Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 24 July 2016: Arrested Congolese activists refused to accept Kabila’s apologies

Congolese President Joseph Kabila pardoned 6 pro-democracy activists whose were put in jail. Nevertheless they decided to serve their sentences to express their solidarity with other prisoners of conscience. Activists have made a public statement which was released by their support group Citizens Fighting for Change (Lucha). Organisation is based in Goma, the capital of North Kivu in eastern DRC.Accussed people are less that 30 years old. They were arrested on February during an opposition demonstration and then sentenced to 2 years in prison for starting riots and encouraging people to behave disobediently. After an appeal their sentence was reduced to 6 months in prison.

Freedom of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience was one of the condition of the opposition in order to participate in the national dialogue launched by the Head of State for peaceful elections.
The importance of peaceful dialogue is also emphasized by N High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein who has just begun his four-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Along with Amnesty International he has raised concerned on the continued violence in the country as the election day is approaching.
According to Amnesty International there is a need for a profound reform of the National Intelligence Service which has been widely used to manipulate the opposition and civil society, to legitimize it acts within the law.