Police bar opposition rally

The authorities in the DRC on Monday morning blocked trains and buses moving into central Kinshasa in an attempt to stop an opposition march. Police mounted guard along Kinshasa’s main boulevard and at the central railway station where the march was due to start and rounded up suspected demonstrators as soon as an opposition party member raised a flag. Sources told IRIN they saw people who had earlier assembled in small groups being forced to board police vans. The leader of opposition party FONUS (Innovative Forces for Union and Solidarity), Joseph Olenghankoy, said 33 of his party members were arrested in connection with the march. According to another party, UDPS, (Union for Democracy and Social Progress), at least 50 people were arrested. Olenghankoy insisted that FONUS and the other parties had notified the ministry of the interior in writing. He recognised the president’s legal authority, but the president’s legitimacy should be decided at an inter-Congolese dialogue, he said. The information minister Kikaya Bin Karubi, for his part, said he had no information on arrests. He said there was confusion because several parties had the same name as other parties, and where a name was in dispute the parties had to go to the Supreme Court. “These parties refuse to notify us because they don’t recognise us as the government of the day”, the minister added. “They don’t recognise the president.” His interior ministry counterpart, Mira Ndjoku, said the march was banned because the opposition parties had not notified the ministry of the interior of their intention to resume activities. He said he had been at the scene and no one was arrested. A council of ministers agreed ten days ago that opposition parties could resume activities after notifying the interior ministry. This demonstration, in support of peace and the inter-Congolese dialogue envisaged under the Lusaka peace process, would have been the first march by the opposition in Kinshasa for three years. Despite the heavy handed clampdown which prevented any march from taking place the opposition was disappointed at the poor turnout by supporters. There were unconfirmed reports that most of the organisers had decided not to go ahead, as President Joseph Kabila had agreed, for the first time, to meet the leaders of the main opposition parties.