Of course it’s totally unrealistic to pay this. It’s no way the families and the boys can do that. If the boys have to be incarcerated for a while in Norway there is no chance of getting any money then either. Aftenposten quotes me wrong when they write that the widow made 200 dollars a month before. What I said was that one of our acquaintances asked the widow how much her husband made a month before he was killed. The widow said it was around 200 dollars a month. The family has lived on this amount and at least some of the children have gone to school.
On the news tonight they presented an overview over how much this case have coasted Norway. I don’t know if the estimate they gave on how much this case have coasted the state and the Foreign Ministry etc are correct. But one thing that was wrong is that the Foreign Ministry pays for food and medication etc for the boys. This is WRONG.
We in the families has from the first moment (Joshua didn’t even get food and water the first couple of days after his arrest) paid for food, medication etc for the boys. We also pay a Congolese that purchase for them and see to their practical needs. It took us a while to get this arrangement that we’ve had for some months organized. In the beginning it was missionary Bregård who took care of the practical needs. After that there was a period of several months that several Congolese was involved when it came to keeping the boys alive with food etc. But they charged us well, and started to blackmail for money and we had to find another solution. The person we employ have been faithful and receive a steady monthly pay. Tjostolv’s stay at the hospital cost several thousand and was covered by his family. We’ve sent clothes and many other things, even though the Foreign Ministry arranged for some clothes in the beginning.
Even though the boys are not guilty of murdering the driver, we just have to accept to pay compensation to the drivers’ widow and family. What are interesting to find out is what two fenced farmhouses will cost and what kind of business they want to establish and what that will cost. Then we can talk about the real world. The widow is also promised 200 dollars a month for two years from the Dina-Foundation.
Kari Hilde French, September 3rd 2010
