Motengo Nyamumbosi Must Stay

Nyamumbosi Motengo Must Stay

My name is Nyamumbosi Motengo, like Marianne and Annita; I too walk the Streets of Cardiff. Since I am homeless, life is very difficult for me and I am surviving on donations from my community. I am sleeping from one house to another and once I spent a night at the bus stop on a very cold night. I do not eat every day - I eat when someone offers me a sandwich or gives me some money to buy food. I am similar to beggars and I am very scared about my future. If my life weren't at risk in the Democratic Republic of Congo I would have urged the Home Office to send me back quickly. Unfortunately I do not believe that I will receive humane treatment if sent back - I fear that I would be put into jail, won't be able to access any legal representation and that the government people will definitely kill me. My health condition is deteriorating because of the stress I am going through. I am a poor woman who is just seeking for protection.

I am from DR Congo. I was born in Kinshasa in 1959. I grew up and got married to a wonderful husband, Jose Mokwesa - we had five children. Now I am a widow with out the five children I gave birth to. I do not know if they are still alive. (16-14-4-and twins 2). My deceased husband was working as a member of the 'Association for the Defense of Human Rights' (AZADHO), who defended human rights in the country following the abuse of those rights by the government and its forces in the political information office.

In December 2002 my husband was arrested along with other people. A few days later I was informed that he was in hospital in Bandal borough. I found 4 armed soldiers in uniform guarding the place where my husband was held. After two days he was discharged and we were accompanied home together with some of the soldiers.

From that day, people began to come and take my husband from our house to Demiap office at Kintambo Magasion to be questioned. I wasn't allowed to go with him. One day he went to Demiap along with some people, he never comeback. I was told by a commander working at Demiap office that he was dead.

In December 2002, during the evening, some people came to my house and took me to Demiap office. They questioned me about many things that I could not remember at all. They threatened me and accused me of being involved in dispersing false information about the President Joseph Kabila and the government. I was beaten, tortured and abused by these people in my detention cell.

On 31 Dec 2002, Mr Kanza put me in a small cell with chains on my hands and left me there. He came back later and called me by my husbands' name and told me that I would be killed because these people had already killed my husband. During the night of 31 Dec 2002, he helped me to escape from detention. He handcuffed me and put me in the back of the car. He took me to a house where I was quite safe. After 4 days, he came and said that my house was still strongly guarded by some security agents.

He found an agent for me who helped me to leave the country. We travelled from N'djili airport to Nairobi and to the United Kingdom where we arrived on 5 January 2003. I applied asylum on 6 January 2003.

My refusal letter from the Home Office was terrible - in the second paragraph there are 14 sentences, 13 of them began 'you claim' - it was like a mantra, derogative and dismissive. Everything I said about my reasons and my journey to the UK was disparaged. So too like Marianne and Nzenzi, I will have to appeal to the public to help them and me to persuade the government to allow us to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds.

What you can do to help:
Central African Association, friends and supporters have set up a campaign to persuade the Home Secretary, on the strength of Nyamumbosi Motengo's links to the community and the community's links to Nyamumbosi, and that she should be allowed to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds.

The campaign has drawn up a petition and model letter attached, which they are asking everyone to print off, fill them in and get as many other people as possible to do the same, and return them to the campaign office. When they have collected enough signatures, the campaign will present them to the Home Secretary.

Please return completed model letters/petitions to:
Sanctuary for Nyamumbosi Motengo
C/O Central African Association
1 Richmond Rd, Cardiff
Wales
CF24 3AQ
Tele: 029 2045 9945
Mo: 079 4444 6245
Fax: 029 2045 9946
Email:info@centralafrican.org.uk

DR Congo war is world's top 'forgotten' crisis: War in Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed at least 10 times as many lives as the December tsunami yet remains almost unheard of outside of Africa, key players in the aid world said.
"It's the worst humanitarian tragedy since the Holocaust," said John O'Shea, chief executive of Irish relief agency GOAL. "The greatest example on the planet of man's inhumanity to man." Relief Web 10 th March 2005

Tens of thousands raped by militias in Congo conflict: Tens of thousands of young girls and women have been raped or otherwise subjected to sexual violence during five years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to an international investigation. The Guardian 8 th March 2005

UN: DR Congo crisis worse than Darfur: Eastern Congo is suffering the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, with a death toll outstripping that in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, a top United Nations official said on Wednesday. The Standard March 18 th 2005

Central African Association (CAA) exists to address social deprivation that refugees and asylum seekers experience when they first arrive in the UK, particularly in the Welsh area.