We don’t have very much info to come with now, because there are no Norwegians in Kisangani, either journalists or people from the Foreign office. But next week the Foreign office is sending a special envoy to have meetings with relevant authorities in Kinshasa. There are about 5 weeks since ambassador Vea got a promise that the boys would be transferred to the capitol city as soon as possible, but it hasn’t happened yet. If this takes time a representative from the Norwegian embassy in Luanda is to pay another visit to Kisangani. Now that we know that Joshua has had malaria again it’s important for them and us to know that they have supervision.
From the British embassy in Kinshasa I have heard that British Foreign Office delivered in the first week of January a “Note Verbale” to Congolese authorities (the Justice department) where they express their concern about the abuse Joshua experienced when he was arrested/imprisoned and about the lack of legal protection during the trials.
We have had some problems with the food supply to the boys. We had to find a different channel, but sent the money through Western Union as before. The Congolese who is delivering food has faithfully done this for a long time now. For different reasons it took some time for the person who collects the money to take it out and give it to the “food man”. Because of this the guys were without food for a couple of days. We struggle a little with practical problems like this, and it’s not always easy to handle these things from Norway.
Kari Hilde French, January 14th 2010
