- No newspapers were published in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday in protest at the killing of a reporter 10 days ago.
"A day without newspapers throughout the country; it is our way of protesting against those who want to muffle the freedom of the press and that of expression. We are not afraid of death, but we will continue doing our work," John Richard Kasonga, the secretary of the National Union of the Congolese Press, said.
At least 1,000 journalists took part in a demonstration on Monday in the capital Kinshasa, during which they presented a memorandum to the United Nations Mission in the DRC, MONUC, seeking its protection.
On Tuesday, another demonstration rocked Kinshasa, this time by thousands of supporters of veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi, who is boycotting general elections scheduled for 30 July. Tshisekedi is leader of the opposition l'Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (UDPS). The demonstrators tore up posters of election candidates and burned photographs of presidential aspirants. Police fired tear-gas canisters to disperse the demonstrators.
"There will be no election in Congo without the UPDS," Jean-Baptiste Bumanza, Tshisekedi's spokesman, said.
Tshisekedi had initially announced he would boycott the elections, a move that saw many of his supporters fail to register as voters. He later changed his mind and said he wanted to contest but voter registration had been closed. The UPDS wants the voter registration reopened and the party incorporated into institutions of the electoral process.
Monday's protest by journalists coincided with the funeral of Louis Bapuwa Mwamba, a political reporter, who was killed at his Kinshasa home on 8 July by men in military uniform. Mwamba had worked for Le Phare and Le Potentiel newspapers as well as Jeune Afrique Economie magazine of the Agence France Presse.
"Our government has proved that it is incapable of protecting us and ensuring freedom of expression because it is eight months since the killing of another journalist and his wife in similar circumstances but nothing has been done so that things change," Kasonga said.
Two policemen and a soldier have so far appeared before a military court in Matete Garrison in Kinshasa to face charges over the death of another journalist, Franck Ngyke and his wife, who were killed in their Kinshasa home on 3 November 2005. The trial began a week after Mwamba's killing.
"The two journalists wrote articles critical of the government and against the ongoing electoral process, which is experiencing irregularities, and their killing is puzzling," said Cyrille Kileba Pok Ames, president of the International Union of Francophone Press in the DRC.
The head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, also condemned Mwamba's killing. He asked the Congolese authorities to ensure the crime did not go unpunished.
"I condemn the murder of Bapuwa Mwamba," Matsuura said in a statement. "At a time when the DRC is preparing for historic elections, it is essential to ensure the safety of media professionals because they represent one of the pillars of democracy."
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