9 DEMONSTRATIONS:

LONDON – 12 noon. The Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF.
Nearest tube:
Westminster. Contact Liz Atherton 07931 524654; Okito Tongomo 07961
325167
Birmingham – 12.00 noon. Sandford House, 41 Homer Road, Solihull, West
Midlands B91 3QJ.
Contacts: Michael Misindu 07984 537030, Papy Van 07904 172214 /
 papyvan@yahoo.fr
Cardiff – 12.00 noon. Venue TBA. Contacts: Nicolas 07956 289016, Denis
07939 825938
Glasgow – 12.00 noon, Home Office Immigration Centre, Festival Court,
200 Brand Street, Glasgow G51 1DH. Contacts: Matta Matabaro 07738
444526 /  matta_matabaro@hotmail.co.uk, Dhali 07877 577059
Leeds – 12.00 noon. Waterside Reporting Centre, Waterside Court,
Kirkstall Road (just past Netto), Leeds LS4 2QB. Contacts: Deba Lolia
07944 105611
Leicester – 12.00 noon. Leicester Magistrates Court, 15 Pocklington
Walk, Leicester LE1. Contacts: Leicester - Patience 07951 226599; Derby
– Didier Matamba 07949 282445; Stoke-On-Trent - Kean Mouko 07930 803589
/  mouko_jean@yahoo.fr
Manchester – 12.00 noon. Assemble at All Saints Building, All Saints,
Manchester M15 6BH via; BBC Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester.
Contacts: Innocent Empi 07871 676129 /  innonkung@yahoo.co.uk, René
Mampuya 07944 342049 /  r_lundinga@yahoo.fr, Christo Carlito 07886
319504
Newcastle – 12.00 noon. Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, Kings Court,
Royal Quays, Earl Gray Way, North Shields NE29 6AR. Contacts: Paty
Omari Mungwande: 07958
606300 (Newcastle), Gauthier Matho 07956 972274 (Sunderland), Tresor
Bukasa 07946 702652
(Middlesborough)
Nottingham – 12.00 noon, The Market Square, off South Parade,
Nottingham NG1. Contacts: Alexis Mabika 07950 545328, Patrick Essalo
07877 489626 /  patrickessalo@yahoo.com

Country Guidance tribunal on DRC

On 12th April 2007, there will be a "directions hearing"for the Country
Guidance tribunal on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This will
be a meeting between the judge, the barristers bringing the case and
the home office to ensure all parties have been served with the
information they need. After this the date for the full hearing will be
established. We need to be out in force on 12th April, and on any
subsequent tribunal dates, to show our solidarity with the legal team
defending the cause of Congolese asylum seekers and to protest against
further removals and deportations to DRC.

Situation in DRC

Since the so-called democratic elections last year, more than 150
people have been gunned down by the security services in Bas-Congo for
peacefully protesting about local election results; hundreds more have
been killed in Kinshasa in violent clashes between president Joseph
Kabila's guard and forces loyal to his contender in the presidential
elections Jean-Pierre Bemba; tens of thousands of people have been
displaced by conflict in the east of the country. Massacres,
extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests,
torture and rape are endemic, while thousands continue to die each week
as a result of starvation and disease. The foreign office is advising
British nationals not to travel at all to eastern and north eastern
DRC, and against "all but essential travel" to the rest of the DRC
because the country is too unstable, yet the home office is continuing
to try and remove or deport Congolese asylum seekers to a situation in
which they risk losing their lives.