Jailed activists disappear - rights group

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called on the RCD-Goma authorities and their Rwandan allies to reveal the whereabouts of four Congolese men who disappeared after their arrest in Bukavu on 29 August. In a statement, the organisation said that the four had been transferred from Bukavu to Goma in eastern DRC and had not been seen since. “Spiriting people away and holding them secretly is hardly appropriate behaviour for authorities who claim to be liberators,” Human Rights Executive Director for Africa Peter Takirambudde said. “They must release these people or make public where the four are being held and grant free access to their families, legal counsel and the ICRC,” he added.

RCD-Goma’s Second Vice-President Moise Nyarugabo was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as saying on Tuesday that the four were helping the authorities in Goma with “investigations”. The four were arrested after a grenade explosion in Bukavu which killed seven people and injured at least 43 others.

Authorities accused them of having passed information about the attack to the international press. Three of them, Paulin Bapolisi Bahuga, Gervais Chirhalwirhwa Nkunzimwami and Aloys Muzalia Wakyebwa taught at the Institut de Pedagogie in Bukavu. The fourth, Regine Mutijima Bazalake, was a civil society activist. The four have reportedly been harassed by local authorities after they were named to a national assembly by DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila. They have not taken their seats in the assembly.