(JED/IFEX) – JED has learned that Pierre Sosthène Kambidi, the “Le Phare” daily’s permanent correspondent in Tshikapa (Western Kasai province, in the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo), has been detained in the town’s central prison since 20 August 2000. Kambidi was first held at the local office of the National Information Agency (Agence […]
(JED/IFEX) – JED has learned that Pierre Sosthène Kambidi, the “Le Phare” daily’s permanent correspondent in Tshikapa (Western Kasai province, in the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo), has been detained in the town’s central prison since 20 August 2000.
Kambidi was first held at the local office of the National Information Agency (Agence nationale de renseignements, ANR), before being transferred to the Tshikapa Central Prison twenty-four hours later. The provisional arrest warrant under which the journalist is held was signed by a magistrate named Gaston Blaise Misenga.
The reasons for the journalist’s arrest have not been made public. However, in a 9 September letter to JED, Kambidi suggests that his arrest is linked to his contributions to the newspaper “Le Phare”, which some authorities qualify as a “red newspaper”, that is, close to the opposition.
The journalist also believes that his arrest is connected to an article he published in 1999 in which he implicated a Tshikapa magistrate in a case involving precious gems.
In his letter, Kambidi describes the inhuman conditions under which he is being detained. He says that he is locked in a three-by-four metre cell with fifty-six other inmates, including many soldiers who smoke hemp and torture civilian prisoners. He adds: “We sleep naked on pieces of cardboard (…). Washing is a true luxury for prisoners, even though the prison is located less than ten metres from the Kasai river.”
Kambidi fears for his life, as about thirty of the soldiers who are his cellmates are allegedly planning a revolt. The journalist is not allowed any visitors. He wrote his letter to JED in the toilet, in complicity with a guard to whom he gave a small amount of money.
The magistrate who is handling Kambidi’s file has decided that his provisional release is dependent on his payment of a bond in Congolese Francs equivalent to US$200. Kambidi considers this to be blackmail and is refusing to pay the requested sum.
