Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (22.12.2016)

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The Secretary-General deplores the reported loss of life in confrontations between the security forces and protesters, including in Kinshasa.

NEW YORK, United States of America, December 22, 2016 – The Secretary-General is closely monitoring developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as the mediation led by the Conférence épiscopale nationale des églises du Congo (CENCO) resumed today.

He urges all parties involved in the CENCO-led mediation to work constructively and in good faith the outstanding issues related to transitional arrangements leading to the elections, in keeping with the Congolese Constitution. He calls on Congolese political leaders to place the interests of the country and the people above partisan and personal considerations. He urges them to de-escalate tensions and create an environment conducive to the successful completion of the CENCO-facilitated dialogue and the holding of timely, credible and transparent elections. The Secretary-General encourages the new government led by Prime Minister Samy Badibanga to take concrete steps, in line with the 18 October political agreement.

The Secretary-General deplores the reported loss of life in confrontations between the security forces and protesters, including in Kinshasa. He stresses the need for the national security forces to exercise the utmost restraint in the maintenance of public order.  He calls on the DRC authorities to investigate any acts of violence and ensure the perpetrators are held accountable.

The Secretary-General calls on all political actors, including the opposition, to exercise maximum restraint in their actions and statements and urge their supporters to refrain from violence. He urges the authorities, once again, to promote and protect human rights and to uphold the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.

RDC: Communication du Gouvernement (20.12.2016)

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RDC: Communiqué de presse de ALTERNANCE POUR LA RÉPUBLIQUE de Sesanga (20.12.2016)

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With continued drought, Horn of Africa braces for another hunger season (20.12.2016)

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Agricultural support critical now to protect livestock, equip families to plant in rainy season.

ROME, Italy, December 20, 2016 – Countries in the Horn of Africa are likely to see a rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region this year, FAO warned today. Growing numbers of refugees in East Africa, meanwhile, are expected to place even more burden on already strained food and nutrition security.

Currently, close to 12 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in need of food assistance, as families in the region face limited access to food and income, together with rising debt, low cereal and seed stocks, and low milk and meat production. Terms of trade are particularly bad for livestock farmers, as food prices are increasing at the same time that market prices for livestock are low.

Farmers in the region need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive at a time that pastures are the driest in years. Production outputs in the three countries are grim.

Rapid intervention

“We’re dealing with a cyclical phenomenon in the Horn of Africa,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. “But we also know from experience that timely support to farming families can significantly boost their ability to withstand the impacts of these droughts and soften the blow to their livelihoods,” he stressed.

For this reason, FAO has already begun disbursing emergency funds for rapid interventions in Kenya and Somalia.

The funds will support emergency feed and vaccinations for breeding and weak animals, repairs of water points, and seeds and tools to plant in the spring season. FAO is also working with local officials to bolster countries’ emergency preparedness across the region.

“Especially in those areas where we know natural hazards are recurring, working with the Government to further build-up their ability to mitigate future shocks is a smart intervention that can significantly reduce the need for humanitarian and food aid further down the line,” Burgeon said.

Kenya is highly likely to see another drought in early 2017, and with it a rise in food insecurity. Current estimates show some 1.3 million people are food insecure.

Based on the latest predictions, the impacts of the current drought in the southern part of the country will lessen by mid-2017, but counties in the North – in particular Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir and Mandera – will steadily get worse.

Families in these areas are heavily dependent on livestock. Now, with their livelihoods already stressed – the last reliable rain they received was in December 2015- they will get little relief from the October-December short rains, which typically mark a recovery period but once again fell short this season.

In the affected counties, the terms of trade have become increasingly unfavourable for livestock keepers, as prices of staple foods are rising, while a flood of weakened sheep, goats and cows onto local markets has brought down livestock prices.

To ensure livestock markets remain functional throughout the dry season in 2017, FAO, is training local officials in better managing livestock markets — in addition to providing feed, water and veterinary support.

After two poor rainy seasons this year, Somalia is in a countrywide state of drought emergency, ranging from moderate to extreme. As a result, the Gu cereal harvest – from April to June – was 50 percent below average, and prospects for the October-December Deyr season are very grim.

To make matters worse, the country’s driest season – the Jilaal that begins in January- is expected to be even harsher than usual, which means Somali famers are unlikely to get a break anytime soon.

