March 2009Investigation : Ambroise Pierre and Léonard Vincent

Reporters Without Borders – Africa Desk47, rue Vivienne - 75002 Paris

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Democratic Republic ofCongo

Bukavu, murder cityAn investigation into the murders of journalists in the capital of Sud-Kivu

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Summary

Three Congolese journalists were murdered in Bukavu in the space of three years. Were thesekillings revenge on the journalists or their media for revealing information that threatened localpotentates? In any event these three killings remain unpunished, given the relentless determi-nation of the police and justice system not to find those responsible. Or, worse still to releasethose to whom everything pointed as being directly responsible: politicians, soldiers, drug gangs,as many violent groups as lay down the law in Kivu. Despite pressure from the UN, the EU andNGOs, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Congolese Army refrainfrom restoring order and justice.

The findings in the report of Reporters Without Borders’ investigation in Kivu in December2008 are overwhelming.

Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi, journalist, executive secretary of the Inheritors of Justice and vice-president of the Great Lakes Human Rights League (LDGL), was shot dead at his home over-night on 31 July-1st August 2005. Suspicion immediately fell on Lieut-Col. Thierry Ilunga, com-mander of the 105th brigade of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo(FARDC). This warlord was arrested, tried and sentenced for murder and then mysteriouslyreleased 24 hours later, without any explanation.

Serge Maheshe, news editor on Radio Okapi, was murdered in the street in front of his friendsSerge Muhima and Alain Mulimbi on 13 June 2007. The two, who were summoned as witnesses,formally identified one of the killers, a soldier. Result: they were both sentenced to death for“criminal conspiracy”! The false witnesses who accused them ended up by retracting. SergeMaheshe’s friends were finally acquitted on 21 May 2008, but the military suspect was neverbrought to book.

Didace Namujimbo, also a journalist on Radio Okapi, who had been threatened on many occa-sions, was killed on 21 November 2008 just yards from his home. The civilian justice systemopened an investigation but the military justice system very quickly seized control of the case.Four months later, no date has been fixed for the opening of the trial.

This report presents the results of the investigations carried out in each murder case. It detailsthe botched legal procedures as well as the negligence and corruption of a section of the judi-cial institution. It condemns the power of the military and of their back-up troops, as well asthe role played behind the scenes by mining pressure groups

Appalled by these serious crimes and permanent obstacles to press freedom, ReportersWithout Borders is calling for the immediate setting up of a special judicial investigation.

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Bukavu, lying on the banks of a vast lake, hasbeen abandoned to the ravages of poverty.The former colonial capital of Sud-Kivu, per-ched on the hills beside the water at the fur-thermost eastern point of the DemocraticRepublic of Congo, struggles to surviveamidst chaos, far from everything, some1,500 kilometres from Kinshasa. Despite theraids that had regularly plunged it intobloodshed since 1994, Sud-Kivu does nothave the look of a land of massacres. Fightingthat brought death to the other side of thelake, between August and November 2008 inthe border area of Nord-Kivu and aroundthe Virunga park, did not spill over onto thisbank.

But this region is the epicentre of a ten-yearwar which, since 1998, has cost more thanfour million lives. With its uncontrollableshanty towns and its idle security forces,Bukavu has become one of central Africa’smost violent cities, despite the permanentpresence of a brigade of the UN Mission inthe Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc).The press and also human rights defendershave paid a very high price in this regard.Since June 2007, in less than 18 months, twojournalists from the small team that runsRadio Okapi have been shot dead at night bymen armed with one of the countless kalash-nikov machine guns in circulation in themuddy side streets of this small lakeside set-tlement, which has in ten years of warbecome a Great Lakes slum.

The murder of Didace Namujimbo, on 21November 2008, following the killing ofSerge Maheshe, on 13 June 2007, sent ashock wave through Congolese civil society,already sorely tried by years of insecurity.“The day of the funeral, the streets ofBukavu were filled with people. The youngpeople were furious. An impressive funeralprocession followed my brother to hisgrave”, said Déo Namujimbo, himself a jour-nalist, and correspondent for ReportersWithout Borders in the east of the DRC. “Isour city cursed?”, wonders Kizito Mushizi,provincial president of Congo’s NationalPress Union and director of the privately-owned Radio Maendeleo, that broadcastsnews programmes from a small studio and ahuge aerial in the centre of the city. “The

people here are warm and welcoming. Theywant to live in peace, but we have to make ahuge effort”, says deputy governor of Sud-Kivu, Jean-Claude Kibala.

With the aim of investigating these murdersand to try to formulate recommendationsthat could be useful to the local authoritiesand Monuc, Reporters Without Borderssent a delegation to the capital Kinshasa,Goma and Bukavu, from 16-24 December2008. This report resulted from that mis-sion.

Didace Namujimbo’s last day

The body of journalist Didace Namujimbowas found in the early hours of 22November 2008, beside steps cut into theground around 50 metres from his Bukavuhome and lying in a pool of blood. He wasshot dead with a bullet in the neck fired atpoint blank range as he returned home theprevious evening. “Who shot him, how andabove all why”, is the question that continuesto haunt the brother of this well knownyoung journalist, Déo Namujimbo, who hasworked for Reporters Without Borders inSud-Kivu for around ten years.

