drc: Journalist arbitrarily detained for the past month

ALERT UPDATE - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

31 January 2003

Journalist arbitrarily detained for the past month

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

**Updates IFEX alert of 6 January 2003**

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF is concerned about the arbitrary detention of journalist
Kadima Mukombe. The Radio Kilimandjaro host has been detained at the
Tshikapa central prison, in the country's southern region, for the past
month. The organisation has urged the authorities to do everything possible
to secure his immediate release and punish those behind the journalist's
arrest and detention. According to RSF, Mukombe did nothing more than carry
out his professional duties, and nothing can justify his prolonged
detention.

Mukombe has being held without trial in very difficult conditions since 31
December 2002. The journalist received some 50 lashes at the time of his
arrest and had his head shaved with an old razor blade. Mukombe shares a
cell with army deserters and common criminals who reportedly threaten him
daily.

According to information collected by RSF, Mukombe has been accused of
"insulting the army". In his 30 December programme, the journalist had
criticised local military leaders, accusing them of having become diamond
traders and allowed their unsupervised troops to steal goods from the local
population. To illustrate the problem, the journalist had interviewed
diamond mine workers who described the harassment they face from certain
soldiers.

National Intelligence Agency (Agence nationale des renseignements) agents
had previously arrested Mukombe on 23 December, after the broadcast of a
radio programme in which he denounced the poverty faced by Tshikapa's local
population, while thousands of carats of diamonds are mined in the city on a
daily basis. Before his release that same day, Mukombe was forced to sign a
document in which he agreed to no longer "set the population against the
established authorities."

RSF previously urged the authorities to secure the journalist's release on 3
January 2003.

For further information, contact Jean-François Julliard at RSF, rue Geoffroy
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51,
e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.org

The information contained in this alert update is the sole responsibility of
RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
RSF.
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