All indications are that crop farmers are already facing a second consecutive season with poor harvest. Pastoralists, meanwhile, are struggling to provide food for both their families and livestock, as pasture and water for grazing their animals are becoming poorer and scarcer by the day – in the south, pasture availability is the lowest it has been in the past five years.

Some five million Somalis are food insecure through December 2016. This includes 1.1 million people in Crisis and Emergency conditions of food insecurity (Phases 3 and 4 on the five-tier IPC scale used by humanitarian agencies). This is a 20 percent increase in just six months.

The latest analysis forecasts that the number of people in Crisis and Emergency conditions of food insecurity may further rise by more than a quarter of a million people between February and May 2017. Similar conditions in 2011 have resulted in famine and loss of lives, and therefore early action is urgently needed to avoid a repeat.

FAO calls on resource partners to urgently scale up assistance in rural areas, in the form of cash relief, emergency livestock support and agricultural inputs to plant in the April Gu season.

If farmers cannot plant during Gu – which traditionally produces 60 percent of the country’s annual cereal output — they will be left without another major harvest until 2018.

Farming families in Ethiopia, meanwhile, are extremely vulnerable as they have not been able to recover from the 2015 El Nino-induced drought. Some 5.6 million people remain food insecure, while millions more depend on livestock herds that need to be protected and treated to improve milk and meat production. Here, too, better access to feed and water is critical.

The crop situation is relatively stable after the country completed the most widespread emergency seed distribution in Ethiopia’s history. FAO and more than 25 NGOs and agencies reached 1.5 million households with drought-resistant seeds.

As a result of enabling farming families to grow their own food, the government and humanitarian community saved close to $1 billion in emergency aid, underlining that investing in farmers is not only the right thing to do but also the most cost-efficient.

FAO’s Early Warning early action work

Somalia and Kenya are among the first countries benefiting from FAO’s new Early Warning Early Action Fund (EWEA). The fund ensures quick activation of emergency plans when there is a high likelihood of a disaster that would affect agriculture and people’s food and nutrition security.

The fund will be part of a larger Early Warning Early Action System that tracks climate data and earth imaging to determine what areas are at risk of an imminent shock and will benefit from early intervention.

Kabila’s silent coup is happening right now!

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RDC Kikaya said: “The only pressure to which Kabila can yield is that of the people, and today the people are not exerting pressure.”

With the soldiers in the streets of the major towns in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the police abducting and detaining civil activists of LUCHA and #Telema who are planning demonstrations against the regime in Beni, Goma, Bukavu, Kisangani, Lubumbashi and Kinshasa.

The sections of major towns we’re already filled with road-blocks and soldiers put in important roundabouts before the 19th December. Therefore the Police and Army we’re preparing for the worst and we’re ready to fire if needed be. They had the mambas; this was done with the jeeps and the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) that we’re stationed in significant areas.

Together with the social media shutdown where the citizens are supposed to use VPN instead of normal internet connections to get airtime as the central government has planned to silence WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter and so on. Because of this the M7 Media house has even decided to take vacation today until 5th January 2017. That because of the silencing of the media and even fear for the opposition would react to the overstaying of President Kabila.

Today alone 11 Rassemblement opposition figures we’re arrested in Goma. Total activists arrested in Goma during the day we’re 41!  In Kinshasa the UDPS party offices we’re besieged. The University of Kinshasa #UniKin has also been besieged as the students are silenced and stopped from demonstrating.

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Eastern city of Kalemie we’re a place we’re heavy deployment of security forces from the morning. In Butembo there we’re worse incidents we’re 15 MONUSCO soldier, 20 FARDC soldiers, 10 Police Officers and 4 civilians all lost their lives today.

Even Opposition leader Franck Diongo was also arrested today. Proves what the authorities are doing now.

The media blackout has become really sure, not only on the social media but the proof of this is with the M7 Media house, but there are report of total silence and fear from the government towards the ones reporting on the siege of the country.

With all of the security operatives and the security organization in the streets, collecting and arresting the opposition, seems like President Kabila is ready for another mandate and another term where the ones who is not part of his team and his elite will be behind bars. The arrest and the detained opposition proves that the coup d’état is on the way.

