DRC: police disperse opposition demonstration outside National Assembly
Police officers stopping demonstrators, in front of the People's Palace in Kinshasa, May 6, 2022. © Pascal Mulegwa/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The police dispersed, this Friday morning May 6, a demonstration of the opposition and civil society in front of the Parliament in Kinshasa to demand a political consensus on the electoral reforms in progress while the National Assembly has already declared "
admissible
" a bill to that effect.
The demonstration was organized on the initiative of social and political forces, a platform called "patriotic bloc" bringing together citizens' movements, organizations of Catholic and Protestant lay people as well as opposition parties, including those of the former coalition. -President Joseph Kabila and Lamuka of Martin Fayulu.
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With our correspondent in Kinshasa,
Pascal Mulegwa
The demonstration began shortly before 9 a.m. not far from the seat of Parliament.
Hundreds of very determined opponents and activists gathered near a police roadblock, which did not hesitate to disperse them.
Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, the leader of the PPRD, party of former President Joseph Kabila, was one of them.
“
Our demonstration was severely repressed because we demand a consensual CéniI, a Constitutional Court that protects everyone, we are fighting against the dictatorship, we were repressed, live ammunition, tear gas.
We will continue to exert pressure because we must put an end to a dictatorship that we have never known in this country.
The real problem is Felix Tshisekedi who is the patent evil of this country
”.
#DRC🇨🇩: Friday, May 06 in Kinshasa, the police grapple with Opposition demonstrators mobilized to demand consensus around electoral reforms.
pic.twitter.com/SUUs27CuP1
— Pascal Mulegwa (@pascal_mulegwa) May 6, 2022
The party deplores about twenty wounded in its ranks, including some serious cases.
Same thing on the side of the Lamuka coalition where scenes of violence took place between police and activists at the headquarters of Ecidé, the party of Martin Fayulu.
The chief of police, deputy commissioner Sylvano Kasongo, denies the cases of injuries and justifies his intervention by the inviolability of the seat of Parliament:
There was no bloody repression.
We left them in their seats, singing, insulting, etc., but when they started to barricade the road, stone people's vehicles, throw projectiles, because there are police officers who are injured, we had to intervene, I don't haven't seen people who are injured.
They want to make a buzz, we only used non-lethal weapons, it was in full view of everyone
.
The organizers intend to schedule new demonstrations to demand discussions outside the hemicycle between stakeholders in the electoral process.
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