Agenzia Fides REPORT - “Together we will build another Congo with new people”. This is the banner for the manifesto promoted by 11 Congolese organizations to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the March for Hope held on 16 February, 1992. That day, 19 years ago, the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Kinshasa had organized a peaceful demonstration to call for the reopening of the National Sovereign Conference (CNS), the discussion forum that was to pave the way for democracy in the Country (then Zaire, the current Democratic Republic of Congo). The march was violently repressed by the troops of the dictator, Mobutu (see Fides 17/2/2010).
“19 years later, we want not only to remember our martyrs for democracy” - reads a statement by the Catholic agency DIA in Kinshasa - “but primarily to continue the fight for which they gave their lives by engaging in an electoral process that is truly free, transparent and democratic. In this year's general elections, we must choose new people to build a new Congo.”
The anniversary of the March for Hope will be commemorated on 15 February with a conference on martyrdom run by Fr Richard Mugaruka in the parish of “Notre Dame d'Afrique” in Lemba and with a Mass celebrated on 16 February in the parish of St Alphonse de Matete.
“19 years later, we want not only to remember our martyrs for democracy” - reads a statement by the Catholic agency DIA in Kinshasa - “but primarily to continue the fight for which they gave their lives by engaging in an electoral process that is truly free, transparent and democratic. In this year's general elections, we must choose new people to build a new Congo.”
The anniversary of the March for Hope will be commemorated on 15 February with a conference on martyrdom run by Fr Richard Mugaruka in the parish of “Notre Dame d'Afrique” in Lemba and with a Mass celebrated on 16 February in the parish of St Alphonse de Matete.
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