(JED/IFEX) – Radiotélévision Amazone (RTA), which airs in Mbuji-Mayi, capital of East Kasai province, resumed its broadcasts on 25 March 2003. However, the local language programme “Lubila lwa Mukrezaka” (“The Voice of the Diamond Miner”), which was responsible for the station’s closure, remains banned. East Kasai province Director Mutonj Mayand-a-Tshibang had ordered RTA’s closure on […]
(JED/IFEX) – Radiotélévision Amazone (RTA), which airs in Mbuji-Mayi, capital of East Kasai province, resumed its broadcasts on 25 March 2003. However, the local language programme “Lubila lwa Mukrezaka” (“The Voice of the Diamond Miner”), which was responsible for the station’s closure, remains banned.
East Kasai province Director Mutonj Mayand-a-Tshibang had ordered RTA’s closure on 1 March. The private broadcaster was accused of airing “unpleasant comments” and “false news” on “Lubila lwa Mukrezaka”. The programme, which aired on 25 February, featured a controversial report on an incident that took place on 21 February in a mine run by the diamond mining firm Minière de Bakwanga (MIBA), in which several miners died.
The RTA programme had featured an account of the events that contradicted the local authorities’ and MIBA’s official version. RTA said about 20 persons were asphyxiated deliberately by a MIBA security team, while the local authorities said a group of clandestine diamond miners were accidentally buried alive when a mine caved in while they were in the tunnels. According to the official version of events, only seven miners were reportedly killed in the incident.
JED also recalls that Radio Maendeleo, a radio station based in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, remains shut down by order of the rebel group Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie, RCD/Goma). The rebel authorities closed down the station on 9 December 2002 (see IFEX alerts of 13 and 9 December 2002). Radio Maendeleo had aired a programme in which local residents of Bukavu had criticised the RCD/Goma’s decision to introduce new vehicle licence plates in areas under its control.
