NGOs say detention of security officers violates human rights

The government of the Republic of Congo (ROC) must bring some sort of charges against a group of security officers arrested in January in connection with an arms theft, two human rights organisations said on Wednesday. Since their arrest, the security officers - thought to number at least 25 - have been kept incommunicado. Even their families do not know where they are held, the NGOs said. "We are worried about the physical and psychological welfare of these officers - their families don't even know what their fate is," the NGOs, the Rencontre pour la paix et les droits de l’homme and the Commission Justice et Paix, said in a joint statement. They said they were putting pressure on the Congolese government, the police and the army to organise, as a matter of urgency, an impartial and independent judicial process that would guarantee those arrested the right to a defence. The officers, comprising policemen, gendarmes and army officers, were arrested on 9 January in the southern town of Point-Noire, the country's second city. The arrests followed the theft in Brazzaville, ROC's capital, of weapons, which the government alleged, were to have been used in a coup attempt. Moreover, the NGOs claimed that a team set up by the government on 17 February to investigate the incident made further arrests without a legitimate mandate. The inquiry team is made up of police and military officers. The arms were stolen just three days after a new cabinet was named, which (contrary to the country's constitution) comprised 35 members, and appointed a prime minister to lead it, rather than the country's president. Defence Minister Jacques Yvon Ndolou said the stolen arms were recovered in the southern part of Brazzaville. On 12 March, the two NGOs revealed that the arrested officers had been transferred secretly from Point-Noire to Brazzaville. Some of them had become ill and were being denied medical attention, while others had even been tortured. To continue to detain the security officers was a violation of their human rights, the NGOs said. "These people are not even allowed to contact their families, human rights organisations or seek legal assistance," the NGOs said. "Their lawyers cannot get in touch with them [for] fear that the affair may be political."