7 June 2006
JOURNALISTS, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ATTACKED IN RUN-UP TO ELECTIONS
As the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) prepares to hold its first elections in more than 40 years on 30 July 2006, Journaliste en danger (JED), Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are warning that a spate of attacks against journalists and human rights activists in recent weeks could foster a climate of self-censorship in the media and deprive voters of important information.
The DRC-based JED reports that on 22 May 2006, armed assailants stormed into the offices of the Kinshasa-based broadcaster Radiotélévision Message de Vie (RTMV). They destroyed equipment and forced the station off the air. Sources said the assailants were state security agents dressed in civilian clothes.
It was the second time in a month that RTMV was forced off the air. On 14 May, armed police ordered the electricity to be cut in the district where RTMV broadcasts its signal, effectively shutting down the station for three days.
Local journalists believe the move was intended to prevent RTMV from broadcasting the arrest of evangelist pastor Fernando Kuthino, whose church owns RTMV and who expressed political views at a rally on 14 May.
In other incidents, state television reporter Ricky Nzuzi was abducted and beaten on 18 May in the southeastern town of Lubumbashi, reported JED and CPJ. His kidnappers left him abandoned in the bush the following night. Local journalists believe the attack could be linked to Nzuzi's work.
In Lubumbashi, human rights activists have also been targeted, reports JED. Several have received threats since releasing a statement on 19 April condemning corruption in the DRC's mining industry.
The statement implicates local politicians, multinational corporations and international organisations, including the World Bank, and calls on the Attorney General to "launch an investigation into all those ... implicated in the looting of Congolese natural resources."
Jean Claude Katende of the African Association for Human Rights Defence and Jean-Pierre Muteba of the Unionists' New Dynamics have received messages warning them to "shut up or else they may disappear."
On 24 April, Republican Guard military officers assaulted Anselme Masua, a reporter for Radio Okapi, in the northeastern town of Kisangani, said JED. The radio station is managed by the U.N. Mission in Congo (MUNIC) and the Swiss Hirondelle Foundation.
JED has also documented three cases in April in which radio and television antennas were sabotaged, notably those belonging to politicians from Butembo in North-Kivu, Lodja in Kasaï Oriental and Kisanga in Katanga.
In this last instance, a maintenance technician, Kayilu Mutombo, was stabbed on 29 March at a relay station on the same day that a private television station's antenna was sabotaged.
JED itself has received death threats for its press freedom monitoring activities. On 20 May, staff members received an anonymous e-mail saying "choose which coffin you want." It also threatened their families and claimed that "we know all your homes and schools."
JED staff members have been threatened several times in the past, notably after the organisation investigated the unsolved 2005 murder of journalist Franck Ngycke Kangundu and his wife, Hélène Mpaka.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, seven human rights activists have received anonymous death threats since January.
Visit these links:
- JED: http://www.jed-afrique.org/
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/drc23may06na.html
- Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/09/congo13526.htm
- RSF Report on DRC: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17396&Valider=OK
- Human Rights Watch Backgrounder: http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/drc1205/index.htm
- 19 April Statement: http://tinyurl.com/jso6h
- Governance, Mining and the Transitional Regime in the DRC: http://www.fataltransactions.org/docs/IPIS_english.pdf
- DRC Elections Dossier: http://www.niza.nl/congo-en
- Fatal Transactions Campaign: http://www.fataltransactions.org/
- UN Mission in DRC: http://www.monuc.org/
(Image Courtesy of Myriam Asmani, MONUC)
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