FEX- News from the international freedom of expression community
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ALERT UPDATE - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

11 December 2001

RSF asks for journalist Frédéric Kitengie's release

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris

**Updates IFEX alert of 10 December 2001. For background information on the
Loseke case, see alerts of 8 November and 24 October 2001**

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is an RSF open letter to Congolese President
Joseph Kabila:

Democratic Republic of Congo

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOSEPH KABILA

RSF asks for Frédéric Kitengie's release

"Reporters sans frontières, an international organisation working towards
the defence of press freedom, urges you to consult with the relevant
authorities to make plans for the release of sports journalist Frédéric
Kitengie, Radio France Internationale (RFI) correspondent in Johannesburg.

According to our information, on Monday 10 December 2001, Frédéric Kitengie
was transferred to Kinshasa Central Prison, but he has yet to be advised of
his trial date. He was arrested in Kinshasa on 5 December by National
Intelligence Agency (ANR) agents. Frédéric Kitengie was interrogated about
an interview he did with Moïse Katumbi, president of the Congolese football
team, who is also the brother of Katebe Katoto, a declared candidate for the
presidency of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It seems that the ANR agents
specifically questioned him about his ties to Katebe Katoto. On 8 December,
Frédéric Kitengie was referred to the Kinshasa High Court's Prosecutor's
Office. There, he was accused of being involved in an affair surrounding
poor financial management when he was the Radio-télévision nationale
congolaise (RTNC) news director. In 1998, deceased president Laurent-Désiré
Kabila gave 600,000 American dollars to former information minister Raphaël
Ganda towards the purchase of equipment for the public channel. The
journalist had accompanied the minister and his technical advisor, Ngoie
Kasula, on a mission to Europe for this purpose. Yet neither Raphaël Ganda
nor Ngoie Kasula have been troubled.

It is Reporters sans frontières' belief that Frédéric Kitengie has been
imprisoned for having exercised his professional duties, and that he should
never have been incarcerated. The organisation recalls that in January 2000,
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Abid
Hussain stated that imprisonment as punishment for the peaceful expression
of an opinion is a "serious human rights violation."

Reporters sans frontières is all the more shocked by this detention when one
considers that the government decided yesterday, 10 December, to celebrate
the 53rd anniversary of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". We
remind you that you have repeatedly stressed your commitment to the respect
of basic freedoms before the international community on several occasions.
In your 26 January 2001 inauguration speech, you reflected on the need to
reinforce respect for the rule of law, consolidate democracy and guarantee
human rights. You reaffirmed your attachment to human rights on the occasion
of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights' 57th session. Yet, in its
report on the Democratic Republic of Congo's press freedom situation, made
public on 10 December, the organisation Journaliste en danger (JED) notes
that twenty-five journalists have been imprisoned since you took office one
year ago.

Though Reporters sans frontières welcomes the 6 November 2001 release of
Freddy Loseke Lisumbu, publication director of the newspaper La Libre
Afrique, the organisation remains extremely concerned about the arrest of
Frédéric Kitengie, who did nothing more than exercise his journalistic
activities. We ask you to give a clear signal that you will respect your
commitments by ordering his immediate release."

For further information, contact Jean-François Julliard at RSF, rue Geoffroy
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51,
e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.fr

The information contained in this alert update is the sole responsibility of
RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
RSF.
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