Demonstration blocked in Kinshasa

Police blocked an opposition party meeting in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, three days after the government announced a liberalisation of opposition activity. Some 60-70 party activists arrived at a church hall in Kinshasa for a press conference but were confronted by a squad of police and found the door was locked. The meeting would have been the first joint public conference held by the major opposition parties since the president announced the lifting of a ban on their activities on 17 May. The activists chanted abuse against the president and others in his entourage, but were peacefully dispersed. None of the demonstrators was arrested but a foreign journalist, Arnaud Zajtman of the Associated Press, was detained by police for about an hour and had his equipment confiscated. Last Saturday, the DRC council of ministers issued a statement reaffirming the lifting of the ban on political activity and specifying that all parties which were recognised in 1990 could operate again without formalities except to notify the ministry of the interior in writing. The statement came just ahead of the arrival in Kinshasa of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the DRC, Roberto Garreton (who also visited Kinshasa in mid-May when the ban was lifted). Later the minister of information explained that the opposition parties had not yet informed the ministry in writing about the resumption of their activities. Garreton raised the issue of the ban on opposition activity with the government on Saturday. He also called for all those arrested in connection with the assassination of late president Laurent-Desire Kabila to be put on trial, and asked for a full list of these detainees. It is rumoured that some have been removed to Lubumbashi, some 1,500 miles away, or have “disappeared”.