CONGO WEEK 2009: Horrible condition of prisoners in DR Congo

Each month 45,000 people die in Congo yet, on this subject, in this age of the Internet, the silence is deafening. There is a media blackout about the war for resources, waged by multinationals and Western governments, which fuels the ‘High Tech’ genocide in the east of the country.

This war was launched by nations that sensed – rightly – that our desire for coltan and diamonds and gold far outweighed our concern for the lives of black people. 

They knew that we would keep on buying, long after the UN had told us time and again that people were dying to provide our mobiles and games consoles and a girl’s best friend’ (Johann Hari, cited in The Independent, 5^th May 2006).

Between the 18^th and the 24^th October 2009 students all over the world will, once again, try to break this Silence during International Congo Week.

If the international community cannot, or will not, take control of the situation which has led to 6 million deaths since 1996, what hope can there be for any action against the abuse by the Congolese government of human rights and those who defend them?

The human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to deteriorate. Serious violations, such as arbitrary executions, rape, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are pervasive, committed mostly by the army, police and intelligence services. This information cannot be published by Congolese human rights associations, because human rights defenders remain at grave risk in the Democratic Republic of Congo (UN, 2009).

Congolese human rights defenders are frequent targets of intimidation, judicial proceedings, stigmatisation, death threats, detentions, arbitrary arrest, gender based violence, ill treatment in prison including refusal of access to lawyers and medical care, physical assault and in some cases torture or even killing by DRC government agents or armed groups. Many defenders have been forced into hiding or exile as a result of the threats against their security and the safety of their families (Front Line, 2009).

Human rights defenders, including lawyers and members of non-governmental organisations, “face illegitimate restrictions of their right to core freedoms, i.e. freedoms of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association,” said Margaret Sekaggya, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, who visited DR Congo from  21 May to 3 June.

The Congolese government must stop threatening human rights defenders, who are trying to reveal the appalling abuses, and preventing any understanding of the Congolese conflict.

The Congolese government must stop threatening human rights defenders, who are trying to reveal the appalling abuses, and stop trying to prevent any understanding of the Congolese conflict.

Johnny Voza Zola 

Student Action for Refugees

University of Teesside