Didace Namujimbo had since February 2006been on the staff of the local office of RadioOkapi, an influential station, started in 2002,through a partnership with the Monuc andthe Fondation Hirondelle. Backed by severalforeign funders, it broadcasts in French andin the DRC’s four national languages acrossthis huge country, which is the size of all ofwestern Europe. The radio, which attractsabout 40% of listeners in the east of thecountry, “has pulled off a unique achievementin French-speaking Africa: toppling RadioFrance International (RFI). A success story thatwas produced above all by the originality ofthe media that combines professionalism andproximity to the people”, correctly observedjournalist Thomas Hofnung, in an articleabout the radio in the French daily Libération.Along with Radio Télévision nationale congo-laise (RTNC), Radio Okapi is the only stationto reach the country’s far flung areas thatsuffer from many shortages, including passa-ble roads and means of public transport.

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On the day he was killed, Friday 21November 2008, Didace Namujimbo went ashe did every day, to the headquarters ofMonuc where Radio Okapi has its studios, inthe Muhumba district on the outskirts of thecity, not far from the border post withRwanda. At midday, he went back to the citycentre and into a shop owned by a traderknown as “Shumi”, in Munzihirwa square,where he handed over his cash savings, acommon practice in a country where banksare few and far between and undependable.Didace also withdrew a sum of money andtook his cheque book in order to pay thefirst months’ rent of a new house he wasintending to view the following day. The jour-nalist then went back to the radio station andfinished his working day at around 5.45pm. Togo back into the city, he got into the Monucminibus, which for security reasons, takesradio staff home. Namujimbo was the lastpassenger to alight. Using his friendship withthe minibus driver and saying he had anappointment at the La Bodega restaurant atthe Residence Hotel, he was not taken to hishome.

In fact, Namujimbo met a girl friend, not farfrom the Alfajiri college, closer to Monucthan his home. On parting from her he recei-ved a phone call at about 7pm from his bossat the radio wanting to check if there wereany problems, then a few minutes later hemade the habitual Monuc radio check on hiswalkie-talkie, as the UN security procedurerequires. He then received another phonecall from Dubai during which his caller, ayoung businessman, named Elie "Negrita",told him that he could collect a televisiondecoder which had been ordered a long timeago. Namujimbo then went on foot to the

home of his businessman friend where theman’s wife gave him a parcel after which heheaded home, on foot because he could notfind a taxi. Witnesses interviewed byReporters Without Borders said it was bynow about 9pm.

It was dark when Namujimbo reached theNdendere district of the commune of Ibandaand he left the main road, turning into aseries of wood-reinforced steps which arecut directly into the earth, between thefences, to reach the little square of slope onwhich his house is set. The journalist had onhim two phones, with three SIM cards, usingthree different networks, a laptop computerin a shoulder bag, a Motorola walkie-talkie,his cheque book, a television decoder worthmore than 100 dollars, and finally, a significantsum in cash.

A neighbour of Namujimbo’s told ReportersWithout Borders that he heard a short dis-pute break out at around 9.30pm in the mid-dle of the steps. “Going up!” he heard “thevoice of a soldier” exclaim, in Lingala, the lan-guage spoken in the capital Kinshasa to thewest of the country and widely spokenwithin the Congolese regular army. “No,coming down!” said another “soldier’s voice”,according to the witness, who identified themen in question, the language he heard andmembers of the regular armed forces,without having seen them. A few momentslater a shot rang out. The neighbour, who saidhe was “afraid for his wife and children” anddid not feel “tempted to go out in the middleof the night in these circumstances”, said he“could not confirm” having recognised the

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Radio Okapi studios in Bukavu

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voice of Didace Namujimbo, whom he knewwell, during the dispute.

At dawn the following day, the journalist wasfound dead, lying on his back, his head leaningagainst a wooden fence separating a beatenearth path and the garden of a small house,clinging to the slope. His Motorola walkie-tal-kie, 50 US dollars and 3,000 Congolesefrancs (worth around five dollars) werefound on the body.

“Consternation” within Monuc

Soon after sunrise, at around 6am, the neigh-bours who had discovered the body raisedthe alarm and called the police. A group ofcurious onlookers rushed to the spot. Thenews quickly spread of a second murder of ajournalist on Radio Okapi, first in Bukavu, then

a few hours later, to Kinshasa, and finallyabroad. In the capital, director of public infor-mation division for Monuc, Kevin Kennedy, gotthe news by text from his colleague JacquelineChenard, head of public information inBukavu. Still shocked by the murder 15months earlier, of Serge Maheshe, also inBukavu, he told Reporters Without Bordersthat he could not but “make a link betweenthe two events” and was struggling to unders-tand why it had happened. “Our staff are vul-nerable. The system does not allow the samelevel of protection for the staff of Okapi, whoare journalists and therefore need to be inconstant contact with the public, as for theUN staff”, he told the Reporters WithoutBorders’ delegation. “When something likethis happens, despite all our efforts to makethings to go well, we feel completely power-less”, said Bernard Conchon, project head atthe Fondation Hirondelle in the DRC.

Kivu, matrix of war

Shot through with ethnic, political and property rivalries, coveted for its natural wealth, the region, made upof two provinces, Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu, is “the matrix of all the wars in Congo”, according to the head-line of an article by Angélique Mounier-Kuhn, in the French daily Le Monde on 5 December 2008. During the1990s, the grip of Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko on his vast country began to weaken and a corrupt army beganto decline. Kivu provided the launch pad for the rebellion led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, with the backing ofneighbours Rwanda and Uganda that led to the swift overthrow of the dictator in Kinshasa, in May 1997.Shortly afterwards, a second war broke out, August 1998, unleashed by the political and financial desires ofRwanda and Uganda, who considered that their earlier support for the “Mzee” (old man) had not been suf-ficiently rewarded. Fierce fighting, pillaging of its resources and a humanitarian crisis transformed the DRCinto a regional theatre of war, involving up to eight different armies and leaving around 4 million dead in fiveyears. By 2003, the DRC appeared finally to be moving towards a lasting peace. Foreign troops pulled outand, under strong pressure from the international community, a democratisation process culminated in 2006in the election as president of Joseph Kabila, son of the “Mzee” who had been murdered by one of his ownbodyguards.