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The coup is in the details, where the Police and soldiers together with massive guns are putting people into submission, to put people into fear and silencing the ones who wants another leadership and another executive of the Republic. The Third Republic we’re built around transition and President Kabila, but not for him to rule for life, the peaceful transition is in danger now as the dialogue has been there to make opposition busy.

#Telema and the decision to wanting change in the Republic seems to get civil activist behind bars, as they civil disobedience and demonstrations are not allowed, the blockade and the clear indicated security operatives proves the proof of tensions that are created with extending this mandate.

President Kabila is trying a silent coup d’état in the Third Republic, the republic who came from two elected terms, after a questionable election in 2011, now in 2016 he is trying to skip an election and continue to be in power. This is just another way of transition as he went for a few years from 2001 to 2006 without any election and now he wants the same for himself.

5 years he could walk in power without anything other than kingmakers and foreign influencers who wanted a smooth process to secure the Kinshasa government and the exported resources. This has happen without question and rapidly by all means. So, some of the government who ushered him into power might still want him there, even as the United States and European Union is now condemning the authority of Kabila. Secondly the Rwandan and Ugandan counterparts are not saying anything on the matter; they are indifferent as long as the minerals are exported through the back-channels there. Zimbabwe’s government we’re also important in the decision of Third Republic President Kabila.

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We cannot see that President Kabila wants to stepdown as he orders the army and police offers to detain, arrest opposition and civilians. Filimbi, Rassemblement, LUCHA and other activists are taken into prison because they want their just change. Justice and rule of law is now not a priority for the republic. The one thing that matters is that Kabila is ruling the nation no matter what the cost.

The cost is freedom, liberty and a torn not worth piece of paper constitution as long as President Joseph Kabila continues to rule over his mandate. The decisions to use Security Organizations to silence his people are the proof of the coup from the Central Government.

Now we are here, the Kabila government will now coup d’état itself into power, with the cost of its own people, because of the lucrative agreements and businesses kept by the state and sanctioned by the state. Kabila has no plans to stepdown and let anybody else rule. Even if it would be his official third term, we all know it would be his fourth as the transitional period should count as one!

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The Kabila Government is now stealing the nation, thieving the republic and taking the citizens for granted. Certainly the Republic and citizens deserves better, but a coup happens because somebody wants to take power, not get or give power. The power is now in hands of people, but the army and police can only be designated for a while, not for too long because that will create fatigue. The initial outcome is that the citizens become prisoners.

With the soldiers and police in the streets are part of the coup, they are keeping the citizens as prisoners in their homes and in the valleys, the streets are not safe because if you demonstrate then you could get hurt or in prison. The Kabila government makes all citizens criminals, because one man to stay in power. That is not healthy, that is not right and the people should react. The world shouldn’t only sanction the men with frozen bank accounts and not allowed to travel to the U.S. and the European Union countries.

The republic should have arms embargo and should lose donor aid, Kabila should feel the pinch of international community, his closest businessmen and the ones in his elite be hurt by the multi-national organizations and bilateral agreements that the republic has. Republic of Congo is not owned by Kabila, still he acts they deserve him on the throne.

Kabila is staring his coup d’état with the Police and Army, the world should care because right now President Kabila is on the way on the world’s biggest heist. The heist is stealing the Congolese government and all the possibilities that come with it. Peace.

RDC: Monusco strongly condemns the Mayi Mayi milita attack in Butembo (19.12.2016)

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RDC: M7 Media – “Du Lundi 19 Desembre 2016 au jeudi 5 Janvier 2017” (16.12.2016)

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Democratic Republic of the Congo: Zeid calls for rights to be upheld as president’s mandate nears end (19.12.2016)

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A planned shutdown of social media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Sunday evening ahead of the end of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, coupled with a continuing ban on demonstrations by civil society and the opposition, is deeply alarming.

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 19, 2016 – A planned shutdown of social media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Sunday evening ahead of the end of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, coupled with a continuing ban on demonstrations by civil society and the opposition, is deeply alarming, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Saturday.

“We are especially concerned as Monday also marks three months since 54 people died in Kinshasa, when defence and security forces used excessive force against people calling for constitutional deadlines to be respected and for President Kabila to step down at the end of his second and final mandate. No one has to date been held accountable for this violent repression of demonstrations,” Zeid said.

