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Congo RDC |
HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights violations have returned in force, reminding people of Mobutu’s dictatorship
These days, Kinshasa and the provinces are the scene of arbitrary arrests carried out by the political police force, against journalists, human rights defenders, and political party activists.
Several members of the main opposition party, Mr Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), were arrested in May and kept in detention centres. For example, Jean-Baptiste Mulumba, Mr. Tshisekedi’s economic adviser, was arrested on 16 May in Katanga and brought to Kinshasa where he was kept in inhuman conditions. Other party leaders were arrested in Kinshasa and their whereabouts is presently unknown. (Editor’s note: On 12 September, J-B Mulumba was transferred to the custody of the Military Court of Order (COM). Human rights defenders have called for this court to be abolished.)
As for journalists — following Ferruzi Sangwele’s arrest (he works with the national radio/TV network), came Raymond Kabala’s arrest and his detention incommunicado. (He works with the newspaper Alerte-Plus). Other journalists such as Jean-Larie Ndankolo from the newspaper Tapis Rouge are being hounded as the days go past.
All the time, there’s a non-stop hunt for human right’s defenders and civil society activists. Thus, the chairperson of civil society in eastern Kasaï, Lawyer Mpinga Tshibasu, was arrested on 3 July in Mbuji-Mayi and brought like a common criminal to Kinshasa. The same happened to Mr Tchéeque Mujanyi, chairman of the Human Rights League (LIDHO), who has just been arrested in Kananga, Western Kasaï.
Added to these cases (among others), there’s also the students arrested in Kinshasa at the time of the riots on the university campus last December. The students were demanding a reduction in their academic fees. These demonstrations resulted in the deaths of three police officers and two students. Some students have disappeared. Their families are trying to find out what’s happened to them, but at the time of writing, they’ve heard nothing.
Worse still, the families of those being hunted are also in trouble. The wife and eldest son of Mr Mulumba were in their turn arrested and imprisoned in conditions which left a lot to be desired. The manhunt for UDPS supporters intensified after the Sun City, South Africa, Inter-Congolese Dialogue. Tshisekedi had dared to offer himself as a presidential candidate and proposed that the Banyamulenge as a group, be given Congolese nationality. Following this, UDPS members in Kinshasa were abducted, and the former chairperson of the UDPS (Mbandaka section) and three of her daughters were raped by members of the political police, who ransacked her house.
Witnesses testify that prison conditions for those under arrest are deplorable. Many are crammed into a tiny cell where they have to sleep and perform their natural functions in one and the same place — on the ground. They also undergo physical (beatings) and mental torture.
At a time when «national reconciliation» is on everyone’s lips, political intolerance is making a comeback — inspite of the fact that rebuilding Congo should begin with restoring democracy.
The Katebe Katoto Affair
Mr. Katebe Katoto is a businessman originating from Katanga. He was unknown until December. Since then, a lot’s been said about him because he’s announced his candidature (from Brussels) for the Presidency during the transitional period. Ever since he made his announcement, any number of people having connections with Katoto, have been arrested in Lubumbashi. The list’s been growing and growing.
According to ASADHO, a non-governmental human rights organisation, the first victims of this constant hounding, were two members of the Katebe Foundation, Jean-Pierre Kibwe and Edouard Kasongo. Arrested in Lubumbashi, they were brought to Kinshasa and kept in the intelligence service’s cells. Since then, many others have been arrested, notably Rev. Emmanuel Lumbu, accused of blessing food given by the Katebe Foundation to some Churches in Lubumbashi, for distribution among internally displaced persons.
All the while, the Kinshasa government accuses Mr. Katebe of being the leader of a rebellion, with troops stationed in Zambia. His brother, Moïse Katumbi, has also been threatened with arrest, so he’s fled to Zambia. He says the accusations are a pack of lies and has invited the government to send in investigators. The Zambian government, on the other hand, says the Kinshasa government’s accusations are «loaded» and likely to upset relations between the two countries.
Revolt in Lower Congo
During the weekend of 20-21 July, the Lower Congo province was at boiling point. Peaceful demonstrations organized in Matadi, Boma, Tshiela, Loanda and Luozi, were brutally repressed, and more than 20 people were killed. The demonstrators made a bee-line to attack the court houses, which they ransacked and destroyed.
Why the unrest in a province which has always been seen as a peaceful haven? Reasons given are primarily political — the consequence of built-up frustrations which finally boiled over. The demonstrations were led by the followers of a political-religious sect called «Bundu dia Kongo» (Kingdom of Congo). Its spiritual head considers himself to be the successor of Joseph Kasavubu and says he is a descendent of the kings of the Kongo. He dreams of re-establishing this kingdom. On 22 July, he intended to proclaim Lower Congo’s independence, as a prelude to re-establishing the former Kongo Kingdom.
Most Bakongo are dissatisfied with the government set up in Kinshasa by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL). Promises were made and never kept. The people are up in arms against the one-party dictatorship which is re-establishing itself through Laurent Kabila’s Committees of Popular Power (CPP), and Joseph Kabila’s new political party, the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).
Perhaps the real reason for the on-going tension in Lower Congo and all the provinces, is the appalling socio-economic situation present in these areas. People in out-of-the-way districts are fed up with being given the run-around by the government. Today, it’s common to meet in rural areas people (men, women and children) without any clothes, because they’re lacking everything. They simply can’t find basic necessities such as salt, sugar, soap, medicines. There are no roads. Civil servants are unpaid. In other words, people feel they’ve been deceived.
That’s why, Congo’s citizens want the transition period to be as short as possible. They also want elections to be held for leaders who will appreciate they’re the people’s choice, and hence must be accountable to the people.
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