One year on and still no justice for Pascal Kabungulu
Pascal Kabungulu27 July 2006
One year ago, on 31 July 2005, hugely respected human rights defender Pascal Kabungulu was shot dead in front of his family at his home in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by three armed men.
Pascal was the Executive Secretary of human rights organisation Heritiers de la Justice. He is survived by his wife Kitumani Kasiba and their six children, who were forced to go into exile shortly after his murder.
Front Line is extremely concerned with the lack of progress of the legal investigations into his death. There have been two separate investigations; the first was a commission of enquiry established by the acting governor, Didace Kaningini. The members of this commission concluded that they could not act on the case as the commission had lost credibility when the governor was accused of fabricating evidence to incriminate members of Heritiers de la Justice.
The Senior Military Prosecutor for the province also initiated a military investigation and three soldiers were arrested on suspicion of killing Pascal. The three men were former soldiers of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie kk- Goma (RCD-Goma). Shortly afterwards, they were illegally released by the senior military commander, Colonel Thierry Ilunga. Following national and international pressure the men were once again returned to prison. Military tribunal proceedings against them began in late November 2005 but were suspended after a number of days when the court ruled that a higher military court should hear the trial. This was due to the fact that Colonel Thierry Ilunga and the Governor Didace Kaningini were implicated in the case. The tribunal issued indictments against both men and ruled that it did not have jurisdiction over such senior figures and referred the case to the Haute Cour Militaire. The three ex-soldiers are currently in detention and both senior officials remain free.
In November 2005, a joint Front Line and Amnesty International mission to the DRC found widespread lack of protection for human rights defenders in the region. Human rights defenders in the DRC are frequently targets of intimidation, death threats, arbitrary arrest, ill treatment, and in some cases torture and assassination by the DRC government agents or armed groups.
The general situation for human rights defenders in the run up to the elections on 31 July 2006 has been deteriorating. There have been reported threats and in some cases physical attacks by government authorities or armed groups against human rights defenders. There has yet to be one single conviction following attacks against human rights defenders in the DRC.
In this context, Front Line is urgently calling for the military investigation to be completed in an impartial, exhaustive & effective manner, which is fully independent, complies with internationally recognised standards of fair trial and which does not include recourse to the death penalty.
Furthermore, Front Line is calling on the national authorities to implement and uphold the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on 9 December 1998, by taking the necessary measures to ensure their protection and security.
To hear song about Pascal by DRC human rights group SOFAD visit Amnesty International website.