africa

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), violence associated with logging companies is not uncommon, but evidence and testimonies collected by Greenpeace show that the Yalisika community of Bosanga has been punished with exceptional violence.

I’m writing from Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These days I am torn between outrage and bitterness when I hear about the unbelievable violence that has once again been unleashed on the heart of the Congo’s forest.

Your fish costs more than you think.  A billion people worldwide depend on fish as their main source of protein, many living in the world’s poorest nations - including Africa.

The disastrous effects of overfishing by European fleets aren’t confined to our continent's waters: destructive EU vessels are now exploiting the waters of the world’s poorest nations - threatening ecosystems, depriving local fishermen of their livelihoods and the food security of their communities. So Greenpeace have brought them and their stories to Europe.

The third and fourth films documenting Inception star Marion Cottilard's journey to the Congo see her head out into the rainforest.

After meeting her hosts in Oshwe and the local forestry administration, she follows Greenpeace campaigners to see timber the loggers have left behind. Despite including sizeable tree trunks, they've been abandoned because they won't fetch enough money to make it worth the effort.

In June, Oscar-winning French superstar Marion Cottilard - currently playing in Inception at all good multiplexes - took a trip to the Congo rainforest with Greenpeace campaigners to see for herself the effect that the logging industry is having on the forest and the people who live there.

It's easy to forget that, even though we moan about discredited political systems and infringement of civil liberties, in the UK we don't actually have it that bad. It's rare that anyone in the UK would feel in danger for speaking out against the government but of course that's not the case in other parts of the world. A shocking reminder of this came with the news last week that a prominent human rights activist was murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Floribert Chebeya Bahizire was the executive director of La Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless), an organisation he set up in 1983 to expose human rights abuses and injustice in the DRC. But last Wednesday in Kinshasa he was found dead in his car, and his driver is still missing. According to the news wires, there'll be an investigation into Bahizire's death but there are questions over how revealing it will be. So much so that an open letter has been sent to the president Joseph Kabila from over 50 human rights groups, advocating an open, impartial inquiry.

Of course, Greenpeace has a team in Kinshasa and the challenges of campaigning there are markedly different than from a comfortable office in London. Intimidation and murder against those working to improve the lives of those who are disenfranchised and disregarded is unacceptable wherever it happens, and with the 50th anniversary of independence for the DRC approaching at the end of the month, Bahizire's murder will cast a long shadow over the celebrations.

Rene Ngongo, winner of the 2009 Right Livelihood award

For as long as I can remember, I have played a game with myself - imagining what it is like to be someone else in a different time or a different place. It's just a bit of fun and kept me entertained for hours on long train journeys before I got my laptop. Sometimes though I wonder whether I would have the courage to stand up for what I believe in if I didn't have the luxury of being here in the UK, at this moment in time.

Would I have joined the White Rose movement, students at Munich University who were executed after spreading anti-Nazi leaflets during the height of the Third Reich regime? Would I have had the courage to sit at the back of the bus like Rosa Parks did or demonstrate in the streets in Tehran following the election results?