Kinshasa - The director of a local radio station in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been arrested by police for spying, a Congolese press freedom group said Monday.
According to Journaliste en Danger (Journalist in Danger), Blaise Bahisha was arrested by police in Goma, the capital of the restive North Kivu province, on suspicion of carrying a computer stolen by M23 rebels.
Rebels had stripped him of his radio and threatened to kill him, JED said.
A justice official who wished to remain anonymous told JED that Bahisha “was not (being) tortured” where he was now held.
Many rebel movements and armed tribal militias, including the M23, are active in the east of DR Congo, whose embattled army is to receive the help of a special UN-approved intervention brigade charged with stopping insurgency.
Congolese soldiers have too been accused of violence.
In its latest report published Monday, the UN's humanitarian affairs office OCHA accused the army of torture, sexual violence, extortion and damaging property, amongst other offences.
Most of the violence took place in an area of the southeastern mining area of Katanga, nicknamed the “triangle of death”, the report said.
The abuses appeared to be punishment meted out against people who the army suspected of having links to the local Mai Mai militia, OCHA said. - Sapa-AFP