Rights activist still in eastern prison

Human rights activist Donatien Kisangani Mukatamwina remains in prison in Uvira, South Kivu Province, one week after his arrest by the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement, sources told IRIN on Friday. Three others - identified simply as Prince, Talo'Engwa and Nyange - were also arrested. They are all accused of belonging to a political movement called the "Service de liaison armee et population", or SLAP, created in 2000. "SLAP is a movement of unarmed resisters, who have never committed attacks against anybody," Didace Kaningini, the acting president of the civil society of South Kivu, told IRIN. Kisangani has denied membership in SLAP. The three others, who have acknowledged their membership in the movement, have said they have never met Kisangani. RCD-Goma suspects the movement to be a link between Mayi-Mayi militia groups active in the mountains surrounding Uvira and Bukavu to the residents of both cities. In a report of May 2003, Kisangani's NGO, Solidarite-echange pour le developpement integral, or SEDI, catalogued what it said was the degradation of the human rights situation in Uvira, as a consequence of fighting in May between RCD-Goma and Mayi-Mayi (Nakabaka and Zabuloni groups). SEDI accused RCD-Goma of leading reprisals against the population and of failing to stop Burundian rebels who were killing people and pillaging in the Ruzizi area. In a separate development, two people remain in jail after their arrest on 18 June by the Direction de la securite et des renseignements of RCD-Goma in Bukavu, Kaningini added. They are suspected of being linked to the Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et la democratie, created in June in Kinshasa, the nation's capital, by supporters of President Joseph Kabila.