Amnesty International Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Amnesty International Calls on Congolese Officials to Disclose Whereabouts of Men Taken Into Custody on Suspicion of Plotting Government Overthrow

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Human Rights Group Fears for Lives of Three Men Secretly Removed from Military Custody

Contact: Suzanne Trimel, 212-633-4150

(New York) -- Amnesty International said today that three men who were held in military detention, suspected of plotting to overthrow the government of Democratic Republic of Congo, were secretly removed from custody in June and "disappeared." The human rights organization, fearing for the mens' lives, demanded that the government disclose their whereabouts or release them.

Amnesty International mobilized its international network of activists to demand that government authorities disclose the whereabouts of Jean-Pierre Sido Yambanu, Remy Bongongo Lumunu, a church pastor, and Loth Loota L'Anongo, who were taken into custody in April by soldiers and police. They were never charged or brought before a court.

On the night of June 22, they were removed from military custody at Camp Kokolo in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, Amnesty International said. Since then, human rights organizations and their relatives have tried to find them, without success.

The three men are from Equateur province, the home of opposition politician and former armed opposition group leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who is now in the custody of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Amnesty International and Congolese human rights organizations have documented numerous cases of individuals from Equateur province who have been accused of being Bemba supporters and of plotting to overthrow the government. These individuals were subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill-treatment, including rape in custody, extrajudicial executions, suspicious deaths in custody and enforced disappearances.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

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For more information about human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo, please visit: www.amnestyusa.org.

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