UN
United Nations Peacekeeping
4 Mar
2009
DRC Press Review
DRC civil society organisations disapprove the role of the UN Secretary-General's Representative for the DR Congo, says today's Kinshasa's newspapers. They also consider the question of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants in Ituri, the bill on amnesty, as well as the insecurity in Kinshasa's main prison.
"Civil society demands the departure of Swing", FORUM DES AS titles a front-page story relating to developments in Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu. "Reacting to the recent events in Bukavu (where the population had accused the UN Mission in Congo of passivity), the civil society /Forces vives invites the UN Secretary-General to recall his current Special Representative for the DRC, Mr. William Swing, and appoint another, capable of making the missions of MONUC more impartial and more effective", the paper notes. "The civil society calls on the [Transitional] Parliament and Government, and the Head of State to urge from MONUC the immediate withdrawal of Rwandan troops from Bukavu and the rest of the DRC", the paper points out.
LE PHARE reports on the declaration by these "leaders of several non-governmental organisations defending human rights at a Thursday news conference, emphasizing that "President Joseph Kabila has failed his duty as President by letting Major Kasongo, following pressure from the RCD (Congolese Rally for Democracy) and MONUC."
The paper quotes Patrick Djanga, a representative of the Association for the defence of children's rights, as saying "With Swing, it is more frightening than his predecessor, because he openly supports the RCD."
"Events of Bukavu: a call for calm is necessary", LE POTENTIEL says by way of a conclusion. "Taken together, the paper says, the events in Bukavu have the merit of having shown, as they really are, the feelings of all those who, until yesterday, were still hiding their deep convictions under the flashy rags of their alleged sense of patriotism...There is [notably] this emergence of a certain number of organisations that claim to belong to civil society in Kinshasa, which are led by such personalities as Théodore Ngoy, known for his extremist and even racist views, who have interpreted the Bukavu events in a particularly partisan manner, lapsing with incredible ease into the fuelling of tensions...It is up to the Head of State, whose name is used by most of those who flood the media with virulent statements, as guarantor of the nation, to launch an appeal for general calm, and to denounce and forbid any speech or act of ethnic violence, wherever they come from."
With regard to the DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration) programme, LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES considers the "conditions set by the armed groups movements in Ituri for the handover of their weapons". According to the paper, "The (UPC, Union of Congolese Patriots), a militia with a majority of fighters from the Hema community, has demanded that its fighters hold their ranks as they integrate into the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). As for the FNI (Front of Nationalists and Integrationists), an armed group mainly composed of ethnic Lendu elements, it has demanded financial guarantees as a prerequisite to handing over machine guns, grenades and other" weapons.
In Kinshasa, the paper says, the Minister of Justice of the Transitional Government signed two decrees authorising the some 315 magistrates who were reinstated in their jobs by President Joseph Kabila in November 2003 "to return to their former jurisdictions."
On the same occasion, the Minister of Justice gave his view on the bill on amnesty. "Maitre Kisimba Ngoy has recalled that the presidential decree, No.003/001 of 15 April 2003 offered, provisionally, an amnesty for acts of war, political infractions and of opinion committed during the period from 2 August 1998 to 4 April 2003. This document excludes the attempts and conspiracies against the Head of State", LE POTENTIEL reports. "The bill will soon be submitted for examination. The debate will thus be very heated," L'AVENIR comments.
In the context of the amnesty of 15 April 2003, LE PHARE announces that those condemned in the Laurent-Désiré Kabila assassination trial demand their liberation.
"Actually, starting midnight on March 1st, 2004, the detainees of Ward 1 of the Penitentiary and Re-education Centre (Kinshasa's main prison), namely, 'Eddy Kapend and his like' demand their release. They express their indignation about the release of Major Joseph Kasongo Lukelula following his arrest in Bukavu. While castigating the policy of double standard, the inmates of Ward 1 consider that the release of Maj. Kasongo, who had been found guilty in absentia of involvement in that assassination, implies ipso facto the liberation of all those condemned for the same acts, in accordance with the principle of jurisprudence." That provoked a confused situation on Thursday evening. "Unofficial sources have mentioned [the use of] a blackout as a way to quell the rebellion of the detainees."
LE PHARE reports on the declaration by these "leaders of several non-governmental organisations defending human rights at a Thursday news conference, emphasizing that "President Joseph Kabila has failed his duty as President by letting Major Kasongo, following pressure from the RCD (Congolese Rally for Democracy) and MONUC."
The paper quotes Patrick Djanga, a representative of the Association for the defence of children's rights, as saying "With Swing, it is more frightening than his predecessor, because he openly supports the RCD."
"Events of Bukavu: a call for calm is necessary", LE POTENTIEL says by way of a conclusion. "Taken together, the paper says, the events in Bukavu have the merit of having shown, as they really are, the feelings of all those who, until yesterday, were still hiding their deep convictions under the flashy rags of their alleged sense of patriotism...There is [notably] this emergence of a certain number of organisations that claim to belong to civil society in Kinshasa, which are led by such personalities as Théodore Ngoy, known for his extremist and even racist views, who have interpreted the Bukavu events in a particularly partisan manner, lapsing with incredible ease into the fuelling of tensions...It is up to the Head of State, whose name is used by most of those who flood the media with virulent statements, as guarantor of the nation, to launch an appeal for general calm, and to denounce and forbid any speech or act of ethnic violence, wherever they come from."
With regard to the DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration) programme, LA TEMPETE DES TROPIQUES considers the "conditions set by the armed groups movements in Ituri for the handover of their weapons". According to the paper, "The (UPC, Union of Congolese Patriots), a militia with a majority of fighters from the Hema community, has demanded that its fighters hold their ranks as they integrate into the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). As for the FNI (Front of Nationalists and Integrationists), an armed group mainly composed of ethnic Lendu elements, it has demanded financial guarantees as a prerequisite to handing over machine guns, grenades and other" weapons.
In Kinshasa, the paper says, the Minister of Justice of the Transitional Government signed two decrees authorising the some 315 magistrates who were reinstated in their jobs by President Joseph Kabila in November 2003 "to return to their former jurisdictions."
On the same occasion, the Minister of Justice gave his view on the bill on amnesty. "Maitre Kisimba Ngoy has recalled that the presidential decree, No.003/001 of 15 April 2003 offered, provisionally, an amnesty for acts of war, political infractions and of opinion committed during the period from 2 August 1998 to 4 April 2003. This document excludes the attempts and conspiracies against the Head of State", LE POTENTIEL reports. "The bill will soon be submitted for examination. The debate will thus be very heated," L'AVENIR comments.
In the context of the amnesty of 15 April 2003, LE PHARE announces that those condemned in the Laurent-Désiré Kabila assassination trial demand their liberation.
"Actually, starting midnight on March 1st, 2004, the detainees of Ward 1 of the Penitentiary and Re-education Centre (Kinshasa's main prison), namely, 'Eddy Kapend and his like' demand their release. They express their indignation about the release of Major Joseph Kasongo Lukelula following his arrest in Bukavu. While castigating the policy of double standard, the inmates of Ward 1 consider that the release of Maj. Kasongo, who had been found guilty in absentia of involvement in that assassination, implies ipso facto the liberation of all those condemned for the same acts, in accordance with the principle of jurisprudence." That provoked a confused situation on Thursday evening. "Unofficial sources have mentioned [the use of] a blackout as a way to quell the rebellion of the detainees."
