Front Line is deeply concerned regarding numerous death threats made against the human rights defenders and journalists Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi throughout 2007.
Further Information
Posted 28/10/2007
Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi are the President and Secretary General respectively of Journalistes en Danger – JED (Journalists in Danger), a Kinshasa based organisation that defends freedom of the press. JED is a member of IFEX (International Freedom of Expression Exchange) and of the international network of Reporters without Borders.
The latest threat Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi received was on 29 August 2007, when they received an anonymous fax, sent from the fax number +2432341165, demanding “…for the first and last time“ that Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi no longer “stick their noses into journalist Franck Ngyke’s case”. The message threatened them and said: “Your time will come and we will know what to do with you both”. The journalist Franck Ngyke Kangundu was killed along with his wife Helene Mpaka on 3 November 2006.
Prior to this, the history of threats against Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi was as follows:
On 6 February 2006, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi were forced to go into exile for three weeks after having received death threats. The threats came after they had published an independent investigation into the killing of Franck Ngyke Kangundu and Helene Mpaka. Their inquiry rejected the official theory put forward by the government and suggested a political motivation to the killings.
On 9 and 12 March 2006, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi, met with President Joseph Kabila, who promised to guarantee their safety during upcoming judicial proceedings. However, throughout the inquiry, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi received multiple death threats.
On 15 June 2007, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi gave a press interview in connection to the killing of journalist and human rights defender Serge Maheshe, of Radio Okapi, who was assassinated on 13 June 2007. Apparently, Serge Maheshe had received death threats one month before his assassination, from soldiers working with the Republican Guard’s Army (Presidential Guard), which is controlled directly by the President of the Republic Joseph Kabila. JED requested that members of the Republican Guard’s Army be interviewed by the investigators. During the same interview they spoke about the public inquiry, where ten people among them women, children and two members of the militia were implicated to the killing. They stated that “the haste and attempt to hide the trail” and “protect the real murderers”. Following the interview, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga received death threats by telephone, ordering him not to involve himself in the Serge Maheshe case if he did not wish for his family to be attacked. Similarly, Tshivis Tshivuadi, received a threatening phone call, where the caller maintained that they knew her husband and children and warned her of the possibility of a rocket attack on her house.
On 6 July 2007, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga and Tshivis Tshivuadi were warned by a reliable source that JED activities in connection to the Serge Maheshe case, were provoking discontent on the part of the alleged assailants. The source had advised them to “keep a low profile.”
On 31 July 2007, following a press conference given by Donat Mbaya Tshimanga where he denounced the amendment of two bills aimed at possibly restraining freedom of the press, the Minister of Information and the Press, Toussaint Tshilombo Send, gave an interview on the private television station “Antenne A”, in the course of which he described JED as an “anti-patriotic” organisation “that needed to be wiped out at all costs” and was “assigned by the enemies of the Democratic Republic of Congo to blacken the image of the country abroad for well known reasons”. Following these threats, Donat Mbaya Tshimanga was again forced to leave the DRC temporarily.
Front Line is of the opinion that these numerous threats are aimed at dissuading the human rights defenders Donat Mbaya and Tshivish Tshivuadi from pursuing their legitimate activities in the area of the protection of the human rights of journalists in DRC.
Action Finished:
This Urgent Appeal has now ended. No further action is requested at this point. Thank you for taking action on this case.
Front Line issues Urgent Appeals on behalf of human rights defenders at risk on a daily basis. These Appeals normally remain active on our web site for a period of up to six weeks, depending on the situation. After this time they will be archived. Front Line maintains a watching brief on all these cases but no further action is requested after the six weeks, unless there is a significant development in the case.
