Human rights workers in “hiding”

Members of a Congolese human rights group have gone into hiding and would be in “grave danger” of torture if captured by the authorities, Amnesty International said on Thursday. In a statement, Amnesty said government security services had been trying to arrest Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and other members of the Voix des Sans Voix (VSV) group since the publication on Monday of a VSV report on the human rights situation in the country. “The report was widely publicised in the national press and appears to have antagonised the authorities,” Amnesty stated.

It said telephone calls to VSV in Kinshasa had reportedly been diverted to the offices of the military security service known as the Detection militaire des activites anti-patries (DEMIAP). 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 statement added.