Action VSV

["serv. informazioni Congosol" <congosol at neomedia.it>]

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source: Amnesty International
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PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 62/10/00

UA 135/00 Fear of torture 25 May 2000

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)
Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and other members of La voix des Sans Voix,

Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and other members of the Congolese human rights
organization Voix des Sans Voix (VSV), Voice of the Voiceless, have gone
into hiding to escape arrest.
If captured they would be in grave danger of torture and Amnesty
International would consider them to be prisoners of conscience, unlawfully
detained on account of their legitimate activities as human rights
defenders.

The security services have been trying to arrest them since the VSV
published a report on the human rights situation in the DRC on 22 May 2000.
The report was widely publicised in the national press and appears to have
antagonized the authorities.

For the last few days telephone calls to the VSV offices in Kinshasa have
reportedly been diverted to the offices of the military security service
known as the Detection militaire des activites anti-patries (DEMIAP), the
Military Detection of Unpatriotic Activities.

The DEMIAP detention centre is notorious for routine ill-treatment and
torture of detainees, and Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and other VSV members
would be at serious risk of torture if detained there.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and other VSV members have in the past been
harassed, arrested and ill-treated because of their human rights work.
Human rights defenders, along with opposition political activists,
journalists and trade unionists, are regularly targeted by the DRC
authorities in an attempt to stifle real or perceived opposition to the
government of President Laurent-Desire' Kabila.

The VSV is an independent non-governmental organization, established in the
late 1980s, which produces regular reports on the human rights situation in
the DRC.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail
letters in French or English or your own language: - expressing your
concern at attempts by the security forces to arrest Floribert Chebeya
Bahizire and other members of the VSV;

- urging the DRC authorities to order the security forces not to arrest VSV
members solely on account of the publication on 22 May 2000 of a VSV report
on the human rights situation in the DRC;

- stating that you would consider Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and other
members of the VSV to be prisoners of conscience if they were to be
detained solely on account of their peaceful human rights activism; -
expressing your deep concern that they would be at serious risk of torture
if detained by the Detection militaire des activites anti-patries.

APPEALS TO:

President
President Laurent-Desire' KABILA
President de la Republique
Presidence de la Republique Kinshasa Ngaliema
Democratic Republic of Congo
Telegrams: President, Kinshasa, DR Congo
e-mails: UPP at ic.cd
Fax: +243 880 2120 (this number may be very difficult to get through)
Salutation: Monsieur le President de la Republique/ Dear President

Minister of Justice
Monsieur Mwenze KONGOLO
Ministre de la justice
Ministere de la justice
BP 3137 Kinshasa-Gombe
Democratic Republic of Congo

COPIES TO:

Minister of Human Rights
Monsieur Leonard SHE OKITUNDU
Ministre des Droits humains
Ministere des Droits humains
Kinshasa-Gombe
Republique Democratique du Congo

and to diplomatic representatives of Democratic Republic of Congo
accredited to your country.



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