coupures 19 juin 07 (eng)

Lucy Liu visits DR Congo
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Last Modified: 18 Jun 2007By: Channel 4 News
Hollywood actress Lucy Liu has visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, meeting former child soldiers and victims of sexual violence.
The war there has been described as the world's forgotten conflict, with 1,200 people losing their lives every day and the United Nations says half of those are children.More than four million are thought to have died in the region in the last ten years, either as a direct result of the conflict or due to the starvation and disease that go with it.In her role as a Unicef ambassador, Lucy Liu travelled to the eastern province of North Kivu, where she visited the camps of Goma and Bunia.She said: "It was really shocking. You don't really get a sense of how horrifying it is until you go into the areas of internally displaced persons. The conditions are terrible and the people are really suffering incredibly, even with help. "I met a lot of young girls who had been brutally raped. Some of them had been violated so much that their thighs had been dislocated. They had become because incontinent because their internal organs were so badly damaged."I met child soldiers who had escaped somehow . They had found Unicef centres had in the short time they were there, they were able to regain confidence, have some schooling and learn something vocational so they could make money."
Children who were associated with armed groups during the conflict now need help to re-enter society and only half the population has access to clean water.Lucy added: "The immediate solution is monetary donation. The broader outlook is to make sure that people are aware of the conflict that has been ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo and to make sure they don't forget about these people."This is one of the worst humanitarian crises since World War II. The people who are committing the atrocities have complete impunity so we have to make sure pressure is put on the government there."People are coming into the country and mining the resources, using the children in dangerous conditions in the mines but they are not giving back to the country."They could pay a tax or donate some of the money they make. There are so many things that can be done to help."
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Congo-Kinshasa: Local ANR Officials Close Mayi-Munene Radio Station, Confiscate Equipment

Journaliste En Danger (Kinshasa)
PRESS RELEASE18 June 2007Posted to the web 18 June 2007
JED condemns the closing of a community radio station emitting in Mayi-Munene, near Tshikapa, in central RD Congo, and the confiscation of its equipment, by local officials of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) on 9 June 2007.
JED has accused Ibrahim Tutulu and Gustave Amuri, the ANR officials who blame the station for "poisoning the population" and "functioning without the ANR's approval," of abuse of power. In fact, a 22 June 1996 law, laying down the rules for freedom of the press in DR Congo, does not refer to the ANR as having any kind of authority over the opening of a media outlet. As for "the poisoning of the population", JED notes that, once again, the ANR is involving itself in matters that are beyond its authority. The organisation recalls that such matters fall under the jurisdiction of the authority regulating media in the DRC (HAM).
Consequently, JED urges General Denis Kalume Numbi, the interior minister, to order the ANR to return the confiscated equipment, and allow the radio station that was arbitrarily closed to operate again; and sanction the two officials for their abuse of power.
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DR CONGO UN calls for media freedom in DRCTue, 19 Jun 2007
The UN Secretary-General's special representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo called on Monday for strict measures to ensure the safety of journalists in the country.
"It is high time, it is urgent that strict measures are taken to protect journalists and guarantee freedom of expression," said William Swing.
He was speaking at a ceremony attended by members of the DRC government and representatives of the international community to pay tribute to senior radio journalist Serge Maheshe (31) murdered on 13 June.
Maheshe, who worked for the UN-sponsored Okapi radio station, was shot in Bukavu in Sud-Kivu in eastern DRC by two men in civilian clothing as he was about to enter his car, which bore the UN symbol.
Two companions were not targeted and nothing was stolen.
On Sunday a journalist working for public television, Anne-Marie Kalanga, and her young brother were seriously injured by bullets fired by men in police uniforms who were trying to force an entry into her home. The attackers fled empty-handed.
Over the weekend another Okapi journalist was threatened, Swing said.
"Enough is enough," he said. "We must say loud and clear that the new (DR) Congo no longer tolerates violence and intolerance against our journalist colleagues and against the freedom of the media."
A series of demonstrations are planned in Kinshasa this week to protest against the attacks on Maheshe and Kalanga, according to the Congo National Press Union.
Two DRC soldiers were put on trial before a military court hours after being arrested for the murder of Maheshe.
But a local media rights group, Journalists in Danger (JED), condemned the summary trial, saying that no serious inquiry had been made or ballistic expertise sought by the authorities.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) also expressed concern, saying it was "surprised" by the speed of the proceedings and the conditions in which the trial was being held.
