Congo media group seeks journalist's release

Local media rights group Journaliste En Danger (Journalists in Danger) Tuesday urged police in the Democratic Republic of Congo to release a television journalist and three rights activists.

The four were detained Sunday in the capital Kinshasa after a press conference on the state of public freedoms in the vast central African country.

"JED demands the unconditional release ... of Coco Tanda, a cameraman for the private CNTV, owned by (opposition) councillor Etienne Tshisekedi", a statement said.

Tanda and the three others have been in police custody since the meeting at the office of national rights umbrella group, Renadhoc, to organise a march on parliament to present a memorandum on "safeguarding" the nascent democracy.

The arrested activists were Donat Tshikaya of Renadhoc and Floribert Chebeya Bahizire and Dolly Ibefo Mbunga of the non-governmental organisation Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless), which claimed they had been "kidnapped" by security forces.

JED said that "the four were arbitrarily and illegally arrested since they committed no breach of the law," and cited the constitution on the freedom of association, peaceful demonstrations and freedom of expression.

Separately, when parliament reopened for a new session on Monday, deputies of the presidential majority boycotted proceedings in protest at comments made by the speaker, Vital Kamerhe, on a joint Rwandan-Congolese military offensive against Hutu rebels.

Kamerhe, long considered close to President Joseph Kabila, had slammed the operation with a former enemy nation, saying Congo was just recovering from "the traumatism of Rwandan domination."

But Rwandan troops who linked up with the Congolese national army officially withdrew on February 26, after what both governments called a successful strike against the FDLR, the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

Pro-Kabila aides and lawmakers have since turned up the pressure to oust Kamerhe from his post, a matter that the speaker himself on Monday said he would set down for the next plenary session.