(JED/IFEX) – Theobald Balura, a cameraman with Congolese National Radio-Television’s (Radiotélévision nationale congolaise, RTNC/Goma) local station, has been detained since 11 August 2004 in Minova, a village located 52 kilometres from Goma, North Kivu province’s main city, by rebel General Laurent Nkunda’s forces. Nkunda and his troops have been based in Minova since leaving Bukavu, […]
(JED/IFEX) – Theobald Balura, a cameraman with Congolese National Radio-Television’s (Radiotélévision nationale congolaise, RTNC/Goma) local station, has been detained since 11 August 2004 in Minova, a village located 52 kilometres from Goma, North Kivu province’s main city, by rebel General Laurent Nkunda’s forces. Nkunda and his troops have been based in Minova since leaving Bukavu, South Kivu province’s main city, which they took on 3 June.
As of the evening of 12 August, the cameraman still had not been released. The official reasons for his arrest are still unknown. However, according to information obtained by JED in Goma, Balura went to Minova to cover the ceremony marking the handover from Léon Maneno, Minova’s former resident administrator, to René Shweka, the new resident administrator appointed one week ago by South Kivu province’s governor, Augustin Bulaimu. The rebel general’s men, who withdrew to Minova after their retreat from Bukavu in June, prevented the ceremony from taking place and arrested Balura. The newly-appointed resident administrator was simply told to return home.
