'In Kinshasa, we live like beggars'
Stéphanie Nyota Muliri, 50, is still officially employed as public relations officer by the Bakwanga mining company (Miba) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. But the company has not paid its employees' wages in monthand its 7,000 staff are left without work.
Stéphanie Nyota Muliri, who lives in Kinshasa, denounces the Congo government's lack of action to boost the economy.
We have not been paid in 27 months. The problems started before the crisis: we used to extract diamonds manually and we needed new equipment to re-launch the company.
Yet we are now being told that the price of diamonds has gone down with the world economy and that major customers such as De Beers do not do business with us anymore. Miba cannot get its hand on fresh capital.
Life has become too hard. Many of my colleagues cannot pay their rent and they sleep in churches. I could keep my home because the house belongs to a cousin, but I am heavily indebted. We live like beggars.
In the past, the company used to provide us with food and pay for primary school and medical care. Now we are lacking medicines and the children cannot study anymore.
I have four children. My eldest daughter lives in London and she used to send me money but she has just lost her own job. I can no longer support my son, who is a student in South Africa.
I entered Miba in 1987 as an unskilled worker and I raised through the ranks to become a protocol officer. When you have always worked, stopping hits your morale. I go to mass, I grow food in the garden to save money, I watch TV... I'm bored.
Sometimes, I go to Miba. We open the office, then close it. I meet colleagues who ask me for 500 Congolese francs (€0.50) because their children have nothing to eat.
The government is our majority stakeholder. It must take action so that investors in turn want to get involved. There are still a lot of diamonds in our concessions in Kasaï!"
Search
User login
-
ON THE DOLE
- Desperate employees who kidnap their bosses
- Detroit: In the unemployment line
- Russia: Harassed by debt 'kollektors'
- Hunt for work in Beijing
-
BY THE NUMBERS
- In Japan, jobless rate climbs, deflation fears return
- Spain : Unemployment soars over 17%
- Layoffs company-by-company
-
ECONOMISTS’ CORNER
- Jeffrey Sachs: Africa reeling from crisis
- Saving jobs: anything goes?
Observers' Tips
Comments
MJPC questions ICC waiting to issue an arrest warrant against Nk
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2009 - 06:01.MJPC questions ICC waiting to issue an arrest warrant against Nkunda.
The Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the D.R. Congo (MJPC) today called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against laurent Nkunda accused of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity which are well documented by various human right organzations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Laurent Nkunda, former leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) armed group, was arrested on 22 January and is detained at an undisclosed location in Rwanda.
How long would it take for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo to decide whether or not to issue an arrest warrant against Nkunda? echoed Makuba Sekombo, Director of Community Affairs of MJPC. The ICC Prosecutor has been investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since since 2004, but the ICC reportdely opened an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the DRC since 1 July 2002.
Nkunda has been repeatedly implicated in numerous serious war crimes and crimes against humanity since 2002. In September 2005, the Congolese government issued an arrest warrant for Nkunda, accusing him of numerous war crimes and crimes against human rights. Human Rights Watch, for example, which has been calling for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity since February 2006 and has documented summary executions, torture and rape committed by soldiers under the command of Nkunda in Bukavu in 2004 and in Kisangani in 2002. Also armed groups loyal to warlord Nkunda have been repeatedly accused of using rape as a weapon of war and the recruitment of child soldiers, some as young as 12 after the abduction from their homes. In November 2008, the UN mission in the country (MONUC), Humn Rights Watch many other organizations accused Nkunda of war crimes in November 2008; an estimated 150 people were killed innoncently in the town of Kiwanja by the troups loyal to Nkunda.
The MJPC deplores the refusal by the Government of Rwanda to hand over Nkunda for trial. "How shocking that Rwanda which has been receiving assistance from the International community to arrest genocide suspects and hand them over to the ICTR or to Rwanda would not allow for the extradition of a war criminal accused of massacring civilians, sexual violence, abduction of civilians, including children forcibly recruited as fighters and then used to attack civilian communities" said Mr. Sekombo.
"While Nkunda is not the only one who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC arrest warrant would mark a major step in promoting accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in DRC, added Sekombo. As part of its campaign to combat impunity in DRC, MJPC launched an online petition in November 2008 whic can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com/online/23604.html calling for immediate arrest of Nkunda. So far more than 1365 people from over 50 countries have signed the petition.
Contact Details:
Press Contact: Makuba Sekombo The online petit MJPC Kinshasaa, D.R. Congo 1 408 806 3644 info@mjpcongo.org http://www.mjpcongo.org
Website Link:
Unregistered user
Re ... we live like beggars!
Submitted by Billig Fliegen (not verified) on Mon, 27/04/2009 - 13:49.It is a shame when I read this post because we cry because we have lost money and fear that we cannot buy a new car but people like Stephanie has to fight in order to survive! This is much more drastically then our own problems in Europe.
PS: By the way the normal link to this article don´t work - I reached it only with the comments.
Unregistered user
RE broken link
Submitted by Sophie Team ... on Mon, 27/04/2009 - 14:16.Thanks for letting us know, I've changed the link.
Sophie Team ...