Zaire: Information regarding the state of the pardon granted to students involved in the February 1989 demonstrations and whether those students arrested were released
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 April 1990 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | ZAR5185 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Zaire: Information regarding the state of the pardon granted to students involved in the February 1989 demonstrations and whether those students arrested were released, 1 April 1990, ZAR5185, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad3134.html [accessed 31 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Amnesty International is unable to state that all the students arrested in the February 1989 Kinshasa demonstrations have been pardoned and released. The organization reports that the Zairian government did not publish all the names of student detainees. [
FootnoteS:
As stated by Amnesty International in Toronto during a telephone interview with the IRBDC H-Q on 20 April 1990.] The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights visited Zaire in September 1989 and March 1990 and reports that the amnesty was announced specifically for those who participated in the February 1989 Kinshasa demonstrations. Since then, the source states, the conflict between students and government have been continuous, thereby currently rendering the pardon as "meaningless". The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights stressed that the government's persistent refusal to acknowledge those for whom the amnesty was meant and also to respond to the organization's several inquiries regarding the names of those detained and their whereabouts. [ As stated by a representative of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in Washington DC during a telephone conversation with the IRBDC on 20 April 1990.]
During a 20 April 1990 telephone conversation with a representative of the Rainbow Lobby, a Washington DC group which monitors Zairian government activities and assists Zairian students, the IRBDC was informed that although many of the students involved in the February 1989 have been pardoned and released, the organization is in possession of a list of 35 names of students still unaccounted for. The Rainbow Lobby states that these thirty-five students, thought to have been arrested during the demonstrations, have since disappeared.
An official of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) reports that although most students were released and classes resumed after the February 1989 demonstrations, there are students who are thought to have been sent into the military and have not been heard from since. [ As stated by the UDPS in Montreal during a telephone interview with the IRBDC on 20 April 1990.] According to the U.S. State Department, some of the students arrested in January\February 1989 were reportedly flown to unknown destinations in the interior and either imprisoned or released. [ U.S. State Department, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1989, Washington: U.S. Government Printers, February 1990, p.414.] The report further states that the security services often hold detainees incommunicado for varying lengths of time and that news of a person's disappearance is more likely than news of their eventual reappearance. [ibid.]
Attached please find a copy of the following article:
"Zaire's Mobutu Mounts All-Out PR Campaign to Keep his U.S. Aid", in The Wall Street Journal, 7 March 1990.
