
RDC: Communique de Presse du ARPTC (19.06.2016)











“Jean Marie Kalonji is the coordinator of a citizen’s movement by “Democratic” Republic of the Congo. He was arrested on 15 December 2015 in Kinshasa by agents of the non-identified, sequestered in a military camp, then delivered to the national intelligence agency, (l’Agence Nationale de Renseignement) ANR, three days after. He has been transferred from the dungeon of the RDA in the prison of Makala since 28 April 2016.” (Kambale Musavuli , 07.06.2016).
More on his arrest:
“#DRC – #Congolese youth demand justice for their colleague Jean Marie Kalonji during a press conference today in Kinshasa. The Youth for a New Society (JNS), the Friends of Nelson Mandela and Quatrieme Voix along with other youth groups called on the Congolese government to either charge Jean Marie Kalonji or release him. On December 15, 2015, armed men snatched Jean Marie in broad daylight in Kinshasa. He has since been held by Congo’s intelligence services (ANR) without a trial” (Friends of the Congo, 14.04.2016).

“After spending more than four months in secret detention at Congo’s Intelligence Services (ANR), Jean Marie Kalonji was transferred today to a justice/state facility in the Gombe commune of Kinshasa, where he will face a judge on Tuesday, April 26th. After several reports of his death in the hands of Kabila’s intelligence services, Jean Marie’s fellow youth activists held a press conference last week to demand that the government present Jean Marie to the public to demonstrate that he had not been killed by the Kabila regime Jean Marie’s fellow youth activists in La Jeunesse Pour Une Nouvelle Societe and Quatrieme Voix said that they will not stop until Jean Marie is completely released!” (Friends of the Congo, 25.04.2016).
Peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_PnxjmwV0Q
“The President of the Socialists and Democrats Group Gianni Pittella expresses his great concern about the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. European Parliament, Strasbourg, 07/06/2016
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The S&D Group stands for an inclusive European society based on principles of freedom, equality, solidarity, diversity and fairness” (Socialist & Democrats, 2016).

NEW YORK, United States of America, June 6, 2016 – The African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF) are closely following the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The four organizations act under the framework of their partnership for peace and security in Africa, as well as their collective commitment to support the DRC in consolidating the achievements recorded during the last decade.
The four partner organizations underline once again the crucial importance of holding a successful political dialogue with all Congolese stakeholders leading to a consensus that would allow for free, fair, transparent and credible elections to take place in accordance with the framework of the Congolese Constitution, thus preserving peace and stability in the country and deepening the democratic process and the rule of law.
The four organizations reaffirm their full support to the facilitation efforts led by Mr. Edem Kodjo on behalf of the AU. In this context, they have agreed to set up a support group to the facilitation, which also includes representatives of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and to mobilize the expertise and resources needed to maximize chances of achieving a successful dialogue.
The four organizations underline the primary responsibility of the government and all concerned Congolese stakeholders to maintain peace and stability in the DRC, to preserve the hard-won gains and to strengthen democracy and the rule of law. In this regard, they urge all Congolese actors to join the dialogue and extend their full cooperation to the Facilitator, recalling that he is acting within the framework of the relevant bodies of the AU and resolution 2277.
The four organizations urge the Government and all political actors in the DRC to refrain from any action that could increase tensions or lead to violence. More than ever, restraint and the spirit of responsibility are needed at this particular moment of the history of the DRC. The four partner organizations also call on the government to maintain its commitment to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the DRC, including by releasing political prisoners; bearing in mind that the preservation of political space and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution is a necessary condition to the success of the political dialogue, an outcome to which President Kabila has expressed his utmost commitment.