Since the beginning of December, the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC has documented at least 45 arrests of people trying to exercise their right to peaceful assembly. Of these, at least 16 people were detained in Bunia, Kinshasa and Goma in the context of the “Bye Bye Kabila” campaign organized by the Filimbi and Lucha  youth movements.  A further 26 people were reportedly arrested for their political links or because they belong to citizen movements.

“Intimidating and targeting opponents and civil society is not the answer. Silencing their views and stopping them from protesting is not the solution, and in fact is more likely to push them to resort to violence,” said Zeid.

“We call on the Government, and especially its security forces, to take all necessary measures to guarantee the rights to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.  We call on them to exercise restraint in line with their obligations under international human rights law related to the use of force during demonstrations. All responsible, at any level, for human rights violations must also be held accountable,” Zeid stressed.

“I am also concerned that DRC Government has asked internet providers and phone operators to block social media networks from Sunday evening. Such disruption is generally disproportionate and risks heightening tensions and fears, as it follows recent increased restrictions on independent media and on political debate,” he added. “I urge the authorities to reverse this order and to guarantee the right to freedom of expression and to access information, in line with the Congolese constitution.”

Under an agreement reached with some members of the opposition, elections are not expected before April 2018, with Mr. Kabila planning to stay on in office beyond 19 December.

Talks mediated by the Catholic Church have been taking place in Kinshasa to try to find a negotiated way forward beyond this date and to avoid violence. Respect for the Constitution and human rights principles and standards must be a cornerstone of any agreement achieved at these talks, the High Commissioner said.

“Let me stress how important the implementation of confidence-building measures is to reassure the Congolese population. I call on the Government to release all political prisoners, guarantee the independence of state institutions, including the judiciary, and open up the political space. At the same time, the opposition and civil society must strictly adhere to the peaceful exercise of their rights and freedoms,” the High Commissioner said.

“I urge all the Congolese to continue their efforts to achieve an agreement on the upcoming transitional period that respects the constitution and the human rights of all,” Zeid added.

 

Opinion: Kabila will not go silently!

Patrice Lumumba

President Patrice Lumumba addressed the Congolese Youth in August 1960:

“Today I am addressing the youth, the young men and women of the Republic of the Congo. In speaking to them, I am addressing these words to future generations because the future of our beloved country belongs to them. We are fighting our enemies in order to prepare a better and happier life for our youth. If we had been egoists, if we had thought only about ourselves we would not have made the innumerable sacrifices we are making. I am aware that our country can completely liberate herself from the chains of colonialism politically, economically and spiritually only at the price of a relentless and sometimes dangerous struggle. Together with the youth of the country, we have waged this struggle against foreign rule, against mercantile exploitation, against injustice and pressure” (Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 33-36).

Joseph Kabila, the president since 2001 after his father was assassinated will not leave silently from the Executive, from the commander-in-chief of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He will go into a fourth term without any direct amendments of the constitution of the Third Republic. He has been now in powers for over 15 years!

“Although Mr Kabila almost certainly died within minutes or hours of his shooting, his body was flown to Harare, ostensibly for treatment but probably merely to give the government time to reorganise and agree on a successor. Orders were issued in his name and the death was kept secret for 50 hours. As a result, Kinshasa remained calm and factions in the army that might have risen up were disarmed. But if Mr Kabila’s killing was planned—and it may well have arisen just from discontent among the palace guard—it is still not clear what it was meant to achieve” (The Economist, 2001).

Kabila has worked in the FARDC and even we’re in command of the army when the Ugandan and Rwandan armies we’re taking Kisangani in the past. He we’re in command of the Northern Contingent as the Operational Commander. So he has army experience and knows military tactics.

Kabila have worked with allies in United States and in Belgium, as they both have served each other well, even as the mandate of MONUSCO has been strengthen as the FARDC haven’t had the will to get rid of all the different guerrillas that are in the nation. The Republic has over a dozens of guerrillas and militias controlling mines and natural resources as the illegal mining, illegal exports through Uganda and Rwanda is happening in broad daylight. That has happen for two decades and not that Kabila government has tried to stop it. Neither has the industries that need these minerals that sheds the blood and uses the children to create future soldiers.

