(JED/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Gaétan Kakudji and Human Rights Minister Léonard She Okitundu (and copied to Attorney General Luhonge Kabinda Ngoy), JED protested the arrest and jailing of Bruno Kadima and José Mounkanda Ntumba, journalist and technician, respectively, with the Kinshasa weekly “UMOJA”. The two were jailed on Monday 24 April […]
(JED/IFEX) – In a letter to Interior Minister Gaétan Kakudji and Human Rights Minister Léonard She Okitundu (and copied to Attorney General Luhonge Kabinda Ngoy), JED protested the arrest and jailing of Bruno Kadima and José Mounkanda Ntumba, journalist and technician, respectively, with the Kinshasa weekly “UMOJA”. The two were jailed on Monday 24 April 2000 in the cells of the National Information Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR) in Kinshasa, for reasons which remain unclear to date.
JED asked the interior minister to explain these arrests, and, noted that if they are found to be justified, the accused should be tried before “their natural judge” and guaranteed representation by lawyers of their choosing, in accordance with the president’s promise in his last message to the Congolese people. Otherwise, JED demanded that Kadima and Mounkanda be immediately released.
In addition, JED reminded the interior minister that “just days away from the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, this arrest, when added to that of Freddy Loseke Lisumbu (publisher of “La Libre Afrique”, arrested on 31 December 1999 and whose trial is currently underway before the Court of Military Order) seriously undermines the Democratic Republic of Congo’s commitments in ratifying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”.