"We can be pleased at the swiftness of the inquiry, but the precipitation with which military justice has presented the two suspects is more than surprising," it said in a statement in Kinshasa.
AFP
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South Africa gives 200 mln USD to DRC for power project

South Africa will fund the construction of an interconnection grid to facilitate the distribution of electricity from the Inga power generation plants to various provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at a cost of 200 million U.S. dollars.
Speaking in an interview which was aired Sunday on Top Congo, a private radio station, DRC's energy minister Salomon Banamuhere said this was one of the agreements which were concluded during DRC's President Joseph Kabila Kabange's visit to South Africa from June 3 to June 5, 2007.
The minister, who, among other ministers, was part of the delegation that accompanied the president during the visit, said the funds will notably be used to finance the construction of a substation at Tshimbulu, southern DRC, to help tap electricity from the Inga-Katanga high voltage line.
As a client, South Africa is very interested in the electricity potential of the Grand Inga scheme, particularly with regard to the planned Inga III power project, for which funds for feasibility studies have already been allocated, the minister said before adding that South Africa and all the other Southern Africa countries were keen to benefit from the electricity produced at Inga.
Meanwhile, only 5 percent of DRC's population has access to electricity, with Kinshasa, capital of the country itself, being poorly served.
Commissioned in 1972, the Inga I power plant has a production capacity of 351 MW while Inga II, which has been in operation since 1982, produces another 1,424 MW. Inga III, under implementation, will produce 3,500 MW. At the moment, Inga I and II are operating at 20 percent of their capacity, with most turbines not running, owing to lack spare parts.
Source: Xinhua
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KINSHASA (AFP) - Three men dressed in police uniforms shot a broadcast journalist in the
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Democratic Republic of Congo over the weekend, leaving her with serious injuries, state broadcaster RTNC said Monday.
RTNC journalist Anne-Marie Kalanga and her younger brother Jean-Pierre Kabemba were both hit in the leg when the three men fired into their house in west Kinshasa early Sunday, RTNC chief Emmanuel Kipolongo told AFP.
The attack came less than a week after the murder of Serge Maheshe, a 31-year-old journalist with the UN-sponsored Okapi radio station.
The Congo Media Watchdog (OMEC) group on Monday "rigorously denounced" what it called the "murder attempt" on Kalanga, saying in a statement that it was one of many such acts of violence apparently aimed "at silencing journalists."
Demonstrations were planned from Tuesday onwards in Kinshasa by media groups, and a sit-in was planned in front of army headquarters, DRC's national press union said.
Maheshe, who was murdered on June 13, ran Okapi in Bukavu in eastern DRC and had been threatened by various groups, including the military, for his outspoken reporting.
His murder by two men in plain clothes was widely condemned, including by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and by
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European Union ambassadors. At least 5,000 people meanwhile braved driving rain to attend his funeral.
Two DRC soldiers, Corporal Katuzelo Mbo and Sergeant Arthur Bokongo Lokombe, went on trial before a military court for the murder on Friday. Media rights groups including Reporters without Borders (RSF) expressed concern about the summary nature of their trial.
Kalanga, who was struck by two bullets, and her brother, hit by one, were both being treated at the Ngaliema clinic. The perpetrators fled the scene without taking anything, French-language daily Le Phare quoted witnesses as saying.
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Congo-Kinshasa: New Government Disappoints

allAfrica.com
INTERVIEW18 June 2007Posted to the web 18 June 2007
Francois GouahingaWashington, DC
Voters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) voted last year in their first multiparty elections since 1965. Incumbent Joseph Kabila, who had assumed the presidency in 2001 following the assassination of his father, won the presidential elections, defeating challenger Jean-Pierre Bemba in a runoff.
The DRC still faces enormous challenges. In late January, more than 100 civilians in western DRC were killed when opposition demonstrations were violently quelled by police and soldiers; in March, between 300 and 500 people were killed in fighting between Bemba's guards and the army, which led to Bemba first seeking refuge in a foreign embassy and later leaving for Portugal. Questions linger about the progress made since elections and the success of the country's peace process.
The International Crisis Group's Jason K. Stearns, who served with the United Nations mission in the DRC from 2002 to 2004, spoke to allAfrica's Francois Gouahinga on post-election DRC. Excerpts:
What has happened in the DRC since last year's election?
