(JED/IFEX) – The following is a JED press release: Journalist held for questioning in Tshikapa, in central Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa, 17 June 2005 On 14 and 15 June 2005, Laurent Lukengu Badimanye, a journalist with Kasai Horizons Radio-Television (KHRT) in Tshikapa, the second largest city in West Kasai province, was detained and questioned […]
(JED/IFEX) – The following is a JED press release:
Journalist held for questioning in Tshikapa, in central Democratic Republic of Congo
Kinshasa, 17 June 2005
On 14 and 15 June 2005, Laurent Lukengu Badimanye, a journalist with Kasai Horizons Radio-Television (KHRT) in Tshikapa, the second largest city in West Kasai province, was detained and questioned for a lengthy period by two inspectors from the National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements, ANR).
The journalist arrived at the ANR office following a verbal “invitation” to the radio station’s general administrator, Pascal Mulumba, from Gustave Amuri, interim head of the ANR’s Tshikapa branch.
Lukengu arrived at the office at 1:00 p.m. (local time) and waited two hours before meeting Amuri, who handed him over to Inspector Georges Kabeya Tshilombo, ANR/Tshikapa’s administrative secretary, for questioning.
The journalist was asked about 30 questions, which focused on an interview he had with a group of soldiers about discontent in the city’s military command. He was asked to name the soldiers in question. Lukengu refused and was only able to return home at about 7:00 p.m., after being ordered to return the next morning with his KHRT journalist’s identity card.
Lukengu returned to the ANR with his press card and stayed there until about 5:00 p.m. He was then taken to the residence of Lieutenant Colonel Marcel Amsini Faray, commander of the armed forces’ 44th brigade, who insisted that the journalist name the soldiers whom he had interviewed. The journalist left the commander’s residence at about 9:00 p.m. Lieutenant Colonel Faray asked to see him again on the weekend.
