(JED/IFEX) – Raymond Luaula (publication director), Bamporiki Chamira (head of investigations), Hilaire Mutulwa (personnel director), Kabongo Mabika (marketing director) and Edo Kalemani (responsible for printing operations), all employees of the daily “La Tempête des Tropiques”, were arrested on 11 July 2002, between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. (local time), at their homes and at Place Victoire, […]
(JED/IFEX) – Raymond Luaula (publication director), Bamporiki Chamira (head of investigations), Hilaire Mutulwa (personnel director), Kabongo Mabika (marketing director) and Edo Kalemani (responsible for printing operations), all employees of the daily “La Tempête des Tropiques”, were arrested on 11 July 2002, between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. (local time), at their homes and at Place Victoire, in Kinshasa/Kalamu. “La Tempête des Tropiques” is a Kinshasa-based newspaper that is close to the UDPS (Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social), an opposition party led by Etienne Tshisekedi. The journalists and newspaper employees were arrested by armed officers of the Congolese National Police’s Special Services. They were taken to Special Services holding cells in the “Kin-Mazière” building, in Kinshasa/Gombe. None of the newspaper employees were shown a warrant for their arrest before being detained by the officers.
On 11 July, in the early afternoon, JED representatives were able to meet with four of the arrested persons in a hallway of the “Kin-Mazière” building, including Luaula, the publication director. The other employee was being questioned at the time. Luaula told JED that the newspaper employees were each questioned about a news item that appeared on the front page of “La Tempête des Tropiques”‘s 10 July edition (issue 2014). In the story, the newspaper reported that “Kinshasa skirted disaster” on 8 July, in a confrontation between “civilians and soldiers that deteriorated into a violent battle” and led to “four deaths and major material damage” in Kinshasa/Kintambo’s Jamaica neighbourhood.
Moreover, the entire print-run of “La Tempête des Tropiques”‘s 11 July edition (issue 2015) was seized that very morning. National Congolese Police Special Services officers seized all the copies just as they went on sale. During their visit with the arrested newspaper employees, JED representatives noted that Kalemani had sustained an injury to his forehead. The injury reportedly resulted from the brutality with which he was thrown into the police vehicle at the time of his arrest.
The daily’s five journalists and employees were released later that same evening, on the condition that the newspaper publish a correction to the offending story in its 12 July edition. “La Tempête des Tropiques” agreed to publish a correction. It appeared on the front page of that day’s newspaper, under the headline, “No deaths, but an injured soldier is transferred to [Kinshasa’s] general hospital”.
