A Congolese government official said Thursday the Kabila government has no deliberate policy to cause harm or to intimidate human rights activists operating in the country. This comes after the United Nations issued a report suggesting that Congolese security agents have been complicit in threatening the lives of human rights campaigners.
TheJoseph Kabila government says it will soon begin an investigation to addressconcerns raised in the report.
Kikaya Bin Karubi, a member of parliament andthe Congolese ambassador-designate to the United Kingdom, told VOA that Kinshasa wants to guarantee that the country is open tooperations by rights groups.
"Weare a post-conflict country and as a matter of fact, there are still areas ofthe country where fighting is still going on and it may be possible thatsoldiers or combatants in this area are still nervous with the people likehuman rights reporters," he said.
Karubiadmits that human rights activists could have been intimidated due to a rebelinsurgency still raging in parts of the country.
"Itmay happen that in some instances these human rights campaigners have beenthreatened," he said.
Karubi said the Kinshasa government has no interest in intimidating local orinternational human rights practitioners in the country.
"Whatdoes not exist is a deliberate government policy to threaten or to annoy or tointimidate human rights campaigners," he said.
Hesaid Kinshasa is aware of the contributions of human rights activists in anydemocracy.
"Thepresident (Joseph Kabila) has said time and again that the country is movingdefinitely towards democracy and people like human rights campaigners arewelcome to work freely in the Democratic Republic of Congo," he said.
Askedabout Kinshasa's plans to address concerns raised by the U.N report, Karubisaid there would soon be an inquiry to ascertain the truth of the report andto punish those who are found to be complicit in the attacks or intimidation ofhuman rights campaigners.
"Ifthere are instances where people who work for the government have beenthreatening or intimidating human rights activists in the country, there willbe an investigation, and those who will be found guilty will be punished. Ican assure you of that," Karubi said.
Hesaid Kinshasa has been urging both local and international human rightsactivists to seek protection from the interior ministry in parts of the countrywhere there are clashes between government forces and rebel insurgents.