There was a fair amount of euphoria after the elections, that were seen by many outside observers to be relatively free and fair. It was a huge logistical effort – one of the largest election efforts in the world – with an enormous country of 60 million people. But unfortunately, immediately after that, there was a fair amount of disappointment by both domestic as well as international actors on how the newly-elected government dealt with its opposition and with dissent.
Why the disappointment?
The first expression of this [dissent] was in January this year when a local opposition group, the Bundu dia Kongo group (BDK), in Bas-Congo province, to the west of Kinshasa, wanted to hold a demonstration to protest corruption and the provincial assembly election. While it was a fairly rowdy demonstration and several police officers were killed, the authorities reacted very brutally with disproportionate force…They massacred over a hundred people, in many cases when there was absolutely no reason for these people to be attacked or to be shot at. That was the first indication of how the government was going to deal with its opposition.
The second indication [of dealing with dissent] was in March in Kinshasa. Again there was a situation where… Jean-Pierre Bemba had a bodyguard unit that was too large, 400 to 500 people around him, that he obviously was not going to be able to keep. But again the government dealt in a very heavy-handed, disproportionate fashion with this instead of negotiating. Both sides dug in their heels and what ensued was probably the worst fighting that Kinshasa has ever seen, with over 200 people dead on the streets.
And after that fighting the opposition television stations were shut down, the opposition party headquarters were occupied by the presidential guard and numerous opposition politicians – we estimate over 80 – were either harassed or arrested by the police or the presidential guard. There was a broad-scale crackdown against the opposition and particularly in Kinshasa. The situation has gotten better now, so I think that the tensions have been diffused in Kinshasa.
How has the government performed?
[Another] disappointment that came after the elections is the relative lack of action by the newly-elected government. It has not done very much at all in terms of living up to the promises it had made to the electorate during the election campaign. There has been very little action by Prime Minister [Antoine] Gizenga's government ... [It] convenes fairly rarely and takes very few decisions despite the many challenges facing the country.
What type of financial situation is the government in?
The third development is the looming fiscal crisis, as the Congo is strapped for cash. They have been operating; they don't have a budget at the moment; they are pretty much running on fumes as it stands. And because of lack of transparency and accountability, the IMF cut the budgetary aid last year; all of the donors followed suit, so there is no direct budgetary aid to the Congo and they might not meet the completion point under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative of the World Bank, which means that their debt servicing might also go up significantly in 2008.
What is Jean-Pierre Bemba's future?
People have been talking about Bemba not coming back to the Congo because there is a possible trial or prosecution against [him] looming … [because] he had been threatened with a case of treason against him. In order to pursue this case, his senatorial, his parliamentary immunity would have to be lifted. In order to lift it, there needs to be a Senate vote.
It is far from certain that even if there was such a vote that… it could get a pass… They could press the vote and Bemba [could] actually win the vote, and his parliamentary immunity would then not be lifted. So, I think that it is a good time for Bemba in the sense that he does stand now a chance of coming back to the Congo and not having his parliamentary immunity lifted. But the big outstanding question, which has almost always been the more important question for Bemba, is what is going to happen with his personal security. He has been pushing for a mixed large bodyguard, something that Kabila has been unwilling to give him. Kabila offered him 12 policemen… but I think Bemba has been asking for much more than that.
How is the security situation in eastern DRC?
This relative inaction by the government has allowed some of the militias to continue to destabilize the east. There are two militias that have been a serious problem in the past month. One is a militia led by the dissident general Laurent Nkunda, who is a former rebel – a Rwandan-backed rebel – who struck a peace deal with the government in late December. But immediately after signing this peace deal, he started launching operations against the second militia that's trouble, which is the FDLR [Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda], a Hutu militia that is led by the remnants of the Rwandan army and the militias that perpetrated the genocide in 1994.
That situation has festered and caused enormous displacement and suffering. We estimate that about 13,000 people are displaced. These are really two problems: One, there are local conflicts that have never been solved, but really [there is] also the problem of state capacity to deal with problems. The army has been unable to deal with insecurity in the east, and there is very little will by the government, it seems, to deal with the political problems in the east that have gone unaddressed during the transition.
Why the lack of political will, particularly given that the UN just renewed the mandate of the UN Mission to the Congo (Monuc)? Why are they not doing more to protect the civilians?