Dear Electronic Producers of end-products as Mobile Phones and such, I write to you in haste!
Then I mean the likes of Foxconn of China, Apple, Hitachi, Sanyo, NEC Tokin, Kemet, AVX, Vishay, Flextronics, Celestica Sanmina, Asustek, Jabil, Hewitt-Packard, Dell, Acer, IBM, Samsung, Motorola, Canon and Nokia. Also other suppliers who deliver the needed products for you too label and sell to the global market.
I write too you with urgency, do you want your names to mentioned in blood, as your greed for the profits are no embedded with warlords and thieves of East Africa, as the exported mineral resources as Coltan, Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten. These minerals are needed in your production to make your phones, your electronics and others.
There been warlords, been warriors and presidents that have looted the Southern and Northern Kivu of Democratic Republic of Congo. They have all used AK-47 and other weapons while taking territories, towns and villages. These are the places, where the militias and guerrillas are raping the woman, burning villages and taking over mines even with child-labor if needed.
All the deaths and wars since the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko in the end of 1990s, where the proxy war of Uganda and Rwanda in the Kivu’s where the mines are; and you have accepted this as you vouch for their armies and their militias taking the area, eating of the minerals, eating the stones and lifting the burden they have to buy ammunition to continue their thieving. The thieving and capturing the miners, destroying and taking the minerals, the minerals you use in your products, the end-products you want to sell to me and the world.

What is the pride of your fiscal profits, knowing you were securing payments, securing buying of small-arms and killings of fellow men and woman, on your watch, on your payment and your production? The initial end-game of Electronic Products is that as long as we know that, the Laptops, Smart-Phone and others are tainted with blood; they are tainted with the operation of warlords.
That cannot be gone away in silence, as long as the President of Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, they are all in on it, and enjoy the monies with their proxy armies controlling various mines and different minerals, the issues and stages of exploitation of the Kivu’s.
If more people care, they would be aggravated, they would wonder if there was ways of producing the smart-phones and laptops without the minerals that are fueling the guerrillas and militias of Kivu, which is not extending the reign of Kabila, Kagame and Museveni. They are the reasons for these killings and these groups who extort this violence.

The nonsense non-action, the deliberate assault for these minerals, and your plenty of usage, while knowing where it came from, with the extent of the force that it taken from the ground and into the factories, before sold with pop-song on the local TV-Station with a fancy name and image; that image should be tainted with the knowledge of how the minerals for it came to light of day, with the injustice, the impunity and dissolved society where the fear of violence, reckless warlords, relentless soldiers and murders keeping at bay the illegal logging of minerals of the Kivu’s. That is what the price of the profits.
The brave and Nobel men of the boardrooms of the companies, the men and woman of the PR firms, and the consumers, should be enlighten, should take a stand and we all should try to find ways to absorb and not buy the tainted electronics, or least spread the names of them who take the supply of blood-tainted minerals and make products for profit. That should be stopped, as the killings, the continued presence of militias and guerrillas, they are all been kept and fed by your money. The money you have supplied them, so they can continue to get guns and ammunition.

This money comes from the people, the citizens of the world, they should now and should extend their hands, if they about the atrocities and violence of the Kivu’s. They are serving your profits, the profits made on the guerrillas and militias controlling the mines and exploitations of the provinces with the enriched minerals of the Democratic Republic of Congo. That is what should be known, the silent and sudden killer of it all, the ones that responsible for the presence of modern technology, are militants and guerrillas who are fed on the violence as they export to industries that take it without questions.
It should be questioned and the people should care, the knowledge of these actions should be in the open and spoken more about. Last time the blood-diamonds movie and Leonardo DiCaprio played a reckless man who sold diamonds in Sierra Leone… maybe if they did the same with blood tainted minerals from the DRC, then the world citizens might care and asked for change of policy, but the average man don’t, they just want to enjoy 3G and 4G while surfing to read Tabloid papers and other madness, instead of using their waste opportunities to gain the needed knowledge of the affairs that is happening from afar with the technology at hand.
There is time to question; there are and been more than enough massacres and deaths happening in Beni, in Goma and in Kivu’s for the needed minerals. Time to ask the Electronics Companies and the Suppliers of these minerals to take actions, as their need for this is the reason why the atrocities and killings are happening. They are happing on our watch and with our knowledge. It is time to do something and ask for change, to pressure the DRC Government, to pressure the Electronic producers to use other suppliers if possible and stop fueling their profits into the warlords of East Africa, as they are responsible for their existence, as they are the ones giving them money and plenty to continue to harass and kill their fellow brother and sisters.
Best Regards
The Writer of Minbane