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Just as Kabila continued the line of his father, he still cleared the shop and made sure he got loyal people to him and not to the deceased father, like a year after he was sworn-in the first time as President in the transition government, he changed the ministers and put in Evariste Boshe, Samba Kaputo, Mulegwa Zihidula and Pierre Lumbi became close allies in personal cabinet in 2002. Some of them are still key figures in the regime to this day.

As of today the pictures surfacing online before the VPN and shutdown that the regime has promised where all of social media like WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook so on. Because Kabila doesn’t want the world to know about the oppressive behaviour of the FARDC and authorities; we know about some because of LUCHA and other political organizations has already in total behind bars over 130 known activists. So the Kabila government doesn’t really want change or political freedoms for their citizens.

Gloria Sengha, youth activist in Kinshasa and member of Lucha was kidnapped yesterday by Congolese security forces in Kinshasa. She is among the latest Congolese youth who have been kidnapped this past week. We still do not have the details of where Congolese lawyer and member of Compte a Rebours, Chris Shematsi is as well since his kidnapping earlier this week” (Kambale Musavuli, 18.12.2016).

Kabila a military man who became second generation president, doesn’t have not had the will to generate freedom, his armies haven’t even made peace in regions like South Kivu or North Kivu, as the militias and own army has created massacres in the villages around mines and valuable resources to export. There been incidents in Beni, Bukavu and Goma where the violence has happen and people have fled the area.

Kabila took power in 2001 after his father, got elected in a positive election in 2006, more contested and more questionable 2011. When Kabila we’re supposed to step-down now it would be miracle for a man who has ruled for 15 years. Since he has power since his father died, though he could have learned from the past, which the innocent dies when power corrupts the President.

We can expect that the army is stationed in the major towns and cities over the next few days to quell the displeased crowds who feels that there is coup d’état silently going-on. Kabila plans to silently take control over the nation again, as he did in 2001, as he needed to postpone elections and stay as commander-in-chief as long as he can. Kabila owns businesses, businesses that have contracts with the state and others that are licensed by government authority.

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So the son of former president Kabila knows the problem of leaving and knows that certainly leaving in peace would be something new, a succession that hasn’t occurred in the giant central African nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Patrice Lumumba we’re assassinated by the Belgium post-colonial forces, Mobutu Sese Seko died in exile in Rabat Morocco, Laurent-Desire Kabila killed by assassination by alleged royal guards. Now Joseph Kabila can decide his fate.

President Kabila from 2001-2016 can make a decision, if he haven’t already; he has been eating of the government plate and also with the surrounding mineral exports and trading agreement as the Third Republic Executive. The family is tangled and involved in all sectors of the economy and if he unleash himself from the throne. If he releases himself he fears and his family fears for the business and their future. This is something they have taken over from the previous ones in power, which are Mobutu and Laurent Kabila. The connected businesses are all there because of the connection with the state.

The State isn’t a big-government, it’s a militarized single-person based government that are only what it is, depending on the one that is the President, the executive at the time, because the government isn’t full with procedure or with institutions, it’s based on the appointments from the President and with the state corporations that can be partly owned by the family of Kabila.

Kabila has been and still is the President, even as hasn’t been any election, as the fourth term is coming to him. Like so many other Presidents coming before him, they haven’t counted the transition period, even as he wasn’t elected; he was handpicked and selected by the kingmakers in 2001. To make sure the army and population got a popular figure. Certainly Kabila got the two terms after the transition. Now he is in the wind and keeping the people in shackles, because he is not caring about legal proposition of his affairs.

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The problem now, the dialogue with the opposition has been dragged out and even the CENCO, the religious forum hasn’t created a space where the general election has taken place, even as the United Kingdom doling out fortunes for the election, but nothing happens. We could all wonder if Edem Kodjo really wanted the regime under Kabila to change or if the whole thing was fraud?

The silence, the little sanctions from the European Union and United States happen in December, as the republic couldn’t feel a fret from the mediocre actions of the international community, as the Rwandan and Ugandan guerrillas are still inside the republic, together with the soft borders that has even had MONUSCO helped the SLPM-IO to Khartoum in Sudan after the rebellion in July 2016. The South Sudanese rebels fled after skirmishes in the Juba. After that the UN peacekeepers helped the rebels as they fled again to safety in Sudan.

