| DRC_2015.06.15_Joint_PR_English 9 pages / 368 KB |
The
government should also release and drop any charges against other activists, opposition
party members, and others detained solely for their political views or for
participating in peaceful activities.
“Congolese authorities should stop violating basic freedom of expression and
assembly rights that are protected under Congo’s constitution and international
human rights law,” said Ida Sawyer, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights
Watch. “Filimbi and others should be allowed to hold workshops on the
democratic process without fear of arrest.”
A
parliamentary “information mission,” established on March 27 to examine how
Congo’s security services managed the Filimbi dossier, found no evidence
indicating that the Filimbi leaders and workshop participants were involved in
or planning any terrorist or other violent crimes, says its report, of which
the organizations obtained a copy. Following a debate about the report during
closed sessions of parliament on June 12 and 13, Congo’s National Assembly
recommended a “political solution” that would allow for the release of the two
activists still in detention, according to members of parliament who attended
the debate.
On March 15, Congo’s National Intelligence Agency
(Agence Nationale de Renseignements, ANR) arrested about
30 pro-democracy activists and others at a Filimbi workshop in Kinshasa, the
Congolese capital, including Senegalese and Burkinabe activists, a
United States diplomat, foreign and Congolese journalists, and Congolese
activists, musicians, artists, and logisticians. Another
Filimbi activist was arrested on March 16. Others associated with Filimbi,
including a graphic artist who designed the Filimbi logo and Rawbank employees
who managed the Filimbi bank account, were also later arrested by the ANR.
The
authorities released most of the detainees in the first week, but two remain in
detention: Fred Bauma, member of a Goma-based movement, The Struggle for Change
(La Lutte pour le Changement, LUCHA),
and Yves Makwambala, a webmaster and graphic artist.
After being held for over 40 days by the ANR without charge or access to legal
assistance and without being brought before competent judicial authorities, Makwambala
and Bauma were transferred
to the public prosecutor’s office on April 24 and May 4, respectively. They are
now at Kinshasa’s central prison.
Makwambala
and Bauma, as well as four Filimbi leaders who have not been arrested, were
charged with belonging to an association formed for the purpose of attacking
people and property, forming a conspiracy against the head of state, and
attempting to either destroy or change the “constitutional regime” or incite
people to take up arms against state authority. The authorities have also
charged Bauma with disturbing the peace, and Makwambala with publicly offending
the head of state. These charges appear to be politically motivated, the
organizations said.
During a news conference on March 18, Communications
Minister Lambert Mende said that the Filimbi leaders were planning “terrorist
activities” and a “violent insurrection.”
Judicial
officials have told human rights activists in private that there is no evidence
to back up the charges, but that the charges were part of a dossier handed to
them by intelligence officials.
“Congolese authorities have held Fred Bauma and Yves Makwambala for months
without any credible basis,” Jean-Claude Katende, national president of the African
Association for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADHO) in Congo, said. “Both should
be immediately and unconditionally released and all charges against them
dropped. Congolese judicial authorities should assert their independence and
ensure the protection of rights recognized by the Constitution, Congolese laws,
and the international human rights treaties ratified by Congo.”
The
parliamentary report that found no evidence of plans for terrorist activities
or violent crimes by Filimbi leaders and workshop participants did not address alleged
illegal actions by Congo’s intelligence services in holding the detainees
without charge for more than 48 hours, denying them access to legal assistance
or bringing them before a competent judicial authority, all rights guaranteed
by Congo’s constitution.
Intelligence
officials confiscated the passports and other materials from some of those who
were arrested after the Filimbi workshop and later released and required them
to report to the intelligence agency every 48 hours. Others who participated in
the workshop, but were not arrested, have been living in hiding fearing arrest.
In some cases, the authorities searched their homes illegally or they lost
their jobs while in hiding.
In Goma, in eastern Congo, in March and April, the authorities arrested and
later released at least 15 activists from the LUCHA youth movement who were
demonstrating peacefully to demand the release of their colleagues detained in
Kinshasa. Some alleged that they were beaten or tortured through a form of
near-drowning by intelligence agents and police who arrested them. Four were
granted provisional release but face charges of inciting
disobedience to public authority.
The
Congolese government should thoroughly and transparently investigate and bring
to justice officials suspected to be responsible for violating the rights of the
Filimbi workshop participants and LUCHA activists, the groups said.
The arrests of the Filimbi members and of activists who held protests to
support them came in the context of a broader crackdown on political party
leaders, activists, and others who have peacefully protested attempts to allow Congo’s
President Joseph Kabila to stay in power past his constitutionally mandated
two-term limit, which ends in late 2016.
Congolese
authorities should also release other activists and political party leaders who
have been detained because of their peaceful political views or participation
in non-violent demonstrations or other activities, the rights organizations
said. The human rights defender Christopher Ngoyi and political party leaders
Cyrille Dowe, Jean-Claude Muyambo, Jean-Bertrand Ewanga, Ernest Kyaviro, and
Vano Kalembe Kiboko have all been detained for over four months, in some cases
without charge and without access to their families or lawyers, for what appear
to be politically motivated reasons.
“Congolese
authorities – and especially the intelligence services – have carried out unlawful
arrests to silence dissent and clamp down on human rights in the lead-up to the
2016 elections,” said Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional
Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes. “They should take
urgent steps to end the clampdown and to ensure respect for freedom of
expression and peaceful assembly.”
For the parliamentary
mission’s report, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12VA69Nhd5nZjJmc0hhcFR4VDg/view?usp=sharing
For the response
from Filimbi leaders to the parliamentary mission’s report, please visit:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12VA69Nhd5naGRMMzhBczBUQnM/view?usp=sharing
For a
question-and-answer document about Filimbi by Congolese human rights
organizations, please visit: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/questions%20and%20answers%20about%20filimbi_eng.pdf
For
more information, please contact:
In
Kinshasa, for ASADHO, Jean-Claude Katende (French): +243-81-17-29-908 (mobile)
or jckatende@yahoo.fr
In Goma, for Synergie des Femmes, Justine Masika Bihamba (French): +243-99-548-4965
(mobile)
In Kinshasa, for Human Rights Watch, Ida Sawyer (English, French): +243-81-33-78-478 (mobile); or +243-99-86-75-565
(mobile); or sawyeri@hrw.org
In Nairobi, for Amnesty International, Mildred Ngesa (English, Kiswahili, and French):
+254 732 495 215 or mildred.ngesa@amnesty.org
Signed
by the following human rights organizations:
International Organizations
Congolese Organizations
99. Corps Volontaire Humanitaire (COVOH)
100. Debout Fille de Fizi (DFF)
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