But the specific question of Kivu was neglected. The region continued to live in a climate of sporadic vio-lence, particularly that continued by a renegade general, Laurent Nkunda, who joined the rebellion in 2004,and who in 2006 founded the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). A peace confe-rence held in January 2008 in Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu, certainly fed hopes of a resolution, but thisfell apart in August when Laurent Nkunda and his Rwandan allies launched an offensive against theCongolese army, supported by the mai-mai militia.

Bukavu is situated on the edge of the chaos that reins in the Kivu. For several years and continuing after thepolitical transition period in 2003, the Sud-Kivu capital was subjected to the control of RCD-Goma, a poli-tical-military party headed by Azarias Ruberwa. In June 2004, General Laurent Nkunda forcibly took controlof the city. Rebels under his orders sowed terror and committed atrocities and pillage. One month later, on14 July 2004, the rebel leader and his men were finally driven out by troops of the 10th military region andretreated back to Rwanda. At the 2006 presidential elections, Bukavu voted overwhelmingly for JosephKabila, showing the frustration of a people desperate for change. Whether by soldiers, members of the pre-sidential guard or uncontrolled armed bands including the “Fenders” and the “Red Army”, young criminalssowing terror in the city, the people live constantly with threats and extortion.

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There were immediate outraged reactionsto the killing. Monuc spokesman, MadnodjeMounoubai, expressed the “consternation”of the UN mission over this latest murder.The special representative of the secretarygeneral within Monuc, Alan Doss, condem-ned what he called a “cowardly” murder, aview repeated in the first hours and daysafter the killing by the highest authorities ofthe UN. Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon,and the Director General of UNESCO,Koichiro Matsuura, joined together to callfor “a full and independent investigation” ofthis murder. Early urgent response from UNagencies, the Fondation Hirondelle, and theorganisation Protection International, led tosecurity improvements for their staff andsupport for a team shocked by the killing.Security training was offered, changes toschedules and a crisis cell was set up in liai-son with the Fondation Hirondelle head-quarters in Lausanne.

The journalist’s funeral was held two dayslater, on Monday 24 November, his coffindraped with the UN flag. A ceremony in tri-bute to him was held in the central cour-tyard of the Monuc headquarters, oppositethe Radio Okapi studios, during which theMonuc co-ordinator for the east of thecountry, Alpha Sow paid tribute to a “knightof peace” and called on his colleagues tocontinue “always to hold higher the torchof Radio Okapi". The UN anthem was playedand several eulogies given. The ceremonyclosed with the Congolese anthem, afterwhich the cortege proceeded to theBukavu Cathedal for a mass. After thisNamujimbo’s coffin, followed by a proces-sion more than four kilometres long, wasburied close to that of his colleague SergeMaheshe.

The untouchable Kabungulu case

Being a public figure, with no links to anarmed force of any kind or a powerful politi-cal network is a dangerous exercise inBukavu. Before the murder of DidaceNamujimbo, there were two similar killings inthe city in the space of three years, withouteither the police or judicial system giving anyserious attention to solving the cases.

The opening salvo came when PascalKabungulu Kibembi was shot dead at hishome in Bukavu, in front of his family over-night on 31 July-1st August 2005, just after3.30 am. The 55-year-old activist, who wasexecutive secretary of the organisation,Inheritors of Justice and vice-president of theGreat Lakes Human Rights League (LDGL),was seen by journalists in Sud-Kivu as one oftheir own. This was chiefly because of hisinvestigations into atrocities committed bymembers of the military and of rebel move-ments in a region, where in 2009, some areasare “administered” by uncontrollable factionsof movements that grew out of RwandanHutu killers who fled their county in 1994.The killers, two men in uniform and one inplain-clothes, armed with AK-47 assault riflesand knives, fled taking with them a laptopcomputer, a television, 15 dollars and a pair ofshoes taken from their victim.

Suspicion quickly fell on Lieut-Col. ThierryIlunga, commander of the 105th brigade ofthe Armed Forces of the DemocraticRepublic of Congo (FARDC) and a formercadre in the rebellion supported by Rwandaand Uganda, the Rally for CongoleseDemocracy (RCD-Goma), then integratedinto Congolese political life. Lieut-Col. Ilunga

Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi

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Déo Namujimbo points at the spot where his brother’s body was found

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publicly threatened to kill Pascal Kabungulu inMay 2003 after he published a report on thepillaging of mines in Kivu carried out underhis authority. A few days after the murder ofPascal Kabungulu, Ilunga even arrived, armedto the teeth, to free two suspects being heldby the police, Capt. Gaston Sangba andLieutenant Basco Labama, saying that hewould himself put the two men “under housearrest”.

An investigation ordered by the interimgovernor of the province of Sud-Kivu at thetime, Didace Kaningini, led to the trial ofeight suspects, including Thierry Ilunga, whichopened at the end of November 2005, beforethe military court at the Bukavu garrison.According to the case presented by the publicministry, Capt. Gaston Sangba and LieutenantBasco Labama drove the three killers in theirjeep, including Corporal Liaka Mafolo, aka“Patrick Le Blanc”, who was believed to bethe man who fired the fatal shots. The twosoldiers, who were the look-outs, were appa-rently in the pay of and acting under theorders of Thierry Ilunga, who hoped to makeit look like a robbery, while he acted in theinterests of vengeance of a man sure of impu-nity and determined to defend his privileges.

