Partners of the „Deutsche Welle” in custody for 40 days

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has accused the government of Niger with seriously violating the freedom of the press in order to suppress all independent reporting on the Tuareg conflict in the north of the country. The human rights organisation appealed to the President of the state of Niger, Mamadou Tandja, to release immediately three journalists who are at present in custody and to make free reporting possible. „We have been following with great concern the fate of the radio editor Moussa Kaka, who has been in custody for 40 days”, reported the GfbV Africa corrspondent, Ulrich Delius. The director of the private station Radio Saraounia and correspondent of Radio France Internationale has also been for many years a partner of the „Deutsche Welle”. His station broadcasts daily programmes of the Deutsche Welle in French and Haussa.

Moussa Kaka has been charged with „treason” because he has broadcast interviews with Turareg rebels. He faces the threat of a lifetime prison sentence. Before he was arrested on 20th September 2007 he received several threats from the security forces, reports Delius. In the 90s already he caused a sensation throughout the country with his full reports on the Tuareg conflict. The Tuareg took up arms again in January 2007 following the collapse of a peace agreement made in 1996. The nomads feel themselves disadvantaged by the government and are calling for more assistance for their region. Since then more than 80 people have died in attacks on the civilian population by the Tuareg fighters and by the army. The government of Niger has to date set store on nothing other than the military defeat of the rebel movement and refuses a dialogue worthy of the name, criticises the GfbV.

The other two persons in custody work for the newspaper „Air-Info”. The public prosecutor, according to information received by the GfbV, laid an official charge on Wednesday against the publisher Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, who was arrested on 9th October for supporting the Tuareg rebels. His newspaper, which appears fortnightly in the town of Agadez, had angered the authorities because it published a list with the names of 20 persons who had been arrested in connection with the Tuareg conflict. The critical reporting of the „Air-Info”on the situation of the Tuareg resulted in publication of the newspaper being banned for three months. On 25th October the newspaper correspondent Daouda Yacouba was arrested.

„The reporting of foreign journalists is also forbidden”, criticised Delius. So the French film-maker Francois Bergeron was deported on 5th October because he was preparing a film report on the Tuareg conflict. A correspondent of Radio France Internationale (RFI) was not allowed to travel to the north of the country. In July a 28-day broadcasting ban was imposed against RFI. „The arrest and criminalisation of journalists, the temporary closing of newspapers and radio-stations, the refusal of travel permits and the deportation of foreign journalists disregard fundamental human rights in the young democracy and are a relapse into the worst times of the dictatorship”, said Delius.