has not improved substantially.
It further said the infant mortality has increased from the already appalling figure of 103 deaths per thousand inhabitants in 1990 to 124 per thousand in 2007. Also, the mortality rate of children under five years increased from 170 per thousand in 1990 to 206 per thousand in 2007, the report said.
Human Rights Watch appealed to the governments of USA and Spain, the ancient metropolis, to exert pressure on the authorities in Malabo to improve the situation of human rights, deny visas to officials involved in cases of corruption and identify their property to confiscate the profits and return them to the people of Equatorial Guinea.
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