coupures 21 mai 2007 (eng)

Congo-Kinshasa: Newspaper Publisher Released After Five Days in Detention

Journaliste En Danger (Kinshasa)
PRESS RELEASE18 May 2007Posted to the web 18 May 2007
Phambu Lutete, publisher of the Kinshasa-based bi-weekly newspaper "La Tolérance", was granted a provisional release on 11 May 2007 after five days in detention. The journalist told JED that he paid "bail" of US$50.
Phambu was arrested on 6 May by agents of Kinshasa's Provincial Police Inspection (IPK) before being transferred on 8 May to the Kinshasa/Matete High Court Prosecutor's Office.
The journalist was officially accused of "threatening and attempting to swindle" Pauline Ipelueka, a senior official with Kinshasa's property tax office. Phambu had been preparing an article in which he expressed surprise at Ipeluka's recent appointment to a high-level post, given the fact she has been facing legal proceedings since the beginning of the year.
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Congo prisons dismal
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 18 (UPI) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo needs to act quickly to improve its dismal prison system, a United Nations commissioner said.
"Congo's prisons are overpopulated because there are many prolonged detentions as most detainees don't have access to justice," said Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Arbour spoke Thursday after visiting the penitentiary in Kinshasa, which holds 3,000 and was built to hold 1,500, said the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Network.
Arbour also petitioned federal authorities to compile an inventory of serious human rights violations that occurred between 1992 and 2003, before the International Criminal Court was established.
Many former fighters, rebel chiefs and militia leaders now serve in the DRC's army and government, she said, emphasizing she opposes amnesty for any official who committed crimes in the past
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INTERVIEW-World must not abandon DRC, UN rights boss says
19 May 2007 12:54:28 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, May 19 (Reuters) - The international community must not turn its back on Congo over what many see as a worsening rights record since historic elections last year, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Saturday.
Backed by international funding and the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping force, the landmark polls were supposed to usher in a new era of democracy and stability in Democratic Republic of Congo after decades of government mismanagement and war.
However, in the six months since President Joseph Kabila was sworn in as Congo's first democratically-elected leader in more than 40 years, his government has been behind serious abuses that have many campaigners increasingly worried.
"This isn't the time to walk away from a country that needs huge assistance. We have to engage, but very directly and frankly," Louise Arbour told Reuters by telephone from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in Congo's violence-plagued east.
"There's no reluctance on the part of the authorities to recognise the magnitude of the problems. There's no state of profound denial" she said at the end of a six-day visit to Congo. "I'm not so sure about their willingness to do anything about it."
In January, clashes between opposition demonstrators and security forces left more than 100 civilians dead in western Bas-Congo province, close to the Gulf of Guinea. Human rights campaigners called the killings a targeted government crackdown.
Clashes between the army and fighters loyal to Kabila's chief political rival Jean-Pierre Bemba shook Kinshasa in March, leaving hundreds dead. Opposition supporters were victims of arbitrary arrests and intimidation following the disturbances.
CRISIS
Now a process intended to bring renegade soldiers back into the ranks of the national army has sparked a crisis in North Kivu, a flashpoint both during and after the 1998-2003 war that killed some four million people, most from hunger and disease.
Arbour said the Rwandan-brokered deal, which saw thousands of fighters loyal to accused war criminal Laurent Nkunda integrated into so-called mixed brigades, was a serious error.
Human rights groups accuse the mixed brigades of rape, arbitrary killings and the systematic displacement of civilians.
"If the thought was 'it was better to bring them into the tent', this has been grossly mistaken. The idea now is what to do next," she said.
A report by U.N. human rights investigators blamed one brigade for the massacre of at least 15 local villagers in March. And more than 130,000 people have fled their homes, most out of fear of soldiers meant to protect them.
"There's no question it requires pretty serious security sector reform," she said. "If you had even a remotely functioning military justice system, you might have a deterrent. But, in reality, capacity is pretty well nil."
Following a meeting with Kabila in Kinshasa, Arbour told reporters she was reassured by the president's commitment to improve his country's human rights record. She told Reuters it was now up to him to live up to his promises.
"There are things happening here in North Kivu, particularly on the military side, that are going to test (Kabila's) willingness to do so in the coming weeks and months."
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At least 2 dead, 20 wounded in Congo rebel ambush
19 May 2007 19:53:25 GMT
Source: Reuters
KINSHASA, May 19 (Reuters) - Suspected Rwandan rebels killed at least two people and wounded 20 others in an attack in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, in the latest sign that U.N.-backed peace efforts are faltering.
The ambush on a civilian truck in the troubled North Kivu province was believed to have been carried out by elements of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo, a U.N. spokeswoman said.
It took place near the town of Katwiguru, around 100 km (60 miles) north of the provincial capital, Goma.
"Among the passengers apparently were two (government soldiers). One was killed. The other was injured," Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission in North Kivu, told Reuters.
One civilian was also killed. At least three of the injured transported to a nearby hospital were in grave condition, a local officials said.
"We had information of attempted attacks by FDLR along the same axis the day before," Van Den Wildenberg said, adding that one police officer was killed and another was injured during efforts to secure the road on Friday.
"So far we have confirmed a total of three confirmed killed, and it may be more," she said, adding U.N. peacekeepers were stepping up patrols in the area.
Fighting has recently flared in North Kivu, long a flash point both during and after Congo's 1998-2003 war, following a deal ironically designed to finally bring peace to the volatile province which shares a border with Rwanda.
After President Joseph Kabila won Congo's first democratic elections in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began talks to bring dissident Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda and his troops into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.
But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies, the FDLR.
Some 113,000 civilians have fled fighting in North Kivu since February, and the province now has 600,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.
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At least 2 dead, 20 wounded in Congo rebel ambush
19 May 2007 19:53:25 GMT
Source: Reuters

KINSHASA, May 19 (Reuters) - Suspected Rwandan rebels killed at least two people and wounded 20 others in an attack in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, in the latest sign that U.N.-backed peace efforts are faltering.
The ambush on a civilian truck in the troubled North Kivu province was believed to have been carried out by elements of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo, a U.N. spokeswoman said.
It took place near the town of Katwiguru, around 100 km (60 miles) north of the provincial capital, Goma.
"Among the passengers apparently were two (government soldiers). One was killed. The other was injured," Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission in North Kivu, told Reuters.
One civilian was also killed. At least three of the injured transported to a nearby hospital were in grave condition, a local officials said.
"We had information of attempted attacks by FDLR along the same axis the day before," Van Den Wildenberg said, adding that one police officer was killed and another was injured during efforts to secure the road on Friday.
"So far we have confirmed a total of three confirmed killed, and it may be more," she said, adding U.N. peacekeepers were stepping up patrols in the area.
Fighting has recently flared in North Kivu, long a flash point both during and after Congo's 1998-2003 war, following a deal ironically designed to finally bring peace to the volatile province which shares a border with Rwanda.
After President Joseph Kabila won Congo's first democratic elections in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began talks to bring dissident Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda and his troops into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.
But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies, the FDLR.
Some 113,000 civilians have fled fighting in North Kivu since February, and the province now has 600,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.
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