By Gael Masengi
A Congolese activist residing in Paris, France has turned to
an online campaign tool to pressure the South African government, in particular
demanding president Zuma to release 20 Congolese (DRC) refugees apparently detained
illegally in South Africa since early February this year.
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| Change.org logo |
Ezechias Baudoin
had initiated a petition entitled “To President Jacob Zuma: Release
of 20 Congolese Patriots (arrested in South Africa)”
on an American for profit website, Change.org pleading
everyone to sign on a bid to demand a possible release of twenty Congolese arrested
nearly five months now. A South African prosecutor in charge of the case
accuses the men of plotting to overthrow the controversial regime of Joseph Kabila and physically eliminate
him and his aides. Nineteen suspects were initially arrested by a special
division of the South African police in the early hours of February the 6th
2013 while en route to the northern province of Limpopo where the prosecutor
alleged that a “training camp” was set-up by a team of undercover police
officers who pretended to be retired members of S.A elite commando-turn
mercenaries. Belonging to an
unheard organization called the “Union
of Nationalists for Renewal”, the men allegedly sent a “wish list” asking
for machine guns, radio, grenades and even surface-to-air missiles and arranged
for a training camp, prosecutor Shaun
Abrahams told magistrate judge at previous court hearing. Accused to
be the “ring leader”, Etienne Taratibu Kabila eldest son of
assassinated President Laurent D. Kabila
eventually turned himself in at a Bellevue police station, Cape Town. Meanwhile,
the 20 suspects continue to rot in jail with no fixed date of further bail
hearing.
Since then South African police have been engaged on what
members of Congolese community call “witch hunt”, a systematic arrests of
anti-Kabila activist living in exile in South Africa and they are often tried
in absence of refugee organizations.
In the past the website has helped to draw the media as well
as the people’s attention across the world on issues of social change and human
rights, notably in the shooting of 17-year-old African-American, Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch
volunteer George Zimmerman in the
United States. A petition entitled "Prosecute the killer of our son”
posted on Change.org related to the brutal murder of Martin, received over 2.2
million signatures, the website along other social media was credited for
playing a pivotal role in spreading awareness about the killing.
Several analysts of the great lake region have for long described
the close relationship between Joseph Kabila and Jacob Zuma as “unconventional”
citing oil and mining interests “in return of protection”. Joseph Kabila who came in power in 2001
shortly after the assassination of his “father”, is also seen by many as a copy-cat
dictator who has ruled for the mineral enriched Democratic Republic of Congo
with an iron fist for the last twelve years.
The petition (written in French language) has yet to reach
hundred signatures for a possible submission to the South African president and
his government is slowly drawing attention of human rights activists and of many
other prominent free speech advocates across all platforms. You too can
contribute make a change and keep democracy alive by singing the petition.
www.change.org
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