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GENEVA / DRC ELECTIONS
STORY: GENEVA / DRC ELECTION
TRT: 1:25
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 4 JANUARY 2019 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior shot, Palais des Nations
2. Med shot, journalists.
3. Close up, journalist.
4. Close up, journalist.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“What my colleagues have told me and they have observed is that the situation remains calm but tense ahead of the announcement of the results of the election. There are preliminary reports of some pockets of violence and people being injured.”
6. Med shot, journalists.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Intimidation and harassment against journalists, opposition candidates and human rights defenders continues to take place. This being a very sensitive, as I said, a very tense period we are concerned that these efforts to silence dissent could backfire considerably when the results are announced. We are watching carefully, and we are calling on all sides to refrain from the use of violence.”
8. Close up: hand typing
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The internet is cut off, the signal of Radio France Internationale RFI has been tampered with, as well as Canal Congo Television, which apparently belongs to the leader of the MLC, Jean-Pierre Bemba.”
10. Med shot, journalists
11. Med shot, podium
12. Med shot, cameraman
The post-election environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is “calm but tense” as the country waits for the results of the presidential poll, the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday.
Amid reports that journalists and opposition political candidates have been intimidated and access to selected media broadcasters remains blocked, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani warned that efforts to silence dissent could “backfire”.
Her comments come ahead of closed consultations on the election by the UN Security Council in New York later on Friday.
The result of the poll – which featured 21 candidates - is due to be announced on Sunday, although the DRC’s electoral commission announced that this may be pushed back.
“What my colleagues have told me and they have observed is that the situation remains calm but tense ahead of the announcement of the results of the election,” Shamdasani said. “There are preliminary reports of some pockets of violence and people being injured.”
OHCHR has an office in the vast central African country but has not played a role in supervising the national election, which was held on December 30, after a week’s delay and postponements dating back to 2016.
The poll will decide the successor to President Joseph Kabila, who came to office in 2001 after the previous incumbent, his father Laurent, was assassinated in the aftermath of a civil war involving numerous armed militias.
Shamdasani also noted reports that people’s freedom of expression is under threat in DRC.
“Intimidation and harassment against journalists, opposition candidates and human rights defenders continues to take place,” she said. “This being a very sensitive, as I said, a very tense period, we are concerned that these efforts to silence dissent could backfire considerably when the results are announced. We are watching carefully and we are calling on all sides to refrain from the use of violence.”
As the DRC waits for the results of the poll, Shamdasani also highlighted evidence of other civil rights violations.
“The internet is cut off, the signal of Radio France Internationale (RFI) has been tampered with, as well as Canal Congo Television, which apparently belongs to the leader of the MLC, Jean-Pierre Bemba,” she said, referring to his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo.
Ahead of the presidential election, the UN’s top human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, condemned reports that police had reportedly fired live ammunition at opposition rallies.
The High Commissioner also spoke out against the use of inflammatory speech by political leaders and said that it was essential that people’s rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly were fully protected.
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