(JED/IFEX) – Faustin Bela Mako, assistant secretary responsible for communications for the Lubumbashi section of the National Union of Congolese Federalists (UNAFEC, a political party in the coalition that contributed to the election of President Joseph Kabila), was severely beaten on 2 March 2007 by some 10 individuals identified by witnesses as being close to […]
(JED/IFEX) – Faustin Bela Mako, assistant secretary responsible for communications for the Lubumbashi section of the National Union of Congolese Federalists (UNAFEC, a political party in the coalition that contributed to the election of President Joseph Kabila), was severely beaten on 2 March 2007 by some 10 individuals identified by witnesses as being close to Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza, president of UNAFEC/Katanga and a provincial member of Parliament. The incident took place at the Kasapa bus stop in Lubumbashi, in the southeastern province of Katanga.
JED, which was able to meet Bela Mako in his hospital room on the evening of 2 March, noted that one of his eyes was completely swollen and he complained of severe headaches. The police were able to detain two suspects, one of whom is reportedly Kyungu’s own domestic employee.
Bela Mako is also the publisher of a small newspaper called “Congo News”. He wrote, in issue number 15 of “La Flèche Hebdo”, a Lubumbashi-based periodical, a commentary in which he expressed support for Member of Parliament Kisimba Ngoy, the national president of UNAFEC, who is accused by his party of having proposed somebody who reportedly does not actually exist as minister of foreign trade in Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga’s government. This affair, which was the subject of a tumultuous debate in the National Assembly during the government’s investiture at the end of February, is at the root of an open conflict between Kisimba and Kyungu, who have called for each other’s expulsion from the party.