At the close of the hearing on 12 December2005, which had turned out to be particularlydamning for Lieut-Col. Ilunga, he tried toescape, seizing a gun from a soldier in thecourt. The prosecutor had just called for hisconviction for “murder” and “criminal conspi-racy”, and for his immediate imprisonmentalong with one of his suspected accomplices,Governor Kaningini. The governor was accu-sed of having knowingly sabotaged the investi-gation to deflect suspicion from Thierry Ilunga.They were both detained at Bukavu centralprison and then released the following mor-ning, “because of pressure from all sides on thecourt and the senior inspector” according tothe lawyer for Inheritors of Justice, RogerMuchuba. The next hearing, fixed for 14December, did not go ahead. On 21 December,the representative of the public ministry, MajorJosé Diemo, said that the trial would be trans-ferred to the military court in Sud-Kivu,without specifying any date. After that nothingmore happened. The trial of the alleged killersof Pascal Kabungulu was never held.

The Kabungulu case, the first in a long seriesof fiascos, weighed heavily on an already verydifficult climate. All the more so, since the onlyconsequences of the case were acts of bruta-lity or threats against witnesses and defen-ders of the victim. In one such outcome at2am on 10 April 2006, two armed and unifor-med men burst into the home of EmmanuelBarhayiga Shafari, at the time editor of theweekly Le Souverain primaire. The raidersthreatened the journalist with their guns,ordering him to hand over all the documentsin his possession relating to the Kabungulucase, especially photos of the accused takenduring the trial. They also demanded a photoof Idesbald Byabuze, a jurist who gave evi-dence during the trial. After EmmanuelBarhayiga told them that he did not keep suchdocuments at his home, the three soldiers leftthreatening to return, which would be “worsefor him than ever”.

The Serge Maheshe outrage

Then came the murder of Serge Maheshe,news editor at the local office of Radio Okapi,on the evening of 13 June 2007. The respec-ted journalist left the office that day with hisfriend Serge Muhima, and went to the homeof Alain Mulimbi Shamavu, to make finalarrangements for the marriage of Shamavu intwo days time. At about 9pm, the three menpassed the big red gate of the home of thebridegroom to be, on Avenue Saïo, a roadoverhanging one of the bays formed by LakeKivu, leaving the “Red Lights” crossing andleading to the “Peace Corps” in theNdendere district. The 4X4 vehicle markedwith the UN emblem that Serge Mahesheused to get around the city was parkedabout 30 metres away.

While the three friends chatted in the dark,three men in plain clothes, one of themarmed with an AK-47, passed in front ofthem. A few seconds later, two of them dou-bled back and ordered them to lie down onthe ground. The third man remained a littlefurther away, about 100 metres from thesmall group. Serge Maheshe protested, askingwhy they had to obey. The two men repeatedtheir orders more firmly, while the RadioOkapi journalist, in line with the security pro-

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cedure he had been taught, tried to use hisMotorola walkie-talkie to contact Monuc. Afirst bullet immediately hit him in the leg andthe journalist collapsed. His terrified compa-nions both hid. Serge Muhima jumped intothe ravine opposite and Alain Mulimbi craw-led under the vehicle, while hearing theirfriend tell their attackers that they couldtake what they liked, his money and his tele-phone. Another shot rang out and SergeMaheshe fell silent. Hidden under the UN-marked 4X4, Alain Mulimbi felt one of themen trying to pull him out by his feet, whichhe resisted as much as he could. Then heheard a third shot fired at this friend. Thearmed men then left without hurrying. Ascalm returned and their assailants disappea-red, Alain Mulimbi got out from under thevehicle and called his two friends. SergeMuhima was safe, hidden in the under-growth, but Serge Maheshe, was lying on theearth road in a pool of blood, delirious andmoaning after being hit by two bullets in thechest.

Neighbours, including a doctor, who hadheard the shots, quickly came to the assis-tance of the three men who immediatelytook their dying friend to the general hospi-tal in Bukavu. As emergency room doctorstried to help Serge Maheshe, Serge Muhimaphoned Monuc, as well as the UNDepartment of Security and Safety(UNDSS), responsible for protecting UNstaff. A few moments later he returned towhere Alain Mulimbi and Dr Zozo Musafiriwere waiting for him and they told him thatSerge Maheshe, aged 31, married and thefather of two children, had died of hiswounds.

A disastrous trial

The following morning, Bukavu police sealed offthe district in which the murder took place. Atthe Bijido military camp, some 30 metres fromthe scene of the crime, police hastily arrestedCorporal Katuzelo Mbo and Sgt ArthurBokungo Lokombe (one a member of the NavalForce and the other a member of the army rapidintervention group in Sud-Kivu), along with 17other people, eight of them women, for “illegallypossessing weapons”. All were taken before thesame court that evening within a “flagrancy pro-cedure”, according to the provincial governor,Célestin Cibalonza. The two main suspectsdenied all involvement in the murder. The familyof Serge Maheshe did not attend because theywere busy organising the journalist’s funeral.

Serge Muhima and Alain Mulimbi were summo-ned as witnesses. They were confronted, duringa reconstruction of the crime on 15 June, 48hours after the killing, with the two soldierssuspected of having at the very least recentlyfired their weapons. Serge Muhima told thedefence lawyer that he recognised the “voiceand the gait” of one of them, identified as beingthe one who fired. The man immediately leanedtowards him and said angrily in Swahili: “you sayyou recognised us. Watch out for yourself. Wewill be getting out of here!” ("Yo olobi omo-naki biso awa? Ok, keba nayo, toko bima!").

