(JED/IFEX) – M’Baya Tshimanga, president of JED, had weapons pointed at him by a dozen armed soldiers who emerged from the darkness on Wednesday 13 December 2000, at about 10:00 p.m. (local time), near the velodrome in Kinshasa/Kintambo. The attackers told him to raise his arms and leave his car. Before JED’s president had a […]
(JED/IFEX) – M’Baya Tshimanga, president of JED, had weapons pointed at him by a dozen armed soldiers who emerged from the darkness on Wednesday 13 December 2000, at about 10:00 p.m. (local time), near the velodrome in Kinshasa/Kintambo.
The attackers told him to raise his arms and leave his car. Before JED’s president had a chance to react, one of the soldiers, who was already getting in the car, was drawn by two bundles containing small amounts of money (twenty centimes) which were on the back seat of the vehicle. The soldier took the bundles and all the others pounced on the money. Taking advantage of this distraction, Tshimanga fled in his car at high speed. He had just left JED’s office and was only 200 metres from his home when he was suddenly forced to stop his car.
Also on Wednesday 13 December, at around 1:00 a.m., the daily “Le Phare”‘s vehicle, in which publisher Polydor Muboyayi Mubanga and journalists from the newspaper were riding after finishing that day’s edition of the paper, was pursued, at the corner of Saïo and Victoire avenues in Kinshasa/Kasa-Vubu, by armed men in a mauve-coloured Mitsubishi jeep. After a high-speed chase which lasted a few minutes, the “Le Phare” team managed to escape their pursuers thanks to their high-performance vehicle and the driver’s dexterity. These extraordinary events took place only a few weeks after state media issued threats and calls to commit murder against the staff of the dailies “Le Potentiel” and “Le Phare” in a series of editorials (see IFEX alerts of 30, 23 and 20 November 2000).
Some time before the attempted attack on “Le Phare” journalists, at around 10:30 p.m., the editor of the Kinshasa daily “Forum des As”, Lussamaki Okita, was assaulted by armed men close to First Street in Kinshasa/Limete. His attackers were riding in a dark-coloured Mercedes 200. The journalist was beaten, thrown to the ground, and had a weapon pointed at him. Immobilised, Lussamaki had his bag, portable phone and watch stolen. The journalist was summoned to the National Congolese Police (Police nationale congolaise, PNC) station in Kinshasa/Lingwala in order to “pick up some of his documents, which were found in an abandoned car”.
These attacks on the press, which occur a few weeks after a series of attacks on members of the Congolese Employers’ Board and the governor of the central bank, are quite worrisome. In its 15 December edition, “Le Phare” ran a headline titled: “Attacks on the press are increasing. After taking aim at Le Phare, Forum des As and Jed are now targeted”. In its 14 December edition, the daily “L’Avenir”, which is very close to circles of power, ran a headline titled: “Organised from the RSA [South Africa]. Terrorism in Kinshasa”. “L’Avenir” believes that there is a link between Toussaint Kalonda, who works from South Africa, and terrorist attacks in Kinshasa. According to “L’Avenir”, the purpose of these criminal acts is to create an obsessive fear of such attacks in Kinshasa, in order to demoralise the city’s population.
