DR Congo: Rights defender's death renews calls to end impunity

Floribert Chebeya, executive secretary of human rights group Voice of the Voiceless, was discovered dead in his car early in the morning of Jun. 2. Numerous journalists and human right activists have been killed in suspicious circumstances in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past five years. Chebeya was a human rights activist for more than 25 years in the eastern city of Bukavu and in the capital, Kinshasa. He had frequently been threatened by the authorities. "His body was found stretched out on the rear seat by people in the area, who alerted police," General Jean de Dieu Oleko, chief of police for Kinshasa, told IPS. "(The body) bore no visible signs of an assault. The signs around the scene and the body itself were not enough to establish the circumstances of his death," Oleko said. "Meanwhile, the body Chebeya's driver has still not been found." But the facts around Chebeya's death are disputed. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, said the circumstances of the killing "strongly suggest official responsibility". Local and international organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for an independent investigation.