(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to the president of the Goma-based Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie, RCD), Emile Ilunga, RSF asked that he reveal the location where Nicaise Kibel Bel’Oka, managing editor of the private weekly “Les Coulisses”, is being held, and the motives for his arrest. RSF expressed its […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter addressed to the president of the Goma-based Congolese Rally for Democracy (Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie, RCD), Emile Ilunga, RSF asked that he reveal the location where Nicaise Kibel Bel’Oka, managing editor of the private weekly “Les Coulisses”, is being held, and the motives for his arrest. RSF expressed its concern about the repeated attacks on press freedom in the region, and asked Ilunga to see to it that journalists are able to freely exercise their profession in territory which is under the RCD’s control. “We remind you that since 1 January 1999, more than ten journalists have been arrested in the Goma region, others have been injured, assaulted or threatened, a radio station has been closed and a newspaper has been banned,” added RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.
According to the information collected by RSF, Kibel Bel’Oka was arrested on 25 May 2000 by RCD security officers, who also seized a computer and telephones. Nobody knows where the journalist was taken. On 18 May, the RCD/Goma president issued an arrest order against Kibel Bel’Oka, further to an interview the journalist gave on Voice of America radio. The managing editor of “Les Coulisses” had notably stated that “one cannot ignore President Kabila in the new political order which will be put in place during the next inter-Congolese dialogue.”
RSF recalled that on 21 February, Kibel Bel’Oka was interrogated by the authorities, by request of the RCD justice minister (see IFEX alert of 24 February 2000). He was accused of having stated in his newspaper that certain RCD members had robbed lands bordering Lake Kivu in order to resell them.
