UN
United Nations Peacekeeping
4 Mar
2009
Press Review
The Vice-President Azarias Ruberwa's provincial tour and the detainees' escape in the Buluwo prison, Katanga province, are the major headlines in today's local papers in Kinshasa.
The Vice-President in charge of the Political, Defense and Security Commission proceeds with his visits to the DRC provinces, within the framework of the reunification process. La Référence Plus reporting on the tour indicates that it started in Kisangani on Saturday, 20 December. « Azarias Ruberwa gives a positive picture of the political situation in Kisangani, Mbuji Mayi and Kananga. The process has made a substantial breakthrough and is irreversible» he declared, while touring the three cities.
Vice-President Ruberwa is quoted by the paper as pointing out the following major challenges to be faced up: «the administration of the national territory, the six provinces of which are still run by parallel administrations (Nord-Kivu, Eastern Province, the two Kasaïs and Katanga), awaiting to be reunified. The Ituri case in the Eastern Province ''run'' militarily by MONUC, is still a cause of serious concerns», writes the paper. « Ituri must depend on the central government and a unique governor for the region based in Kisangani », said Azarias Ruberwa, who further announced « the deployment of the first brigade troops of the restructured and integrated national police currently formed in Kisangani as of next January. An additional three thousand military troops of the new national army are scheduled to be deployed in March. »
La Référence Plus indicates «the objective of Azarias Ruberwa's mission was two-fold: to appraise the reunification process at the political, military, security and judiciary levels on one hand, and on the other, to explain the evolution of the institutions put in place. Mr. Ruberwa's tour to the entire region is aimed to ascertain whether the country is indeed reunified and the population believes in the institutions; whether there are still signs of fear of a new war or all such signs tend to disappear. »
The first phase of the appraisal of the reunification process ended last Wednesday in Kananga, recalls Le Phare. « Azarias Ruberwa realized the major reason for the economic stagnation of the Big Kasaï, is, the requirement on the expatriates to obtain safe-conducts before traveling to these two provinces ( Kasaï Oriental and Kasaï Occidental) whatever the reason for their trip. » The paper quotes Mr. Ruberwa as indicating « The authorization required from investors to travel to Kasaï is a serious affront and a shameless discrimination which the government must swiftly redress for the sake of a successful and true reunification of this beautiful and rich country». The paper feels that, « in view of the immense development needs of the Kasaïs, debate on decentralization should be re-launched ».
Le Palmarès headlines « Revelations on the spectacular escape of 126 prisoners in Buluwo », a prison situated 120 kilometers from Lubumbashi, South-Eastern DRC. This paper reports that « Of the 125 detainees who escaped from the prison in unclear circumstances, only 20 escapees were caught back and searches continue. There were, in total, 230 political and nonpolitical detainees at the Buluwo prison. The same prisoners previously held Iulia Motoc (the United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteuse for the DRC) hostage, early December, to get Joseph Kabila to grant them amnesty. The escape could not succeed without complicity from the inside. »
Vice-President Ruberwa is quoted by the paper as pointing out the following major challenges to be faced up: «the administration of the national territory, the six provinces of which are still run by parallel administrations (Nord-Kivu, Eastern Province, the two Kasaïs and Katanga), awaiting to be reunified. The Ituri case in the Eastern Province ''run'' militarily by MONUC, is still a cause of serious concerns», writes the paper. « Ituri must depend on the central government and a unique governor for the region based in Kisangani », said Azarias Ruberwa, who further announced « the deployment of the first brigade troops of the restructured and integrated national police currently formed in Kisangani as of next January. An additional three thousand military troops of the new national army are scheduled to be deployed in March. »
La Référence Plus indicates «the objective of Azarias Ruberwa's mission was two-fold: to appraise the reunification process at the political, military, security and judiciary levels on one hand, and on the other, to explain the evolution of the institutions put in place. Mr. Ruberwa's tour to the entire region is aimed to ascertain whether the country is indeed reunified and the population believes in the institutions; whether there are still signs of fear of a new war or all such signs tend to disappear. »
The first phase of the appraisal of the reunification process ended last Wednesday in Kananga, recalls Le Phare. « Azarias Ruberwa realized the major reason for the economic stagnation of the Big Kasaï, is, the requirement on the expatriates to obtain safe-conducts before traveling to these two provinces ( Kasaï Oriental and Kasaï Occidental) whatever the reason for their trip. » The paper quotes Mr. Ruberwa as indicating « The authorization required from investors to travel to Kasaï is a serious affront and a shameless discrimination which the government must swiftly redress for the sake of a successful and true reunification of this beautiful and rich country». The paper feels that, « in view of the immense development needs of the Kasaïs, debate on decentralization should be re-launched ».
Le Palmarès headlines « Revelations on the spectacular escape of 126 prisoners in Buluwo », a prison situated 120 kilometers from Lubumbashi, South-Eastern DRC. This paper reports that « Of the 125 detainees who escaped from the prison in unclear circumstances, only 20 escapees were caught back and searches continue. There were, in total, 230 political and nonpolitical detainees at the Buluwo prison. The same prisoners previously held Iulia Motoc (the United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteuse for the DRC) hostage, early December, to get Joseph Kabila to grant them amnesty. The escape could not succeed without complicity from the inside. »
