Human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of...

Human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo condemned the execution of 15 people sentenced to death. Congolese human rights NGO La Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless) published a list of the 15 people, who had been sentenced to death for crimes including armed robbery and "association with criminal elements". "The execution of these people took place on the eve of the verdict in the trial of those accused of involvement in the assassination of [the late] President Laurent-Desire Kabila," VSV President Floribert Chebeya said. According to Chebeya, the 15 were among a group of about 60 people who had been sentenced to death by the notorious Military Order Court, which oversaw the Kabila assassination trial. "The 15 people were taken from the Centre penitentiaire de reeducation de Kinshasa (CPRK, Kinshasa Penitentiary Centre for Re-education) on 6 January. Their heads were covered with hoods and they were put on a truck to the place of their execution, on the outskirts of Kinshasa," said Chebaya. "The day after the executions, inhabitants around the farm where the killings took place found arms protruding from a mass grave that had been poorly covered up," continued Chebaya, noting that his own researchers had visited the site. He added that local people had heard loud blasts during the night. "Some fled, thinking war had broken out," he said.