This morning someone woke me up around 7 am. It was a journalist who wanted my immediate comment to the fact that the Congolese minister of justice opens for a prisoner transfer to Norway. All this talk about atonement transfer is nothing new. So they didn’t get any comment from me.
What is of more relevance to us is if the special envoy from the Foreign Ministry got to ask the Congolese Minister of Justice or any other relevant Congolese authorities if they had applied Monuc (the name of the UN in Congo) if Joshua and Tjostolv can get transported on a UN-flight to Kinshasa.
Monuc can’t just give seats on a plane to the two Norwegians because they can get accused of taking sides in the case (that was also the reason they didn’t provide any psychiatrist or other doctors when Tjostolv was so sick). A request like that must come from the Congolese authorities.
The organisation Reprieve in England that we have written about earlier, sent in November a letter to the British Foreign Ministry trying to get them to contact the Congolese authorities for an immediate investigation of the torture/abuse Joshua experienced in Congo.
Congo has signed and ratified “Convention Against Torture” and is therefore obligated to do relevant inquiries. British authorities have officially taken this up with the Congolese justice department. Congo has apparently three months to respond. It will be exciting to see if we get any answers.
We have asked if the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has done the same. It would be more pressure on the Congolese authorities. The Foreign Ministry has actually had the report that Joshua wrote about human rights violations he experienced for a long time, and they have been told about what the two boys have experienced all the way since the start. We still wait for answers about that.
There is not much to tell about the boys. They live with the hope of being transferred to the capitol city of Kinshasa. They are relatively healthy and Joshua sounds as usual like he is in good spirit.
Kari Hilde French January, 22nd 2010
