(JED/IFEX) – On 1 April 2004, at around 7:30 p.m. (Kinshasa time), seven Military Intelligence (Détection militaire des activités anti-patrie, DEMIAP) soldiers and three National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR) officers raided the offices of Radio Kilimandjaro, a private station in Tshikapa, the second largest city in West Kasai province, central Democratic Republic […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 1 April 2004, at around 7:30 p.m. (Kinshasa time), seven Military Intelligence (Détection militaire des activités anti-patrie, DEMIAP) soldiers and three National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR) officers raided the offices of Radio Kilimandjaro, a private station in Tshikapa, the second largest city in West Kasai province, central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The soldiers stopped the broadcast as soon as they entered the station’s studios and ordered all of the staff members who were present to undergo a two-minute voice test. After about an hour, the soldiers left the station, leaving two of the ANR officers behind. Eyewitnesses told JED that Jean-Marie Misenga, director of the ANR’s Investigations Bureau, was among the officers who participated in the raid. The DEMIAP soldiers and ANR officers were reportedly searching for Sami Mbeto, host of the station’s Lingala-language programme “Tongo Etani, Ndeko ya Makambo”. Mbeto was not at the station at the time of the raid.
According to information obtained by JED at the station, during the 1 April broadcast of his programme, Mbeto criticised the security services’ “degrading treatment” of Congolese citizens who are expelled from Angola and return to the DRC via Tshikapa.
In a telephone discussion with JED on the evening of 1 April, Macaire Mwangu Samba, West Kasai province’s deputy governor, said he was unaware of the raid on Radio Kilimandjaro and promised to contact officials in Tshikapa in order to clarify the situation. The deputy governor called JED one hour later to confirm that soldiers had indeed gone to the station, but specified that the purpose of their “visit” was to pick up a soldier’s child who had been lost in the city and was found by a Radio Kilimandjaro journalist. According to Tshikapa Mayor Hubert Mbingo Vula, the radio station had reportedly demanded 500 francs (approx. US$1.5) after announcing on the air that the child had been found.
Radio Kilimandjaro director Pontien Mukalu rejected the mayor’s account of events. He confirmed the story of the missing child, but said the mayor had come to the station on the night of 1 to 2 April and spoken with the two ANR officers who had remained there after the raid. “He did not speak to any of the journalists present,” Mukalu told JED. The station director said the soldiers were searching for Mbeto and had stopped the station’s broadcasts during the raid. Mukalu said the station was allowed to resume its broadcasts after the mayor’s visit.
