/ 18 July 1997

Kinshasa newspaper editor interrogated

FRIDAY, 3.30PM

The editor of the Kinshasa daily newspaper La Reference Plus has been interrogated by authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the paper reported splits within the new regime.

Andre Ipakala was released on Thursday, one day after being detained. He said he underwent a lengthy interrogation over the report on an alleged row between the secretary-general of the ruling Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo and the director of the national information agency.

Ipakala said the authorities “demanded that the newspaper reveal its source” and said the security services demanded to see the paper’s publisher and the journalist who wrote the article.