“I do not want to go back to the D.R.C.,” Nsingu said. “If I go back, they will kill me.”

Nsingu risks being deported to the Congo at a time when concerns have been raised about the continuing rounding up and persecution of individuals and groups opposed to Joseph Kabila's government. She said there was still an outstanding warrant for her arrest in the Congo.

The latest U.S. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices reveals that in the Congo there continues to be an absence of citizens' right to change their government. Impunity, unlawful killings, torture, abuse and rape of persons by security forces are still rampant.

Arbitrary arrest, prolonged pre-trial detention, judicial corruption as well as harsh and life-threatening prison conditions were also cited as prevalent in the Congo.

Last year, Pastor Fernando Kuthino was jailed after expressing political views at a rally. In the same year, lawyer and opposition political party activist, Marie Therese Nlandu, was taken before a military tribunal and falsely charged with possessing war arms and incitement to rebellion. Pastor Kuthino and Marie Nlandu are just two of the many opposition political activists who are currently fighting to survive in the inhuman conditions that prevail in Kinshasa's notorious Makala and other prisons.

Atherton say that “After the best part of nine years adjusting her life and aspirations to a new country, of forming solid bonds and putting down firm roots, the Home Office wants to send her back to Kinshasa, one of the world's worst living slums, where insecurity pervades every corner of human existence and eking out a living is practically impossible. Where despite the recent elections, fighting continues unabated in the eastern regions of D.R. Congo.

“Please don't let this happen."

Related resources:

• Downloadable model letter and fax for Liam Byrne
  
• Liam Byrne's website and email

• Congo: Mass Rape a Weapon of War, Joan M. Dawson, OhmyNews International, January 10, 2007.