So when Kabila now is still in power, will continue to stay in power and hold on to power without any consideration of the Congolese people and their justice. The Kabila clan doesn’t own the country, they we’re supposed to run it on their behalf. Now Joseph Kabila acts like he owns them and they owns him a favour, which isn’t true.

#Telema or #Yelema have been youth and civil activists who work for development and change as of getting a new president in the Republic. They have been stopped by tear-gas, violence and being detained. The reason is that Kabila wants to safe on the throne.

“As announced, the discussions have failed. Now, Congolese people, the ball is in your camp! Now arrived at the end of our efforts” – Felix Tshisekendi.

As Tshisekendi announce this today on Twitter shows the world how Kabila has silenced the opposition, as Moise Katumbi has been under monitoring by the authorities, even detained in Lubumbashi and had to flee for South Africa for health check after Kabila’s security organization throws tear-gas and brutalized supporters as well as Katumbi himself.

It hasn’t been the will of the Kabila to leave power or even try to fix the dialogue between the parties; he has the army and the businesses in his pocket. Kabila are now taking the Congolese citizens as hostage as he doesn’t deliver an election or a succession to himself as he stays in power. The Congolese authorities are now and have been in the hands of Kabila. Certainly Kabila proves that he never wanted to deliver democratic change.

The militarized leadership of the past are still in the midst of the leadership of Kabila, nothing different to ones of the Mobutu dictatorship or of the puppet-regime of Laurent Kabila. The Military, the Police and Special Forces as much as the Royal Guards are still following orders from above high. They are doing it now as they are guarding the cities like Goma, Kinshasa and others.

Kabila even warned of major violence if he had to stepdown, because he will use the military to silence the opposition and the citizens. Therefore the violence will come as a result of Kabila using force to quell the people into his will. The non-acts of the President are elementary of the will of keeping power.

President Kabila will not let go, not letting go silent and seemingly have had no plan of leaving office, as the keys, the guns and ammunition is in his hands. The army and police together with the banning of social media are elements of taking total control and not letting go. Just like President Museveni, President Nkurunziza and President Kagame. Kabila wants to copy them, but without the legal fuzz of Burundi and without Museveni’s bickering and changes of laws over 3 decades. As Kabila doesn’t have a totalitarian control like Kagame in Rwanda.

Kabila now shows his cards without playing, that is way of playing, though the silence, the non-existing plans and the dodging the ordinary parts of the Parliament and amending laws or even the constitution to secure legality of the third official term. But also the non-existing election and campaigning, as the Kabila regime is holding on without taking in consideration of the citizens of the Congolese state.

We should hope he would step down to respect his own people, but the Congolese people aren’t respected, as they haven’t been by the authorities for so long time. Kabila follows the tradition of Mobutu who used the military and the support of United States to control the Republic.

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We know that the Third Republic is in the image of the Kabila and total control is because of him and the appointed men who he trusts. Kabila are now seeking to overstay and to make the citizens hostage. #Telema can address the deficiency and show the truth, but the citizens have to demonstrate and besiege the Parliament, make noise on the radio and also protect the constitution.

Third Republic cannot be at the current, the Democratic Republic of Congo doesn’t owe anything to Kabila and his clan. They have eaten for a long while and let many people starve, therefore the clan fears that the citizens will take that away. The Congolese people deserve a democratic, transparent and fiscal responsible government who cares for the citizens and not only the riches of Kabila and his elite.

Kabila are now 15 years in and not leaving, we can hope civil disobedience and #Telema has power to make a difference, which the civil activists in LUCHA can change, the powers. What is more important is that citizen’s act against Kabila and the Congolese authorities, because the citizen deserves a government who represent them.

Now the Kabila government have shackled the society and taken the people for granted. Prepare that the Rassamblement, the Telema and all the other efforts will end up with more people in prison, more death as the soldiers will kill demonstrators and the army will besiege the cities. Peace.

Reference:

The Economist – ‘Kabila is dead, long live Kabila’ (25.01.2001) link: http://www.economist.com/node/486713

You are not forgotten Sam Mugumya!

