CAT/C/64/D/738/2016
organization is to free the Democratic Republic of the Congo from occupation by Rwanda
and its allies, in the person of President Joseph Kabila and his regime. The complainant
claims to be very active in this organization; he is always on the front line at
demonstrations and he makes public statements against the current regime in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. He claims to have held several positions in the
organization. He was a councillor for youth affairs until the end of 2011; roles were then
reassigned and he became secretary of the Zurich municipal committee. In that capacity, his
task is to raise awareness among and mobilize Congolese nationals in Zurich and to draw
their attention to the aims of the movement. He is allegedly well known within the
Congolese diaspora in Switzerland, on account of his political involvement and his
generally critical attitude towards the current regime. As a result of these activities, the
complainant allegedly received several threats, including death threats, via telephone calls,
text messages and emails, in the period up to mid-2011. His younger brother was reportedly
abducted in Kinshasa more than a year ago. His wife is also being monitored by the security
services, which means that he is unable to make contact with her or his child. 8
4.8
The State party does not contest the fact that the complainant has played an active
role in APARECO since around 2010. The State party notes that, when he presented the
grounds for his second asylum application, he provided detailed information about the
organization and its aims and activities. Likewise, the claim that he has held the position of
secretary of the Zurich municipal committee since 2011 seems credible. In addition, the
photographs submitted as evidence show that he took part in a demonstration in front of the
United Nations Office at Geneva on 13 December 2011, at which the demonstrators called
for international criminal proceedings to be brought against the Presidents of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. An extract from a website that was
submitted as evidence to the Federal Administrative Court shows that a television channel
for the Congolese diaspora most probably broadcast a news report on this demonstration.
4.9
The State party notes that, according to the documents submitted by the complainant
and other information gathered by the domestic authorities, APARECO is an active
political organization in exile, founded in 2005 in France by Honoré Ngbanda, former
Minister of Defence and Security Adviser to the former President of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (then Zaire), Mobutu Sese Seko. Essentially, the organization is
opposed to the regime of the current President, Joseph Kabila, whom it considers to be a
representative of Rwanda, guilty of electoral fraud, corruption and poor governance. While
APARECO is not publicly active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has links
with the Congolese opposition party Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social (Union
for Democracy and Social Progress), which is led by the former Prime Minister, Etienne
Tshisekedi. APARECO is mainly known for its activities in France, especially its efforts to
prevent the summit of the International Organization of la Francophonie from being held in
Kinshasa in 2012. In Paris, Brussels and London, members of the Congolese opposition
have attacked representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; however, those
events have not been linked to APARECO. In Switzerland, APARECO has been
represented in public at isolated demonstrations where participants called for the
Government of Joseph Kabila to be removed from office. On 6 December 2011, several
people, one of whom seemed to have been a member of APARECO, forced their way into
the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Bern.
4.10 The State party emphasizes that, even if the Congolese authorities took an interest in
the political activities of Congolese nationals in exile, they would focus on persons with a
specific role, whose activities went beyond involvement in the political rank and file and
marked them out as serious and potentially dangerous opponents. On that basis, leaders of
8
4
The complainant submitted several documents to prove his political involvement in APARECO,
namely: an undated article from the newspaper La Référence; an article published on the website of
La Référence, dated 13 April 2011; an email dated 1 May 2011; a photograph of the complainant
carrying a placard at the Place des Nations in Geneva; an article from the newspaper La Manchette,
dated 8 January 2013; a letter from the Swiss branch of APARECO to the Federal Office for
Migration, dated 24 August 2012; a list of APARECO office holders in Europe; and a letter from the
Regional Vice-President for Europe and President of the Swiss branch of APARECO to the
representative of the complainant, dated 30 June 2014.
GE.18-16592