(JED/IFEX) – On 20 April 2004, at around 11:00 a.m. (local time), National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR) officers arrested journalist Faustin Bella Mako at Lubumbashi/Luano international airport. Bella Mako is JED’s correspondent in Katanga province and editor of the Lubumbashi-based weekly “Congo News”. The journalist was arrested as he prepared to board […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 20 April 2004, at around 11:00 a.m. (local time), National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR) officers arrested journalist Faustin Bella Mako at Lubumbashi/Luano international airport. Bella Mako is JED’s correspondent in Katanga province and editor of the Lubumbashi-based weekly “Congo News”. The journalist was arrested as he prepared to board a Kinshasa-bound flight. He is being held at the ANR’s Lubumbashi detention centre, where he spent the night of 20 to 21 April. Lubumbashi is Katanga province’s main city.
According to eyewitnesses contacted by JED, Bella Mako’s arrest followed an altercation with customs officers at the airport. On 21 April, a local ANR official told JED that the journalist was arrested because he referred to President Joseph Kabila as a “Rwandan.” While customs agents were searching his suitcase, Bella Mako reportedly asked them if they “did the same thing when ‘their Rwandan president’ travelled.”
Bella Mako was on his way to Kinshasa to attend a JED training seminar for the organisation’s correspondents from across the country. The training seminar, which is focusing on the investigation of press freedom attacks and the preparation of alerts, is taking place in the capital from 21 to 24 April.
