**Updates IFEX alerts of 31, 13, 10 and 9 December and 12 and 8 November 1999** (JED/IFEX) – In a 6 January 2000 press release distributed from Kinshasa, JED applauded the 3 January meeting between President Kabila and Congolese politicians and noted President Kabila’s statements to the effect that he had never ordered anyone’s arrest. […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 31, 13, 10 and 9 December and 12 and 8 November 1999**
(JED/IFEX) – In a 6 January 2000 press release distributed from Kinshasa, JED applauded the 3 January meeting between President Kabila and Congolese politicians and noted President Kabila’s statements to the effect that he had never ordered anyone’s arrest. JED recalled that two journalists (Polycarpe Honsek Hokwoy and Kazadi Mbayo Djodjo) and a vendor of the satirical newspaper “Pot-Pourri” (Gaspard Baila Linoga) have been illegally and arbitrarily detained for two months and one month, respectively.
In the press release, JED also protested: the refusal (for political reasons) to carry out a court order to release Honsek; the secret detention of Kazadi Mbayo, whom no one, including family members, has seen since his arrest; and, the taking hostage of Gaspard Baila Linoga in place of the arrest of “Pot-Pourri” managers. All these actions contravene Congolese law and the international commitments of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
JED asked the head of state, as the country’s highest magistrate, to see to it that these errors and excesses, which unnecessarily discredit the DRC, are corrected.
