DRC Rights Defenders Face Mounting Threats
Some campaigners say they may have to abandon their work because of growing intimidation.
DRC Rights Defenders Face Mounting Threats
Some campaigners say they may have to abandon their work because of growing intimidation.
Sylvestre Bwira Kyahi, a leading human rights activist in the North Kivu town of Masisi, says he is considering giving up his campaigning after a brutal kidnap.
Speaking to IWPR from his hospital bed, Bwira described the ordeal that has led to his change of heart. On August 24, he was forced at gunpoint into a car by men who claimed to be working for Bosco Ntaganda, the commander-in-chief of the National Congress for the Defence of the People, CNDP, a former rebel militia now partially integrated into the army.
The armed men said that they were arresting Bwira because of an open letter he had written calling for the arrest of Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, ICC, for the alleged conscription of child soldiers.
Ever since an international warrant was issued for Ntaganda’s arrest in May 2008, Kinshasa has been widely accused of shielding him from prosecution.
Bwira said that the armed men kept him blindfolded and bound alongside the remains of previous torture victims and two other prisoners who appeared to be dying.
Accusing him of inciting tribal hostility, he said they demanded to know why he was attacking the Tutsi-dominated CNDP.
On August 30, Bwira was found some 30 kilometres outside Goma, the region’s capital, disorientated and badly beaten. Just before he was released, he said his captors injected him with some substance that caused his leg to swell painfully. Subsequent attempts to determine what this substance was have proved inconclusive.
Bwira said his abductors made it clear that they would be keeping a close eye on him, leaving him fearful of continuing his human rights campaigning, “I have no choice now but to take a break and reconsider [my work].”
Other activists in Goma have also been reportedly threatened and are worried that they could be targeted next.
Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke, a project coordinator for local NGO Solidarity Action for Peace and Development, ASPD, says that such intimidation and abduction points to a worrying rise in the risks faced by activists.
“We have noticed things getting worse over the past year or so,” said Bahemuke. “One reason is the election fever that is starting to take hold, ahead of the 2011 elections. The other reason is that, in North Kivu, [Tutsi] refugees returning from Rwanda are creating new tensions.”
There have also been assassinations, most recently that of Floribert Chebeya, a human rights activist in Kinshasa who worked for the Voice of the Voiceless organisation.
Chebeya was found dead in the back seat of a car on June 2 in suspicious circumstances.
One of his colleagues, who saw Chebeya’s corpse at the mortuary, said that there was blood around his mouth and his neck was swollen as though he had been strangled.
Despite international condemnation of his death, and promises from President Joseph Kabila that justice would be done, civil society organisations have expressed concern that the investigation was moving too slowly.
“Floribert Chebeya’s assassination is the result of a denigrating campaign that shows utter disdain for the work done by Congolese human rights activists,” said campaigner Godalène Kitwa.
Following Chebeya’s death, the head of Congolese police, John Numbi, was suspended and three officers were questioned.
But Kitwa is worried that the investigation has now stalled, and that there is little sign that the public prosecution office is about to formally charge anyone with the murder.
“We would prefer the case to be handled by the general military prosecution office, which is more capable and efficient with regards to prosecuting the alleged perpetrators and accomplices,” he said.
Kitwa was not alone in his distrust of the country’s judicial process.
Alain Mugezani, a resident of Lubumbashi – another region of the country where activists are regularly being threatened – insisted that the probe into Chebeya’s death was a charade.
“The general prosecutor of the republic is just stalling,” he said. “We already know what the outcome will be. Without an independent judicial inquiry, we can say goodbye to justice and truth. When one has a clear conscience, there is no reason to refuse an independent inquiry.”
But Flory Kabange Numbi, the DRC general prosecutor, rejected any suggestion that his office was trying to interfere with the outcome of the investigation.
“For those who are requesting an international inquiry, they should know that since we have been appointed to coordinate this investigation, transparency is the rule,” he said in a statement to the press. “I don’t know what arguments can be used to refute something that is far from over.”
But human rights campaigners say that the fact that Chebeya’s killers have not yet been apprehended underlines the risks that they take on in their day-to-day work.
“This situation is very unfortunate,” said Freddy Kitoko, a lawyer who works for the African Association of Human Rights, ASADHO. “This is proof that democracy is declining in our country, despite the election process that we went through in 2006. In a country that calls itself democratic, how can we deal with human rights defenders in this way, since they are the very barometer of democracy?”
Faced with such obvious dangers, it is unsurprising that a number of activists are thinking carefully about their work. Some are calling for greater protection, while others are considering whether they should give up campaigning altogether.
“We wonder who will be next after Floribert,” said Robert Ilunga, from local NGO Friends of Nelson Mandela. “Maybe I could be the next victim. We are heading towards the elections and the threats being faced by human rights activists are disturbing.”
Some have appealed to MONUSCO, the United Nations mission in the country, for protection - including Bwira, who informed them of a number of threats he received before his abduction.
MONUSCO spokesman Leocadio Salmeron insists that the mission takes all reports of threats to individuals seriously, and has a set of established procedures that it follows in each case.
“We have a human rights division, which takes authority for each threat that we receive,” he said. “We do all the lobbying that we can to protect these people and to sensitise the national media and the public about these cases. Each time we are in contact with the media, we put the information about these cases in the first line.”
Although MONUSCO has come under fire for being unable to protect campaigners, Bahemuke of ASPD believes that things would be a lot worse if the UN mission was not in the country.
“MONUSCO may not be able to prevent people like Bwira from getting kidnapped, but it [is very visible],” said Bahemuke. “If MONUSCO was hidden, then the threats would be much higher.”
Campaigners maintain that protection is only one half of the battle, though. They say that attitudes need to change in the country, and that ordinary people must be persuaded that activists are working for the good of the nation and not against it.
“I think to remedy the situation, governments must understand that human rights activists are not their enemies or their opponents, but rather their partners,” said rights lawyer Kitoko. “They must establish a frank dialogue with activists and, if they do, I think many things will change, especially the way that politicians perceive activists. Obviously, this is a question of democratic culture.”
Bahemuke agrees and says that his organisation has recently launched a campaign to increase awareness of the positive role that activists can play in society.
“Many people still think that, if you stand up and denounce abuses, you are going against the constitution of the DRC,” he said. “You are therefore branded a traitor.”
Bahemuke insists that changing this mentality of people is vitally important. This, he said, would help both the future of human rights in the country and the safety of those that are prepared to defend such rights.
“I think that, if we can overcome this fundamental problem, then we will see things get a great deal better in the country,” he said.
Blake Evans-Pritchard is IWPR Africa editor. IWPR trainees contributed to this report.
