(JED/IFEX) – On 2 December 2002, at around 10:30 a.m. (local time), officers from the Congolese National Police Special Services Branch arrested journalist Paulette Kimuntu and cameraman Kadima Baruani in front of the South African embassy in Kinshasa. Both journalists work for the private television station Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM). Kimuntu and Baruani were taken to […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 2 December 2002, at around 10:30 a.m. (local time), officers from the Congolese National Police Special Services Branch arrested journalist Paulette Kimuntu and cameraman Kadima Baruani in front of the South African embassy in Kinshasa. Both journalists work for the private television station Radiotélévision Kin-Malebo (RTKM). Kimuntu and Baruani were taken to the Police Special Services prison in Kin-Mazière. A JED representative went to the prison at around 1:30 p.m., but was unable to meet with the detained journalists, who were waiting to be questioned.
The authorities have yet to provide an official explanation for the journalists’ arrest and detention. The journalists were arrested just as they were arriving in front of the South African embassy in order to film a demonstration organised there by a self-described “free and independent” civil society group. The demonstration was linked to Congolese political negotiations that are currently underway in Pretoria, South Africa.
The protest organisers wanted to voice their displeasure over what they termed “the cheating” in the choice of delegates from civil society groups that have been meeting in Pretoria since 29 November. They described the delegates as “spokespersons for the Kinshasa government.” Police were positioned throughout the streets adjacent to the South African embassy as of the morning of 2 December.
The two journalists were arrested at the same time as Paul Nsapu and Sabin Banza, two of the protest organisers.