The following day, as a huge crowd gatheredat the “Brasserie” or “Kilometre 4” cemeteryon the slope of the hill, Serge Muhima andAlain Mulimbi were held at the headquartersof the military inspectorate, where the inves-tigation continued. In tribute to SergeMaheshe, all the city’s radio stations tooktheir usual morning programmes off air, repla-cing them with religious music.

The gateway of Alain Mulimbi’s home and the street on which Serge Maheshe was shot dead

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Serge Maheshe

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Kept at the military inspectorate of Sud-Kivu’s10th military region, on the pretext that themurder weapon had been “military”, the pro-cedure was evidently tainted from the start.“No cross examination, no right to defence,no forensic evidence from the scene of thecrime or the weapon used, no protection ofwitnesses, mixing the case in with routinearrests, all amounted to a judicial procedurethat was far from credible”, ReportersWithout Borders said.

But the most astounding development had yetto come. On 30 June, Serge Muhima and AlainMulimbi were placed in custody by theBukavu military inspector, after being “invited”by a soldier to join the investigators to hearabout supposed “new developments”. In fact,the new development was that the militaryinspector’s services had unearthed two civi-lians, known for petty crime in the poorneighbourhood of Kadutu. The two men,Freddy Bisimwa and Mugisho Mastakila, clai-med to have recognised “Ka Serge” and“Doctor Alain Mihigo”, saying that the twofriends had planned the murder of the journa-list, promising them 30,000 dollars and an airticket for South Africa if the operation suc-ceeded. Serge Maheshe’s two friends did theirbest to claim their innocence and to insistthat they had never seen the two “suspects”,but they were forced to spend the night atthe military inspectorate “for the needs of theinvestigation”, before being allowed to seetheir families, to be once again faced with thealleged “killers” and placed in custody inBukavu central prison.

From this time on, despite doubts still expres-sed to this date by the higher military inspec-torate in Bukavu to the Reporters WithoutBorders’ delegation, the procedure lurchedfrom irregularities to dramatic turnarounds.The story given by Freddy Bisimwa andMugisho Mastakila, maintaining confusionabout the full name of “Alain” whom they alle-gedly “recognised”, providing inconsistentversions of events and proving incapable ofputting forward any motive or supporting evi-dence, was however taken sufficientlyseriously by the military investigators to beaccepted as damning evidence against the vic-tim’s two friends, despite their denials and ali-bis.

“We identified the murder weapon and thosewho fired the fatal shots. They killed and thenrobbed Serge Maheshe. We took them beforethe court and they were convicted. Despiteall the negative noises around the trial, all thatis absolutely certain”, Captain DieudonnéKabembe, Bukavu’s deputy senior military ins-pector told Reporters Without Borders.

Despite the flimsiness of the case, the trial ofthe “alleged killers” of Serge Maheshe — thetwo civilian accusers, a handful of “accom-plices” and the two soldiers arrested thesame day – opened before the Bukavu mili-tary court in July 2007. Presided in confusionby a military judge, the hearings trundled onuntil 28 August, when there were further pro-cedural violations. On that day, the court sen-tenced Freddy Bisimwa and MugishoMastakila to death for the “murder” since thecourt had material evidence linking them tomurder weapon and the phone that was sto-len from the victim. But the court also passedthe death sentence against the two friends ofthe victim and eye witnesses to the killing,Serge Muhima and Alain Mulimbi, for “criminalconspiracy” despite the existence on thecourt’s own findings of “shadowy areas”. Theverdict was pronounced based solely on the“confessions” of the two “gunmen”, withoutadvancing any motive or serious concrete evi-dence. The eight other defendants, accused ofimplication in the murder to varying degrees,were acquitted or condemned for relatedoffences. The two soldiers who had been ini-tially accused of being the killers, and of whomSerge Muhima had recognised the “voice andthe gait” during the reconstruction, were alsocleared of any involvement in the killing, des-pite the fact that one of them was sentencedto six months in prison for “destruction of aweapon” after having sawn off the barrel ofthe sub-machine gun supposedly used in thekilling. Another civilian defendant was senten-ced to six months in prison for escaping at thestart of the investigation.

The verdict was received with stupefaction inBukavu, at Radio Okapi, within Monuc andamong international observers of theCongolese transition. “We never thought themilitary court in Bukavu would go so far inincoherence and denial of justice,” ReportersWithout Borders said at the time.

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A coup de theatre, an appeal and some mysteries

One month later there was a complete turna-round. Freddy Bisimwa and Mugisho Mastakilawrote a letter, in Swahili, from prison on 8September 2007, of which Reporters WithoutBorders has a copy, in which they accused twomilitary judges by name of having bribed themto accuse the two friends of the murder,saying they were provided with compromisingmaterial evidence, to support the scenario. Inthe same letter, authenticated by their fingerprints, they said that Serge Muhima and AlainMulimbi were innocent and called for the twoto be released. The letter went on to say thatthe judges had given them the victim’s SIMcard from his mobile phone, as well as themurder weapon, promising them a quickrelease and a regular income in exchange fortheir false testimony. The reaction of theauthorities in Kinshasa was clear. Justiceminister at the time, Georges Minsay Bookatold Reuters that he had no plans to intervene,considering that the “innocent ones [had]been released and the guilty convicted”.