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I cannot and as I am together with others, who stand for justice, rule of law and freedom cannot forget the brave men like Sam Mugumya, who has been detained in Democratic Republic of Congo, as he was traded for the release of M23 soldiers and deported to the Congo. Something that is disgusting enough as he has been portrayed by the Ugandan authorities as an Allied Defence Force (ADF-NALU) which is a guerrilla that cause havoc in the DRC.

With that all in mind his been detained since 2014, today is his birthday, certainly he will not able to celebrate it or even enjoy it. He is innocent and rotting in prison because of the exchange that was between DRC Authorities and Ugandan counterparts. Certainly that deal was made with some perks.

In August 2016 there we’re reported that 300 Ugandan citizens we’re detained and in prison in the neighbour country, many of who is said to be connected with the guerrilla – ADF-NALU, but some of them are certainly framed for that as proven with Sam Mugumya, who has been parts of Activist 4 Change with the Walk to Work protest in 2011 and also been a pivotal political force inside the Forum for Democratic Change. Therefore the NRM Regime wants him away and silences him, the best way in a foreign prison where his voice doesn’t matter.

With this recent report isn’t positive considering his case: “In a government statement to parliament last evening, the State minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem revealed that the authorities had declined to have Mugumya released since the matter was under the military establishment in the DRC” (…) “Okello also says that Mugumya may not be extradited soon due to absence of enabling policies between the two governments despite several interventions” (Kyeyune, 2016). So the case has become military after the extradition and prisoner exchange in 2014, therefore the fate of Mugumya is in the hands of Congolese Authorities. The Ugandan ones are towing their fingers as the former Besigye aide is dwindling away and not has the ability to get freedom as he is a political activist and not a terrorist. That is big difference!

In 2015 he said this to the press:

Ivan: “How did you know they were CMI operatives? Were they clad in uniform?” Sam: “They had army uniform and they introduced themselves to me as such. On the first day, they were two. They asked if I had links with ADF then shortly after said I was coming to link up with the People’s Redemption Army.  I told them I was just running away from your brutal regime. On the second day, another set of three CMI operatives came. I remained in Beni for three weeks before I was called for a joint interrogation between Congolese authorities and CMI.  They debated if to bring us back to Uganda or hold us in Congo” (Okuda, 2015).

“Ivan: “The regime back home accuses you of involvement in subversion, terrorism to be precise and government spokesman Ofwono Opondo and UPDF spokesman Paddy Ankunda both stand by this claim. What is your take?” Sam: “It is not true I was involved in subversive activities. I have been involved in legitimate activism which is a fundamental right, to support or oppose a regime. But Mr Museveni and his henchmen like all tyrants mistake principled Opposition for subversion. There is a history to this. In 2011, Ingrid Turinawe, Francis Mwijukye and I were charged with terrorism and the case fell flat because it had no legal limbs and was built on falsehoods. Repeating these same allegations is essentially putting into perspective why we are here. Museveni has always made his position clear; that he is not comfortable with courts granting bail to capital offence suspects.  Of course, he is not interested in the rapists and murderers; he is simply clothing it as capital offences to net political activists. We are the real target” (Okuda, 2015).

When you hear his story that he flee from Uganda because of the possible prosecution and the indicated issues with the brutal regime, that means that the courts and indictment we’re predicated to take him down. The Congolese Authorities just used that and reprimanded him, while they still had been served with Ugandan intelligence to pick-up the activist and take him to prison. Something that is vicious and shows the collaborate effort to harass fellow citizens and also use the military together with security operatives to make sure the people like Sam Mugumya get behind bars, where he still is without question.

His is lingering in jail, but he is not forgotten, as much as the other activist both Ugandan and Congolese who is still behind bars. As the Authorities are keeping them silent behind bars instead of being free to challenge the ones in power. Peace.

Reference:

Kyeyune, Moses – ‘Mugumya Extradition Not Possible, Says Government’ (02.12.2016) link: http://kfm.co.ug/news/mugumya-extradition-not-possible-says-government.html

Okuda, Ivan – ‘I was arrested while fleeing to exile, says Mugumya’ (20.12.2015) link: http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/I-was-arrested-while-fleeing-to-exile–says-Mugumya/689844-3002812-11msrhrz/index.html