UN special rapporteur on human rights Roberto Garreton said Monday that President Joseph Kabila had made little progress on restoring human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since he took over the reins of government on January 26.
Garreton also said he "regretted" that Kabila had not announced the restoration of human rights in the vast central African country when he appeared last week before the UN's Commission on Human Rights.
The Chilean rapporteur made the comments while presenting a report Monday to the annual meeting of the commission.
He said that under the rule of Kabila, who was appointed president following the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, "no significant advance has been made towards democratisation."
"The activities of political parties are still prohibited and persecutions of political opponents still continue, constituting serious obstacles to the restoration of democracy," Garreton said.
Speaking before the commission in Geneva on Friday, Kabila said human rights would only be fully restored in the DRC once "troops of aggression" leave the country.
He said emergency regulations and restrictions on civil liberties which have been in place in the DRC since 1997 are necessary because of the continued existence of "an exceptional danger threatening the existence of the nation."
A war under way in the central African country since 1998, pitting Zimbabwean, Angolan and Namibian troops fighting alongside DRC government soldiers against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, has seen sharp curbs placed on political activity and sweeping powers given to the security forces.
"The rapporteur regrets that President Joseph Kabila did not use the platform of the human rights commission to announce the abrogation of decrees curbing the liberties of parties and non-governmental organisations," Garreton said.
Currently, 58 people are imprisoned in Kinshasa without access to legal counsel, he said.
Additionally, Garreton said, a commission of inquiry appointed to investigate the assassination of Laurent Kabila comprises officials only from the Kinshasa government and its military allies -- Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
It has been given, he said, "very extensive powers to question, arrest and detain suspects in secret."
Garreton nevertheless noted that Kabila had two weeks ago received Ketumile Masire, the mediator of the inter-Congelese dialogue, in an attempt to begin the process that aims to restore democracy to the vast central African country.
Kabila's father had rejected the Botswanan former president named by his African peers as "facilitator" in peace talks, accusing Masire of being biased – GENEVA (AFP)
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