However, a serious incident that occurred justa few weeks before the murder was neverinvestigated. Two soldiers of the RepublicanGuard army corps in Bukavu, attached at thetime to the presidential guard, on 6 May badlymistreated and seriously threatened SergeMaheshe near his home after he intervenedbetween them and his cousin who had justarrived on a visit. The soldiers had forced thevisitor to his knees and were preparing to hithim, when Maheshe intervened. He heardthem say that he was “nothing [to them]” andthat they had already “beaten up more impor-

tant people”. According to what SergeMaheshe himself said in an email thatReporters Without Borders has a copy of, thesoldiers handcuffed him and threatened himfor an hour, telling him that they could “shoothim and that nothing would happen, not evenan investigation”. The incident ended when anofficer and then the governor intervened andapologised to the journalist. Despite this, thetwo Republican Guard soldiers continued tointimidate Serge Maheshe over the followingdays, while he approached everyone in autho-rity he could find to seek protection for him-self and his family. “Monuc should blame theRepublic Guard if anything should happen tome or a member of my family” the journalistsaid in his message. Despite an apology fromthe captain of the elite corps, three days later,and a promise that the two soldiers would beheld “for several days”, there was never anyofficial investigation of the incident.

“I accept that, after the trial in the lowercourt, there was need for a correction”,Captain Kabembe admits to ReportersWithout Borders today. It was against thisbackground that an appeal by Freddy Bisimwaand Mugisho Mastakila, as well as SergeMuhima and Alain Mulimbi, opened in Bukavuon 6 February 2008. After a series of hearings,each as badly conducted as in the lowercourt, the appeal court on 21 May ended byacquitting the two friends of the victim, rulingthat there was no proof of their involvement.The court, however upheld the death sen-tence against Freddy Bisimwa and MugishoMastakila, sentenced for “murder” in thecourse of “assisting a robbery”, while drop-ping the “murder” charge initially broughtagainst them. The court also sentenced todeath a third civilian, who had never beenmentioned before, Patient Bisimwa, for “crimi-nal conspiracy”. This man was presented as anaccomplice of the two killers, although thepublic ministry had not called for any sen-tence against him. As for the Congolese state,also facing proceedings, it was cleared of allresponsibility. With this vague verdict, the casewas officially closed.

Since then, the civil authorities say they havelearned a lesson from this fiasco. “I have expli-citly demanded that the mistakes made in theMaheshe case should not be repeated in the

The letter written by Freddy Bisimwa and Mugisho Mastakila

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Namujimbo case. And that we should notrenew these hasty accusations”, deputygovernor, Jean-Claude Kibala said.

Civil justice versus military justice

The authorities had everything to prove as aresult, after the murder of DidaceNamujimbo. Immediately after the discoveryof his body, on 22 November 2008, Bukavuprosecutor Jacques Melimeli opened an inves-tigation. The same day, considering that “thecycle of violence against journalists is fed onimpunity assured to the killers and to the ins-tigators of murder through sham trials”Reporters Without Borders’ partner organi-sation in the DRC, Journalist in Danger (JED),called for a joint investigation with Monuc toensure the reliability of investigations. The UNbody immediately said it was ready to coope-rate with the Congolese police and judicialauthorities. But on 2 December, yet again onthe pretext that the murder was of “militaryorigin”, the investigation was entrusted to thegarrison’s military investigators. So, yet again,the civil justice system handed over the inves-tigation to military justice.

This transfer, identical to the Kabungulu andMaheshe cases, is based on Article 111 of themilitary judicial code, laying down the compe-tence of military jurisdiction in the case of theuse of a “weapon of war”, whether or notthose responsible for the murder are in themilitary. “The cartridges found at the crimescene came from a kalashnikov”, a Congoleseofficer told Agence France-Presse on the daythe investigation was handed over. “In additionmilitary judges have better knowledge of bal-listics”, added Jacques Melimeli to justify his

decision. On his part, the deputy senior mili-tary inspector met by Reporters WithoutBorders, Capt. Dieudonné Kabembe, said hethought the transfer was logical and justified.“The report of the forensic scientist said thatthe murder had been committed with an AK-47. I am therefore perfectly happy with theidea” that the investigation should come backto the military inspectorate. Even the lawyerfor the Namujimbo family, Joel MapatanoKarume, said that he did not see any “draw-back” in the case being in the hands of mili-tary justice.

Despite this, the organisation ProtectionInternational plans to appeal against it, alongwith local NGOs, in the name of unconstitu-tionality. The organisation described the trans-fer as synonymous with “confiscation”. In sup-port of its objection, the network of expertsand trainers, which has worked for severalyears on security issues for Bukavu’s journa-lists, evoked Article 156 of the CongoleseConstitution, that carries greater weight thanthe military judicial code. According to funda-mental law, military jurisdictions are compe-tent to try offences committed by members ofthe armed forces and the national police. Onthe contrary, a trial of civilians is therefore notwithin the competence of military courts.Whereas, at the time the file was transferredto the military inspectorate, no suspected hadbeen identified, neither civil nor military.“Thus, the sole fact of having been killed by abullet should not justify the transfer of thefile”, said Sophie Roudil, co-ordinator of theorganisation in the DRC.

This position is shared by Bukavu’s civilianauthorities, which approved the transfer ofthe file to military justice, but who said theyhad “decided not to completely let go of itscontrol over the case”. Sud-Kivu’s deputygovernor said, “the verdict will be handeddown by military justice, but the investigationcould perhaps be led by another authority,including civil justice”. This reading of thesituation was behind the creation, at the ini-tiative of the governorate, of a monitoringcommittee in the Namujimbo case, groupingthe National Intelligence Agency (ANR), thedirectorate general of migration (DGM), thearmy, the state prosecutor and Monuc, underthe authority of the governorate.

Bukavu’s senior military inspectorate

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The deputy to the superior military inspectorassured Reporters Without Borders thatthere would be “close co-operation” withMonuc on human rights issues, saying he wan-ted to “emphasise transparency and havinghidden nothing”. For all that, the inspectoratedid not hide its mistrust of Monuc, which,through its head of Bukavu’s human rightssection, Luc Heikenbrant, condemned the factthat the military had taken over the file. InKinshasa, Kevin Kennedy told ReportersWithout Borders that he was worried by the“lack of investigative capacity on the part ofthe Congolese justice system”.

Four months later

“We call on the civilian and military authori-ties to do everything to ensure that thoseresponsible for this murder are quickly found,and that this time, they are punished”, head ofpersonnel for Monuc in Bukavu, Dédi Furume,clearly said at the funeral of DidaceNamujimbo. What is not sure is whether hewas heard.

The day after the opening of the investigation,on 23 November, Sud-Kivu’s provincial policeinspector, Gen. Gaston Lunzembo, said publi-cly that the investigation was “on the rightlines”. “According to the investigations underway and the few witnesses who have beeninterviewed, it has been demonstrated thatthe victim was targeted and that his assailantsknew him very well”, he said. “While it is stillpreliminary, we will keep it confidential, at ourlevel. Let us allow the investigators time to digfurther. And the rest, when the time comes,we will tell you what it is about. Since there isfull cooperation with Monuc, we also want toask the public to co-operate with the police,because, without this cooperation, it will bedifficult to find the culprits”. The general’soptimism did not however dispel fears aboutthe conduct of the investigation that oftenappeared amateurish.

Such was the case when, after the discoveryof the body of Didace Namujimbo, the crimescene was not sealed off. Pictures taken onthe morning of Saturday 22 November, andwitness accounts gathered by ReportersWithout Borders indicated that the body was

touched, moved and that scores of curiousbystanders trampled over the crime scene. Acartridge was “found” by someone on thespot, just a few metres from the body, on aheap of sand in the garden of the house infront of which the journalist was killed,although there was no proof that it had anylink with the bullet fired. The post mortemexamination carried out by the forensic scien-tist, Xavier Mampengu, made no mention ofit. Four months after the killing, there was nomaterial evidence in the file indicating withany certainty that the bullet that killedNamujimbo really came from an AK-47,something which most of those involved inthe investigation had taken for granted.

Five people were arrested between the endof November 2008 and mid-February 2009:three soldiers, a discharged soldier and ayoung woman. All of them were then clearedthanks to checks on their mobile phones,obtained from Zain, Vodacom and CCT(Congo China Telecom). To date, the “chiefsuspect” is Satulungu Milabyo, a nurse atBukavu’s military hospital, suspected of invol-vement because of a phone call he receivedafter the murder, on Saturday 22 November,from the Namujimbo’s CTT number. Severalother phone conversations were recordedusing the same number. The second person tobe arrested was a family member ofLieutenant Satulungu, who had arrived the daybefore the murder in the Minova area (150kilometres from Bukavu). The inspectoratealso made an arrest in Goma, the main townin Nord-Kivu province, of a young womanwho had never had any previous phonecontact with Didace Namujimbo, but who,after his death, had frequent conversationswith one or the other of his phones. Finally, a

Didace Namujimbo

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soldier, and a demobilised soldier were arres-ted in Ciriri, a district in the Bukavu outskirts,and a Kamituga (145 kilometres fromBukavu). Questioning of al these suspects is“ongoing”, the investigators said.

The work of the military inspectorate hasapparently also been obstructed by Vodacom,which did not cooperate satisfactorily withinvestigators, in that it provided falsified tele-phone statements, preventing the identifica-tion of the alleged “No 1 suspect”, who couldhave been the instigator of the killing.

Bukavu, an open city?

Didace Namujimbo killed instantly with a bul-let in the neck, Serge Maheshe with a burst offire into his chest, Pascal Kabungulu in front ofhis children in the middle of the night… Twojournalists from the very influential RadioOkapi and a regional NGO’s best knowninvestigator were killed with impunity in thespace of two years. Similar crimes are analmost daily occurrence in Bukavu. Sometimescarried out by men in uniform, using AK-47sof unknown provenance, in exchange for afistful of dollars or a service rendered. “I haveseen with my own eyes, in a village not farfrom here, 17 kalashnikovs stocked in thehome of an ordinary citizen, who was keepingthem in case he needed money”, one journa-list told Reporters Without Borders. Bukavuis a city when one can get killed, at night, byone or two men, with a bullet which wasintended for the war.

This is also the final argument systematicallymade by Bukavu’s military authorities toreject the theory that there could be motivesaside from common crime behind the mur-ders of Didace Namujimbo and SergeMaheshe. “There is a tendency here to thinkthat each time there is a murder, that there isnecessarily an instigator”, the deputy superiormilitary inspector said. Certainly, Bukavu is aviolent city. Several murders were committedshortly before the Reporters WithoutBorders’ delegation arrived. On 11December, keyboard operator SéguinTshisekedi, working for the InternationalRescue Committee (IRC), was found shotdead in a side-street in the city centre, as he

was returning home. Proceeds from the mur-der, if it was simply for theft: 425 US dollarsand two mobile phones. Two days later, thebody of a soldier from the Navy was myste-riously found at the edge of the city, with hispockets emptied. In the same week, policerecovered a body of another murder victim,near the Alfajiri institute. And these threemurders, of which nothing is really known,even months later, are just a few examples.For all that, the outrageous sham of a trial inthe Kabungulu and the absurd machinations inthe Serge Maheshe murder trial cast seriousdoubt on the certainties of the military.

It is also true that Bukavu is a dangerous andunstable place where nothing goes to plan.The administration is too often poor andpowerless. “Certainly, the insecurity in theregion is linked to the disorganisation of thesecurity forces”, the deputy governor of Sud-Kivu admits. “Men who know where to getweapons stoke up the hassles that make uppeople’s daily lives, illegal taxes, extortion.Armed men live among the citizens andsometimes turn to banditry. It is extremelydangerous”, he told Reporters WithoutBorders. The sprawling Kadutu slum is a bree-ding ground for hired killers that is difficult tocontrol. And the civil administration admitsthat it does not have the means to maintainorder. Questioned about these deficiencies byReporters Without Borders, Jean-ClaudeKibala pours out the problems: lack of fuel,transport, rations and money to pay securityforces properly and its informers. “There arenow no-go areas which are just as dangerousfor police patrols” said the young politician,who returned from Germany to take up aposition in one of central Africa’s most vola-tile regions. The “five pillars” programme laun-ched by President Joseph Kabila at the end of

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2007 is today the target of mockery as the“five songs” by many Bukavu residents, whohave quickly given way to disillusionment,after voting overwhelmingly for the currenthead of state at the July 2006 presidentialelections.

“A soldier should be paid 36 dollars a month”one local journalist told Reporters WithoutBorders, speaking on condition of anonymity.“But what happens is that every military offi-cial takes his cut, on a variety of pretexts,from food rations, to medical care or pur-chase of fuel. At the end, a soldier is left withonly about 10 dollars in his pocket”. So, accor-ding to the expression of Kizito Mushizi,director of Radio Maendeleo, “escheated sol-diers” can easily be persuaded to earn abonus of several hundred or thousand dollarsby committing a crime that could go as far asmurder.

But Bukavu is also a city in which rumours canrun wild. The Reporters Without Bordersdelegation was constantly given more or lesswell supported hypotheses or informationthat turned out to be false when checked out.“Everyone tries to understand what is goingon and makes up their own scenario,” saidDéo Namujimbo, the brother of Didace.“Unfortunately, this thirst for explanationsand marketplace gossip only make thingsworse”. It is not unusual for journalists andhuman rights activists, like Déo, to receivedeath threat texts from unknown numbers.Against a background of dire poverty, politicalstalemate, always imminent violence, generali-sed corruption and circulation of more orless wild rumours, the apparent social successof journalists on Radio Okapi made them tar-gets of their fellow citizens for revenge or for

reasons of jealousy. “Nothing can be ruledout, but nothing can really be asserted either”said Déo Namujimbo. “That is what makesthis situation so unhealthy and this city moreand more unliveable”.

Conclusion and recommendations

In a fractured city overflowing with gunswhere the disintegration of the state and thestruggle for survival are the daily lot of its citi-zens, journalists working in Bukavu for RadioOkapi are not in the same boat as the others.They get a regular salary in a city where themajority get by on a fistful of dollars a month,and driving around as they do in 4X4 vehiclesbearing the emblem of the United Nations,they arouse jealousies, bitterness and hatred.Serge Maheshe and Didace Namujimbo werewell known, experienced journalists, whowere socially and professionally successful.According to his friends and colleagues towhom Reporters Without Borders spoke,Namujimbo was not working on any sensitiveissue at the time of his murder. “He was cau-tious and he persuaded colleagues to be care-ful as well”, one of his journalist friends toldthe organisation. Serge Maheshe was exaspe-rated by corruption and injustice he sawaround him and voiced his dismay at thepoverty and exploitation. Pascal Kabunguluwas an activist, a man of conviction, but givenhis limited means, he did not expose morethan a tiny part of the huge number of scan-dals that abound in the east of the DRC, withthe complicity of powerful and dangerousmen.

However different each man’s path was, allthree had at least one thing in common: Theywere all in the position to make enemies, poli-tical or otherwise, in a region where indiscre-tions, whether a sensitive investigation or asuccess seen as “insolent” can be punished, fora few dollars, with murder. And if the city ofBukavu is gripped by uncontrollable violence,or at least uncontrolled violence, it is preciselybecause the civil and military authorities,through at best amateurism and corporatistreflexes, or at worst the determination to hidea reality that could implicate them in the mur-ders, have proved incapable of doing them jus-tice by ensuring that the truth comes out.

Bukavu

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Reporters Without Borders thereforerecommends:

• That the government of theDemocratic Republic of Congo finallytakes note of the failures in the Kabunguluand Maheshe cases and the concerns sur-rounding the investigation into the killing ofDidace Namujimbo. The authorities inKinshasa should, as a result, set up a specialjudicial commission with the job of sheddinglight on the murders of journalists and humanrights activists in Bukavu, and involving civilCongolese justice, Monuc and local pressfreedom organisations. This special commis-sion, mandated by the president, should havewide powers of investigation, including withinthe security forces.

• That the governorate of Sud-Kivucontinues to show realism and rigour inmanaging security cases and political murders,and to insist on its rights with the militaryauthorities if need be. The governorate shouldalso closely monitor the sessions of the moni-toring committee it has put in place and

ensure complete transparency on the contentand functioning.

• That the Congolese Army stop takingover investigations that should be carried outinto the Kabungulu, Maheshe and Namujimbocases and, in its own interest, provide thenecessary co-operation to independent inves-tigators who could be given responsibility forinvestigations.

• That the UN should stress more firmlyMonuc’s mandate with the Congolese autho-rities in connection with the protection ofhuman rights and of its staff.

• That Monuc should, in co-operationwith journalists in Bukavu and specialist inter-national organisations, ensure that securitymeasures are fully appropriate to the situa-tion in the region.

• That journalists in Bukavu continueto show the greatest professionalism in theexercise of their jobs, despite the difficulties,and the utmost caution in their daily lives.