(JED/IFEX) – (JED/IFEX) – Theobald Balura, a cameraman with Congolese National Radio-Television’s (Radiotélévision nationale congolaise, RTNC) Goma station, was released on the evening of 13 August 2004, after being detained since 11 August in Minova, a village located 52 kilometres from Goma, North Kivu province’s main city, by rebel General Laurent Nkunda’s forces. Balura was […]
(JED/IFEX) – (JED/IFEX) – Theobald Balura, a cameraman with Congolese National Radio-Television’s (Radiotélévision nationale congolaise, RTNC) Goma station, was released on the evening of 13 August 2004, after being detained since 11 August in Minova, a village located 52 kilometres from Goma, North Kivu province’s main city, by rebel General Laurent Nkunda’s forces.
Balura was arrested on 11 August in Minova, where he had gone to cover the ceremony marking the handover from Léon Maneno, Minova’s former resident administrator, to René Shweka, the new resident administrator appointed one week ago by South Kivu province’s governor, Augustin Bulaimu. According to the cameraman, he was accused of filming an “unauthorised ceremony.” He also told JED that he was released on the orders of the rebel General Nkunda, who then ordered the arrest of Gatama Felly, the person reportedly responsible for Balura’s detention and for the confiscation of his camera.
Balura returned to Goma without his camera, on the promise it would be returned to him the next day.
