AFRICA/DR CONGO - The opposition demands an investigation into the mass grave discovered 80 km from Kinshasa

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - Congolese civil society and the opposition demand an independent investigation into the mass grave discovered on March 19 in Maluku, 80 kilometers from Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. So far about 420 corpses have been exhumed. According to the authorities of the province of Kinshasa, 300 of the bodies exhumed are stillborn babies and fetuses, buried in the mass grave for healthcare reasons. The opposition instead fears that the bodies of demonstrators who disappeared in January during demonstrations against the new electoral law, which opened the possibility to President Joseph Kabila to stand for election in 2016 for a third term (see Fides 24.01.2015) were hidden in the mass grave. During the demonstrations on 19, 20 and 21 January, in the clashes with security forces, dozens of people were killed. Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, had appealed to the police to stop "killing people". Organizations for the defense of civil rights had accused the military of the Presidential Guard, disguised as policemen, of having taken dozens of protesters and of having hidden the bodies of people killed by them. Several families had denounced the disappearances of their loved ones. Meanwhile in Goma, capital of North Kivu, eastern DRC, several protesters took to the streets to demand an improvement in living conditions. The protest is led by the Struggle for Change (Lutte pour le changement, Lucha). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 09/04/2015)