Saturday, April 18, 2009

Congo MPs vote Kabila ally National Assembly speaker

Congo MPs vote Kabila ally National Assembly speaker
Written by Joe Bavier
Saturday, April 18, 2009 4:37:29 PM

KINSHASA (Reuters) -- Congolese lawmakers voted in Evariste Boshab, a close ally of President Joseph Kabila, as speaker of the National Assembly early on Saturday, reasserting presidential supporters' hold on the lower house of parliament.

Boshab, once Kabila's private secretary and a co-founder of his political party, replaces Vital Kamerhe, who resigned last month after criticising the president's decision to allow Rwandan troops into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

"In the name of the leadership of the National Assembly and its members present here, we sincerely congratulate our colleague Evariste Boshab for his election by a crushing majority," said Kamerhe, who presided over the ceremony.

Kabila's Alliance of the Presidential Majority (AMP) political coalition has dominated both houses of Democratic Republic of Congo's parliament since landmark 2006 polls.

The same elections, meant to draw a line under a devastating 1998-2003 war, confirmed Kabila as president of the vast mineral-rich but cash-strapped central African nation.

Congo's five-year conflict sucked in a half dozen African nations and eastern neighbours Uganda and Rwanda backed rebels attempting to overthrow the government in Kinshasa. The war and the humanitarian disaster it sparked have killed an estimated 5.4 million people.

Kamerhe, one of the principle architects of Kabila's 2006 election victory, criticised the president's decision to allow thousands of Rwandan troops to enter Congo in January to stamp out Rwandan Hutu rebel groups.

The move was viewed as a direct affront to Kabila by AMP leaders, who pressured Kamerhe to step down as speaker.

While he has remained within the AMP despite the growing rift with the president, many now expect Kamerhe to be Kabila's chief rival in the next election in 2011.

Last week, he launched a non-partisan movement within parliament in an apparent first step towards creating a political base.

Baudouin Idambituo, a former government minister under Congo's former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and a political ally of Kamerhe, challenged Boshab in Saturday's vote. Some observers believed his candidacy could have capitalised on perceived splits within the AMP.

However Idambituo finished third and Boshab comfortably won the speakership in a first round of voting with 329 out of a total of 484 votes cast.

His closest rival, Francois Mwamba from the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) -- whose leader Jean-Pierre Bemba was Kabila's closest rival in the 2006 election -- won 75 votes. Bemba is on trial in The Hague for suspected war crimes.

Labels: , , ,

posted by MrK @ 3:38 PM

1 Comments:

At 2:10 AM , Blogger MJPC BLOG said...

Citing the importance for the newly-created International Criminal Court (ICC) to remain an impeccably impartial institution, the MJPC reiterated its call on the ICC to refer the DR Congo to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

The MJPC (Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the Congo) warned that in the Congo as elsewhere, the ICC as a new international instrument to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished could quickly lose its moral value if it does not take concrete steps to start enforcing its own issued arrest warrants.

"Frankly the ICC cannot put off forever bringing the DR Congo before the Security Council for its continuing refusal to execute the outstanding ICC arrest warrant against Ntaganda," said Makuba Sekombo, Director of Community Affairs of the MJPC, an organization that strongly denounces defying ICC arrest warrants in Congo. "There are serious dangers in continuing to allow Congo defy this arrest warrant, its sends a wrong message and could have disastrous effects in other countries," added Sekombo.


Ntaganda is accused of several war crimes and crimes against humanity including: the massacres of 150 people in the town of Kiwanja in 2008 in his duties as military chief of staff of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), torturing and killing of hundreds of civilians of Lendu and Ngiti ethnicity between August 2002 and March 2003 when he was chief of military operations of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), slaughtering of at least 800 civilians on ethnic grounds at Mongbwalu, including the first priest killed in the Ituri conflict, Abbe Boniface Bwanalonga, killing of a Kenyan UN peacekeeper in January 2004 and kidnapping a Moroccan peacekeeper later that year, and recruiting child soldiers in the eastern region of Ituri. The MJPC is strongly urging the Congolese Government and MONUC to execute the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Ntaganda.


According to Mr. Sekombo, the failure in the arrest of Bosco Ntaganda to date highlights the lack of seriousness in enforcing arrest warrants issued by the ICC and strongly urges the ICC to refer the case of Ntaganda to the UN Security Council to find solutions in accordance with Article 87, paragraph 7 of the Treaty of Rome.

The MJPC is calling for Congo to be taken to the Security Council, as it claims Kinshasa is in clear violation of the ICC treaty which Congo ratified in 2002. The ICC cannot afford to ignore its statutory responsibility to report this matter" to the Security Council," he said, adding that the Security Council would have the authority to require Congo to take all necessary corrective measures to enforce all ICC arrest warrants immediately.


An online petition has been set up asking concerned citizens around the world to demand the UN Mission in Congo known as MONUC and the Congolese Government to act decisively to enforce the ICC outstanding arrest warrants against Ntaganda. The petition can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html


Click here http://www.arrestntagandanow.org/may112009.aspx to read a full article on referring Congo to the UN Security Council if it continues to defy the execution of the Arrest Warrant of the ICC Against Ntaganda by Makuba Sekombo

About MJPC
MJPC is a non-profit organization working to add a voice in advocating for justice and peace in the DRC particulary in the east of DRC where thousands innocent civilian including children and women continue to suffer massive human rights violations while armed groups responsible for these crimes go unpunished.

For more information about the MJPC and its activities, visit http://www.mjpcongo.org . or call Makuba Sekembo @ 1 408 806 3644 or e-mail: info@mjpcongo.org . The online petition calling on the Congolese Government and MONUC to act decisively in enforcing the outstanding ICC arrest warrant against Bosco Ntaganda can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home