Zaire: Information regarding the attitude and treatment of the government towards Zairian and foreign lecturers
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 May 1990 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | ZAR5789 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Zaire: Information regarding the attitude and treatment of the government towards Zairian and foreign lecturers, 1 May 1990, ZAR5789, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac1856.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. |
An official of African Solidarity, an immigrant aid agency located in Ottawa, reports that the situation of professors, Zairian or foreign, is very restricted. [FootnoteS: As stated by an official of African Solidarity in Ottawa during a telephone interview with the IRBDC.]
Fear of being accused as government opponents prevents professors from expressing information pertinent to their disciplines they teach. For instance, the source stated that during a political science lecture, critical or analytical information that could remotely be associated with any section of the Zairian government, could have negative repercussions for the lecturer. The source states that Professor Kinyongo who taught philosophy at Lubumbashi campus was accused of being anti-government in his teachings and of attempting to foment a professors strike in 1989. He was detained by the authorities and the source was uninformed as to the current situation of the professor. According to the source, Professor Nkamba, who taught statistics at the University of Zaire was also detained in 1989 for having embarked on teachings that the government found unpatriotic.
In a BBC radio interview on 21 April 1990, Professor Jacques Vanderlinden in the Free University of Brussels states that people are unable to live on what they earn because the Zairian economy is in shambles, and that the extensive security network and fear prevent them from protesting. [ "Political Situation in Kinshasa Viewed", Foreign Broadcasts Information Service, 25 April 1990, p.17., FBIS-AFR-90-080] The Africa Solidarity official reports that there is always a fear that because of the security service monitoring, the government will find a scape-goat on whom to blame student unrest. Asking for a salary raise would be considered anti-government and therefore needy professors are obliged to be silent. Mail is monitored in an indirect fashion; poorly paid postal workers routinely open letters and packages and retain items of use for themselves. Should they come upon an "unpatriotic" foreign publication or something deemed offensive to the country, then they may be able to work as an informer for the government and help supplement their insufficient incomes. [ African Solidarity.]
Corroborating information regarding the postal workers situation is currently unavailable to the IRBDC.
In 1989, the Zairian government continued to arrest people possessing and distributing political literature or documents that it found "objectionable", including those outlawed under a Zairian law forbidding the distribution of "pamphlets of a foreign origin or inspiration and of such a nature as to damage the national interest". [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1989, Washington: U.S. Government Printers, 1990, p.419.]
The attached Amnesty International Urgent Action publications (October, November and December 1989) deal with some of the pamphlets and writings for which possession can result in arrest. Attached please find a copy of "Belgium Reacts to Killings in Zaire", The Ottawa Citizen, 28 May 1990.