For the Congolese government, there is a bit of stagnation in the political process. There is just a lack of governance in general. If you look at the statements that have been put out by members of the Congolese government on the east, there [are] a lot of contradictions. Kabila sends the head of the air force, John Numbi, out there to solve the problem; he comes up with one recommendation. The governor of South Kivu then contradicts that; the governor of North Kivu says another thing; the Ministry of Interior says another thing…
My personal feeling from the governors' point of view is that there is a lot of confusion and they… have not been able to have a concerted policy towards how to deal with Nkunda… They would I think very much like to arrest him but they do not have the military capacity, so they are forced into negotiation with somebody they don't really want to negotiate [with]… President Kabila [is seen] by many in the west as a Rwandan or a Tanzanian and… as somebody put in power by the Rwandans. He is having a hard time negotiating with a Tutsi general [Nkunda]; he does not want to be seen as complicit with a Tutsi general. He is trying to walk a very fine line.
Monuc's position has always been on Nkunda that they should not get involved in trying to find a military solution. It would be very messy and it could actually harm local ethnic relations… They will not let Nkunda take Goma or make large advances in the field, but they are also not gonna go hunt him down in the bush.
What are Nkunda's goals? How important is he?
He would like to see himself as the political representative of what he calls the marginalized minorities of the east. I believe he really means the Tutsi community… There [are] about 45,000 Congolese Tutsi refugees who have been in refugee camps in Rwanda since the mid 90s. He talks about his brothers and his cousins who are dying in these camps and he really wants to bring these people home... He sees himself as part of the political process, and in light of this, I think he wants to play an important role in the future military in the Congo.
He is well educated, he is fluent in English and French, as well as Kinyarwanda and Swahili, and he will quote all kinds of political leaders and teachers from Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela. He sees himself as a visionary; he does not just see himself as a military leader.
Veteran opposition politician Kengo wa Dondo, who supported Bemba in the presidential election, was elected Senate President. How did that happen?
The selection of [Léonard] She Okitundu [the ruling coalition's candidate for Senate President] went against what many people in the AMP [the coalition] thought should have happened… I believe it was imposed from a few select individuals around Kabila. I don't think that She Okitundu spent a lot of time campaigning… It is a symptom of lack of party discipline within the AMP, and what some people are calling the arrogance of the AMP members that they just did not bother to go around to do what Kengo did.
Kengo has been campaigning for the last two or three months – ever since he was elected senator, he has been going around and talking to his fellow senators. It is a very different approach.
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Congo-Kinshasa: Tshikapa Prison - a Mortuary

United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
18 June 2007Posted to the web 18 June 2007
Veronika Hilber
When an interdisciplinary MONUC team from Kananga toured Tshikapa prison from May 23 to May 26 2007, they were witnesses to its disastrous and inhuman conditions. The detainees, convicted or accused, are condemned to death. They die of hunger.
According to the article 17 of the DRC constitution, an accused must be considered innocent until found guilty. In Tshikapa, two thirds of the prison population are accused, but without being judged, they are condemned to death.
The Congolese state doesn't have a budget to feed its prisoners, with the exception of Makala prison in Kinshasa. For this reason, prisoners everywhere in the DRC depend on the good will of people to eat.
In Tshikapa, one would have good reason to believe that there are no compassionate citizens. In this lively diamond city, the prison authorities, the town hall and civil society, including the churches, a sort of paralysis persists in relation to the problem.
Only one local NGO, ACAS, brings food two times per month. Nevertheless, to eat two times per month is better than not eating at all. By consequence, most prisoners in Tshikapa resemble skeletons. There are those that cannot manage to walk anymore, they must be carried.
The prisoners spend the day in a room too small for their numbers, as they are not allowed walk in the prison courtyard for fear of escapees, because the wall is in a bad state of repair.
In the courtyard, the septic tank is uncovered and emits unpleasant odours. For the 159 convicts , there are only three toilets. The jail doesn't have a cistern, and the convicts are obliged to take the yellow water of the Kasaï river to drink and wash in. Most prisoners remain naked, having sold their shirts in order to buy something to eat.
On the night of May 25, 2007, an accused died, having only spent one month in the prison. The reason of his death, carefully marked in a column in the prison register, was malnutrition.
The guard went then once again to the town hall to look for a sheet for the funeral. In Tshikapa, this has become routine.