It’s been almost a month since Foreign Minister Støre met his Congolese colleague during a UN meeting in New York. The Congolese Foreign Minister made another promise that the two death sentenced spies from Norway would be transferred to Kinshasa. Our family took this with a grain of salt. And unfortunately we’ve had good reason to be skeptical. Absolutely nothing has happened and the Foreign Ministry hasn’t had any contact with Congolese authorities after the meeting in New York as far as I know.
The election for a new president on November 28th is getting closer. Ballot urns bought in China has been sent with Hercules planes to the provinces, and in additions to this Joshua and Tjostolv have heard Hercules planes land in Kisangani during the night. It’s not usual to have night landings in Congo. Flying during the day is dangerous enough. They were told it was troops of Tutsi soldiers who are sent to the province. President Kabila is relying on support from the eastern part of Congo in this election, and the Tutsis are important to make that happen. A helicopter landed one night as well. Monusco (UN in Congo) say they have no knowledge of troops arriving in the city recently, but that there is a training center outside Kinshasa who is operational and the participants are replaced regularly. Joshua says that for as long as they’ve been there none of these participants have arrived at night time by plane.
Joshua also says that an inmate tells him about the part of Congo they are at and about folklore. Josh knew that there was a lot of witchcraft in Congo, but was still surprised of how much it really is, which comes out in the stories. There are also some mentally ill prisoners, and lately it’s been really bad with 8 really insane prisoners. They are guarded but also tormented by their inmates who often are afraid of them.
It’s also hot and humid because of the rain season (one month late) and if it rains hard the mattresses get wet as well.
Kari Hilde French, October 21st 2011
