08.02.11 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT
The 2006
presidential elections were marred by human rights violations including
excessive use of lethal force, arbitrary arrest and detention and enforced
disappearances. In the past two months, arbitrary arrest of journalists and
opposition leaders, repression of peaceful political events, and death threats
against human rights defenders raise concerns for the forthcoming 2011
pre-electoral and electoral phases.
In light
of these recent events, Amnesty International calls on the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) authorities to protect the rights of freedom of association,
assembly and expression of its population, including human rights defenders and
members of the political opposition. In particular it calls on the authorities
to allow human rights defenders to carry out their legitimate activities
protected from threats, arbitrary arrests and detention. It calls on the
authorities to ensure that criminal laws are not applied in breach of these
rights and that anyone accused of criminal activity, including members of the
opposition, receive fair trials. Furthermore, in cases of violations,
authorities must undertake prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations of
allegations of abuses of human rights, investigations which are capable of
identifying those responsible and bringing them to
justice.
Death threats against human rights
defenders:
Amnesty
International is concerned about the security and the right to freedom of
expression and association of human rights defenders and opposition leaders in
the DRC as the country prepares to enter the pre-electoral period ahead of the
November 2011 presidential elections.
Prominent lawyers and human rights defenders Jean-Claude Katende and
Georges Kapiamba, of the Kinshasa office of the African Association for Human
Rights (ASADHO), both received explicit death threats on 1 and 2 February after
they held a press conference on the 1 February at which they condemned the
government for its harassment and repression of members of the political
opposition, citing a number of specific cases.
The
threats were anonymous and sent by text messages from different numbers. One of
the messages stated: “If you continue this intoxication campaign against us,
your days are counted. Your international partners will not save you”. Another
call warned that the men could be attacked in the forthcoming days because of
their public denunciation of the government.
On the
day of the press conference, Minister of Media and Communication and government
spokesperson Lambert Mende responded to the issues raised by ASADHO on Radio
Okapi, a United Nations funded radio station, denying
certain accusations and demanding further evidence for others. He is also
reported to have accused the human rights organisation of spreading lies, and of
being an instrument of unnamed foreign entities he claimed were seeking to
control the country.
In the
past, similar accusations by the government levelled at human rights defenders
carrying out their legitimate work, have been followed by arbitrary trials
infringing on their right to freedom of expression. Telling examples are the
2009 trials of Golden Misabiko from ASADHO’s Katanga office,
and Robert Ilunga from the Amis de Nelson Mandela pour les Droits de
l’Homme.
The
government should ensure that it abides by its responsibilities towards human
rights defenders, notably ensuring that they are protected from threats,
arbitrary arrests and detention, and take all necessary measures to protect
Jean-Claude Katende and Georges Kapiamba, including through an impartial,
thorough and effective investigation into the threats received by the two human
rights defenders, and concrete action against anyone found responsible.
Repression of political opposition:
Recent
acts of harassment and intimidation against the political opposition have also
been reported.
Eugène
Diomi Ndongala, President of the opposition party the Démocratie Chrétienne, was
arrested on 13 January 2011 in Moanda, Bas-Congo Province, where he was visiting members of
his party ahead of a national party congress scheduled for February. The arrest
took place after an incident the night before apparently initiated by an alleged
agent of the General Migration Direction (Direction Générale de Migration – DGM). He
was charged and sentenced the next day to five months prison for contempt of a
public authority and assault (“coups et blessures”). Eugène Diomi Ndongala was
eventually acquitted on 3 February by the court on appeal, reportedly after the
court found that ruling was based on insufficient evidence and that the person
allegedly involved in a fight with Eugène Diomi Ndongala was actually not
registered as employed by the DGM, as he had
claimed.
In
eastern DRC , on 27 January, the police and the army disbanded events organised
by two youth groups in the neighbourhoods of Furu and Katwa in Butembo,
North Kivu. The groups were collecting
signatures for a petition to call for the reversal of constitutional changes
recently passed by the Senate that limits presidential elections to one round of
voting. The security services tore banners away from the groups, and the
National Intelligence Agency (Agence
Nationale de Renseignements –ANR) allegedly seized a part of the
petition that contained nearly half of the 65400 signatures the groups said they
had collected. The army circled the neighbourhoods from 27 to 31 January and
reportedly searched neighbouring houses to find and seize all those who were
connected to the groups. A number of arbitrary arrests took place at the hands
of the ANR that night, and there were reports that members of the army looted
livestock from residents. All detainees had reportedly been released by 3
February.
Amnesty
International has documented over a number of years widespread involvement of
civilian security services, in particular the ANR and to a lesser extent the
DGM, in human rights violations, notably against members of the political
opposition, and is therefore concerned that other such intimidation incidents by
the security services will continue and maybe increase in the next nine months.
Arbitrary detention of journalists:
On 17
December 2010, journalist Robert Shemahamba, director of a local radio and
television station Radio-Television Communautaire Mitumba RTCM was arbitrarily
arrested and detained by the National Intelligence Agency (Agence Nationale des
Renseignements – ANR) in Uvira, South Kivu. Robert Shemahamba had hosted a
radio debate on the 12th December on Radio Mitumba which had
discussed, amongst other issues, President Kabila’s State of the Nation speech
to the National Assembly. Robert Shemahamba was summoned and interrogated on
13th December, by the state prosecutor. On the 17th of
December he was summoned and detained by the ANR, without having been informed
of the charges against him. He was held until the 27th December, in two separate
ANR detention centres, without being allowed any visitors.
Dominique Kalonzo, correspondent at Radio Maendeleo, who also
participated in the radio discussion, went into hiding after having been
publicly assaulted by ANR agents on the 24th December allegedly
attempting to arrest him by force.