Amnesty protests detention rights workers, 50 others

The human rights organisation, Amnesty International [AI], on Friday issued a statement protesting the continued detention of human rights workers N’sii Luanda Shandwe, Golden Misabiko Baholelwa and Anne-Marie Kamwanya Masumbuko and at least 50 other detainees held at Kinshasa’s central prison. Luanda, Misabiko and Kamwanya are all being held in “pavillon 1” of the Centre penitentiaire et de reeducation de Kinshasa (CPRK - Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education Centre), reserved for those suspected of involvement in the 16 January 2001 assassination of President Laurent-Desire Kabila. “It seems likely... that Luanda and Misabiko are in fact prisoners of conscience, detained because of their human rights activism. Some of the other pavillon 1 detainees, including Kamwanya, also appear to be prisoners of conscience, detained solely because they are related to suspects in the assassination,” the Amnesty appeal stated. “The Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of President Kabila... operates largely outside the framework of Congolese law and has seemingly unlimited powers to detain suspects incommunicado and without charge. Many of those detained on the orders of the Commission of Inquiry have been ill-treated or tortured.” Amid increasing concerns for his health, Luanda is now being refused visits as he enters his sixth week of illegal detention without charge. Misabiko, president of the Katanga branch of the human rights group Association africaine de defense des droits de l’homme (ASADHO - African Association for the Defence of Human Rights) has been detained since February 2001. For further details, go to http://www.amnesty.org.