The capital city of South Africa, Pretoria is a half-hour drive from Johannesburg, the most populous city in South Africa.

Most of the 20 Congolese on trial since Feb 5 work, live and go to church with their families in Johannesburg. I went to a service this morning of Congolese refugees: great music and huge optimism and faith in a country that took them in when their country turned in on itself, only to turn around a decade or more later to betray them.

The news out of the Democratic Republic of Congo is uniformly grim. Even the United Nations wants the situation, and those fighting for power, to change; Congo is a country that has been described by the United Nations as the “rape capital of the world”.

In 2013, 2 white mischief makers descended on the Congolese refugee community; promising that they had a solution to the severe human rights issues inside Congo.

Human rights of Congolese refugees are being violated in South Africa: Congolese are permitted inside South Africa but are mostly denied the opportunities to work. Congolese physicians are welcomed: South Africa wants as many as they can get.

I have heard stories of the infamous 3-month work permits; issued on the same day of the month 4 times a year, for 4, 5, 7, even 12 years.

I believe the mischief makers had a plan to clean out the Congolese refugee community in Johannesburg. That the imprisonment of the Congolese 20 was the tip of the iceberg of a plan to send refugees back to Congo.

The 20 men were not highly educated; most had large families, some had babies born within weeks of their Feb 5 arrest. Simple men who follow orders. They believed the white mischief makers who told them they would be paid to follow orders. They never heard anything about coups or overthrowing any government except from the police when they were arrested.

The first white mischief makers announced themselves as James Jansen and Joe Bresher. They have vanished. As has the Congolese refugee who brought the Congolese 20 to the white mischief makers, Carlos Nkuna. A third white mischief maker helped the other 2 kidnap the men on Feb 4, drive them to Limpopo, steal their cell phones and threaten to shoot them to death if they tried to escape.

The next morning they were rescued by South African police, who, instead of understanding that the Congolese (who were 19 on that day) were victims of a financial scam and a brutal kidnapping, arrested them and threw them in the worst jail in South Africa. Plus Etienne Kabila, after he surrendered to South African police.

Pretoria Central Prison. The gates of hell. What a way to treat hard-working citizens who were victims of a violent crime.

The Congolese 20 have compiled a statement that they sent to President Obama: pleading for United States to understand the plight in South Africa of refugees from Congo.

The statement talks at length about the squabbles between the Kabila family that created this scam and kidnapping that has rapidly destroyed the lives and health of the Congolese 20 and their families.

The statement talks about Etienne Kabila, and William Yakatumba, who is not under arrest. The white mischief-makers urged Carlos Nkuna, and the first 19 under arrest to bring them William Yakatumba and Etienne Kabila.

The Congolese 20 believe that this whole scam and kidnapping was aimed at delivering Yakatumba and Etienne Kabila to the government of President Joseph Kabila.

The major questions the friends of the Congolese 20 has is this: why have the white instigators of this scam and kidnapping not been arrested or charged?

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