ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

A dilemma between the necessity of ensuring national security and the protection of human rights

The human rights situation in Congo continues to preoccupy the international community.

During the seven year transitional period under Marshal Mobutu, there were multiple human rights violations: kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, political assassinations, ethnic wars followed by massacres of ethnic groups, military gangsterism, bombing of printing presses and publication agencies, closure of schools and universities for political reasons, unpaid salaries, deterioration in the people’s social conditions, etc. Efforts made by civil society, (NGOs and associations), were not enough to satisfy the people who were victims of all these human rights’ abuses. Hence, the appointment of a Special United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur in Congo. First of all the Chilean lawyer, Roberto Garreton, who was eventually replaced by the Romanian, Antoanelia Iulia Motoc, in 2001.

The Press: a headache

However, it must be admitted that many things have changed for the better. Human rights have become a watchword in today’s Congolese society. The government, just like the rebels, hesitates before doing anything which might enter the public eye. Indeed the government has made notable efforts to improve its human rights image. However, there is a problem — how to strike a balance between protecting human rights and ensuring the country’s security, especially in a country such as Congo torn apart by war.

The example of the United States which, during its war against terrorism, has had to restrict certain rights such as press freedom, will likely make the Congolese reflect on the question of responsible management of their rights. Especially at a time when the sovereignty and integrity of the country are more than even threatened. There are some citizens who say they must have the last say when it comes to human rights, even to the extent of going against the human rights of others. And when they are brought to order, they bellow loudly about «human rights violations»

What can be said about certain newspapers such as L’Alerte Plus, L’Alarme, Tapis Rouge, «Pot Pourri», Grognon, which categorically refuse to abide by the law, whereby they must submit their texts to the Media Control Commission before publication. They prefer to publish using disturbing headlines which offend public morality and compromise public order and national security. Headlines such as: «Wanted, Kabiladen. 15,000 dollars reward», when speaking about President Kabila who is caricatured wearing a Ben Laden beard; «Or Minister Mwenze Kongolo poisoned»; «Mwenze Kongolo has AIDS»; «Mbandaka about to fall», etc.

These «fly-by night» newspapers have no registered offices and are published clandestinely, thus preventing the people attacked in them from publishing a right to reply. All attempts by the Ministry of Communications to bring such publications into line have been in vain, obliging the security forces to become involved. Last June, even the opposition politician Joseph Olenghankoy, was forced to use the Special Branch in order to catch a clandestine journalist who had published a slanderous article about him. Then there’s the case of a West African minister visiting Kinshasa. Going through the daily press all he could read about were articles and their lurid headlines attacking Congo’s security and unity, and clearly a danger to public order. He exclaimed: «Has this been written by stateless people?»

Even those seeking protection for their human rights are not completely innocent. The sad situation in which the Congolese people find themselves these days, has pushed them to make use of a very fertile imagination in order to obtain what they consider to be their rights. The government’s blamed for all sorts of human rights violations! The names of any number of imagined victims are published! And what about all those presumed acts of violence, especially in the area of press freedom, which are publicised for all to read about, so that so-called «justice» can be done?

Political parties which deliberately sabotage the law

In addition to that section of the Press which generally serves as a medium for political parties, there are the political parties themselves. Many have quite simply refused to comply with the law, thus placing the government in front of a dilemma: There are cries about human rights’ violations whenever the government reprimands headstrong citizens, but if the State does nothing, then it’s authority is weakened all the more.

Many political parties do things which in countries with a long-standing democratic tradition would be considered high treason. They ally themselves with hostile countries and are willing to join in an armed struggle; they regularly make declarations supporting those who have taken over a major part of Congo. Other Congolese such as «King Mizele» and the followers of a politico-religious sect known as «Bundu dia Kongo», consider it a good thing to hunt down those who don’t come from the province of Lower Congo and who hold positions of responsibility and who even call for the autonomy of this province. This is also the situation in the occupied Eastern province where it’s clear that Ituri wants to secede. The same thing happened in Katanga Province under Governor Kyungu wa Kumwanza and his «Uferi» party. Rebels from Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC); from Mbusa Nyamwisi’s Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML); from Roger Lumbala’s Congolese Rally for Democracy-National (RCD-National); UDPS political activists and others, pass to and from freely in Kinshasa, in spite of waging war against the homeland. Referring to what’s happening in Spain with the Basque separatist movement, and in Corsica with the movement for independence from France, people are wondering just where all the present political tolerance will lead to, and how long will all this anarchy which nullifies the authority of the State, be tolerated.

It is said that injustice on an international level, which amounts to not according the same treatment to all countries, justifies the government of Congo’s present political tolerance. Maybe this tolerance which accentuates the two poles — that of the State’s authority and that of human rights — is the price to be paid for a return to peace.

• Tshibambe Lubowa, Congo RDC, January 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment