June 3 2010

PRESS RELEASE
DRC ASSASSINATION REKINDLE NAMIBIAN FEARS

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR joins,

among others, Amnesty International (AI) and Frontline in
both condemning the assassination yesterday of prominent
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) human rights defender,
Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, and calling for a thorough and
independent investigation into the incident. Chebeya Bahizire-
-who was the executive director of Voix des Sans Voix (VSV)
(i.e. Voice of the Voiceless)--was found dead a day after he
went missing, human rights sources said. Based in Kinshasa,
the nation’s capital, VSV is one of DRC’s largest human rights
groups.

Media reports citing VSV Deputy Director Dolly Ibefo said

Chebeya Bahizire’s body was found in his car outside
Kinshasa. The body, which was partially clothed, was found on
the back seat of his own motor vehicle. According to AI, the
London-based international human rights watchdog, Chebeya
Bahizire had been missing since the evening of June 1 2010,
after he had a meeting with the national Police.
AI also said that there had been increased oppression of human
rights defenders in DRC over the past year, including by
“illegal arrest, prosecution, phone threats and repeated
summoning to the offices of the intelligence services.” A BBC
reporter says Chebeya Bahizire had received regular threats
from Police in the past, and had been ordered to meet the
national Police chief John Numbi on Tuesday. AI also said
oppression of activists in DRC is growing. Shortly prior to
his assassination, Chebeya Bahizire had sent a text message to
his wife saying that he was at the police headquarters for the
meeting, but no more was heard from him after that, media
reports say.

Chebeya-Bahizire’ assassination occurred almost exactly five

years after the assassination of Pascal Kabungulu Kibembi,
another prominent DRC human rights defender. Kabungulu
Kibembi was assassinated in his home in Bukavu, eastern
DRC, in the early hours of July 31 2005. He was the Secretary-
General of Héritiers de la Justice (i.e. Heirs of Justice), another
leading human rights organization in eastern DRC as well as
the Vice-President of the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme dans
la Région des Grands Lacs (LDGL), a regional umbrella in the
Great Lakes of Africa.

Since July 2005, in Bukavu and Goma alone, at least four

other human rights defenders and journalists were murdered,
including Serge Maheshe, Wabiwa Kabisuba, Patrick Kikuku
Wilungula and Didace Namujimbo. The killings and persistent
threats have instilled a climate of fear among local DRC
human rights defenders.

The human rights reports about of Chebeya Bahizire’s fate

rekindle fears of assassination of Namibian human rights
defenders, investigative reporters and prominent opposition
figures in Namibia.
Moreover, in an exposé issued on March 11 2010, NSHR
revealed that an aide-de-camp to Information Minister Joel
Kaapanda had allegedly remarked inter alia that ‘NSHR
executive director Phil ya Nangoloh will not live beyond 2010
and, if he does, he will be permanently paralyzed’. When he
was contacted telephonically, the aide-de-camp could neither
deny nor confirm having made the remark. Instead, he
requested a rendezvous with ya Nangoloh in order “to discuss
the allegations tête-à-tête”. Although ya Nangoloh agreed to
the proposal, the meeting never took place as the aide-de-camp
became evasive.

A highly placed source at the Ministry of Information, who

spoke on condition of anonymity, had alleged that the aide-de-
camp was advised, presumably by Minister Kaapanda, not to
meet ya Nangoloh. Minister Kaapanda has so far maintained
his stone silence about the very serious allegations against his
aid-de-camp!

The assassination fears among Namibian human rights

defenders, Opposition figures and investigative journalists as
well as several Swapo Party critics have increased recently
after the investigative weekly tabloid, Informanté, published
a story about an assassination plot against, among others,
Informanté Editor-in-Chief Max Hamata and prominent
human rights defender Phil ya Nangoloh.

The outcome of a Police investigation which was launched into

the latest Namibian assassination allegations is yet to be made
public.
During the last ten years several prominent personalities, some
of who have been shot, have died under mysterious
circumstances in Namibia. They include Jafet Malenga Shalihu
from near the town of Okahao in Omusati Region, Kwanyama
border activist Bernard ‘Nakale’ Shevanyenga of Oshikuku
village, also in Omusati Region, as well as Lazarus Kandara
and Lazarus Ipangelwa.
In case of additional comment, please call Steven Mvula or Phil ya Nangoloh at
Tel: (+264 61) 253 447 / 236 183) or Mobile: +264 811 406 888 (office hours)
or +264 8129 12948 (Steven) or +264 811 299 886 (Phil) or E-mail:
nshr@nshr.org.na