As we can see in the media the grip is tightening in Kisangani. The judges are threatening diplomats and lawyer into silence. It looks like this appeal with the following sentence is going to be moved along at express speed. Joshua gave his statement in court today. Wawara is apparently out of the picture now. It will be exciting to see what will happen when Rune Edvardsen and Mathilde Moland and a Norwegian doctor arrives in Kisangani tomorrow. Rune Edvardsen organized permits from the central authorities to visit Tjostolv and Joshua in the prison. Let’s hope that the local authorities don’t make any problems.
Furuholmen had a meeting with the Foreign Ministry today. He has requested to them strongly that foreign minister Gahr Støre himself must go to Congo. A diplomat from the Foreign Ministry is in Kinshasa at the moment, and he has had conversations with the minister of justice and the foreign minister there. This diplomat has a good dialog with the British authorities in the capitol city. The Foreign Ministry has also got some information from Furuholmen and they also have other important information so if anything tragic should happen, they cannot say “we didn’t know this”.
From Joshua we’ve heard that Tjostolv doesn’t remember much. He doesn’t remember that he supposedly wrote a letter where he confesses to a murder. He remembers telling that he is sorry that the driver was killed, but not knowing who did it. Joshua is through the next days going to tell Tjostolv what he has said and done over the last couple of weeks. This shows how little he actually remembers. As I wrote yesterday, Tjostolv has the best cell in the prison. He slept both in his cell and outside the cell last night. The inmates understand (unlike the judge who pretends not to understand) that Tjostolv is sick. They take care of him, and give him the freedom to come and go in his cell as he wants. Normally the prisoners get locked up in their cells at 4pm by “chief prisoners”. Tjostolv got stuck in his arms with so many needles at the hospital that the hospital staff had to start giving him injections in the legs. According to Joshua it doesn’t matter if Tjostolv talked about the war lord that VG writes in big words. Tjostolv has said so many strange things that a little more don’t make a difference anymore.
I don’t understand why VG is so critical to lawyer Furuholmen. According to journalist Yngve Kvistad in VG today, apparently Furuholmen is the one who risked the guys’ judicial safety. This is just nonsense. You just have to look at everything that’s happened before, including the first trial. Maybe VG feels a bit sore because Furuholmen spared the boys a little from them? And VG has also been at the hospital with chief investigator Wawara. One can wonder how much that had to cost VG. We’ve had many problems with VG. They have been way over the line at times. We are very grateful for the work Furuholmen does for the boys. Kvistad writes that “there is a clinical fact that the situation has been worse for Tjostolv and Joshua after the smug lawyer took over the case”. No, this is not correct. The situation has gotten worse because Tjostolv from different reasons became very sick. The diagnosis is probably some kind of psychosis. Before this he was close to dying of severe malaria falsiparum. With malaria falsiparum the malaria parasites can go to the brain. The huge media attention can also be the reason it snapped for Tjostolv. Here the press included VG has to take their share of the responsibility. Maybe VG has been in Kisangani for so long that they, as others, need to find a scapegoat, however innocent?
When I read VG’s interview with Bøås today it almost seems that he doesn’t understand that Tjostolv says many strange things because of his illness, and not as real facts. Maybe I’ve misunderstood.
Kari Hilde, November 12th 2009
