{"id":2824,"date":"2020-07-01T15:32:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/?p=2824"},"modified":"2021-01-26T13:17:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T18:17:30","slug":"declaration-of-solidarity-with-indigenous-batwa-prisoners-in-dr-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/declaration-of-solidarity-with-indigenous-batwa-prisoners-in-dr-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Declaration of Solidarity with Indigenous Batwa Prisoners in DR Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"DR CONGO \u2014 Eight indigenous Pygmies, members of the Batwa <\/span>community, have been convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms <\/span>for attempting to regain access to their traditional lands. Centuries before <\/span>other African ethnic groups arrived, the Pygmies were living peacefully in <\/span>the forests that reach from the Congo-Nile ridge mountains to the Atlantic <\/span>Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

The traditional lands claimed by the Pygmies are inside the Kahuzi Biega <\/span>National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Approximately six <\/span>thousand Batwa people were evicted from the park in the 1970s, with no <\/span>provisions made for any alternative lands or means of survival. After trying <\/span>to scrape out a living on the edges of society for the past forty years, being <\/span>shot as poachers when they entered the park to collect food or medicinal <\/span>herbs, and engaging in negotiations with the park and national authorities <\/span>which just resulted in broken promises, they finally decided to return home <\/span>and make a stand.<\/span><\/p>\n

After an overnight military raid on their village, the Batwa were dragged <\/span>into a \u201cmobile court\u201d set up by the military. During a one-day sham trial on <\/span>February 4, 2020, six men were sentenced to fifteen years in prison, and <\/span>two women to one year each. Now their lives are at risk due to the <\/span>appalling conditions in the overcrowded prison. <\/span><\/p>\n

Local Batwa rights groups and international organizations have joined <\/span>together to appeal these convictions. A legal appeal has been filed to <\/span>have their convictions overturned. <\/span>In May, organizations with Initiative for Equality signed a Declaration of <\/span>Solidarity with Indigenous Batwa Prisoners in DR Congo. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read the <\/span>statement here<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo and story courtesy of JPIC News<\/a><\/span> from John Paul Blog.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DR CONGO \u2014 Eight indigenous Pygmies, members of the Batwa community, have been convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for attempting to regain access to their traditional lands. Centuries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,28],"tags":[368,167,272],"class_list":["post-2824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justiceandpeace","category-latest-news","tag-batwa","tag-congo","tag-justice-peace"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Batwa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}