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DRC: Parliament adopts APIC; Bemba attempts to remove the President of the Parliament

08 Mar 2006

Please find below unofficial translations of relevant excerpts from several
Francophone articles related to the development of the ICC investigation of the
situation in DRC.

(1) The first article, from Le Potentiel, explains among other things, that the
Parliament adopted eleven laws on the ratification of international treaties,
including the APIC of the ICC: "Eleven laws on the ratification of international
treaties have been considered and adopted by more than 300 deputies during the
plenary session of Monday March 6. [.] Those laws were the law authorizing the
ratification by the Democratic Republic of Congo of the international treaty on
curbing the financing of terrorism, [.] and the law authorizing the adherence of
the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Agreement on the privileges and
immunities of the International Criminal Court."

The full text of the article, "Plenary Session of the Parliament - «The case
Olivier Kamitatu -MLC»: the suspense continues" from Le Potentiel (Kinshasa), is
available in French at http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200603070528.

(2) The other two articles, from La Libre (Belgium) and Le Journal Chrétien,
refer to the latest attempt by the Congolese Vice-President, Jean-Pierre Bemba,
to have the current President of the National Assembly, Olivier Kamitatu,
replaced, explaining respectively:

"[.] Despite the voluntary absence of many deputies, there was a quorum in order
to proceed to the last votes, including the ones on the International Criminal
Court, which M. Bemba, suspected of being responsible for the alleged crimes
against humanity in the western region, fears so much.[.]"

The full text of the article "Tension before the publication of an electoral
agenda" from La Libre is available in French at
http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id=10&subid=83&art_id=273005.

"[.] There could be one reason to M. Bemba's sudden hurry. The remaining work
for the deputies is the ratification of three international treaties. No big
deal, isn't it? It is: one of them supposes the recognition of the International
Criminal Court (ICC)... which started its investigation on alleged crimes
against humanity since 2002 in DRC, including alleged cannibalism against
Pygmies by troops reportedly led by Jean-Pierre Bemba in the western region.
Yet, we already know that M. Bemba is very frightened by this idea. [.] "

The full text of the article, "Strong blow by Bemba at the Parliament" from Le
Journal Chrétien, is available in French at
http://www.spcm.org/Journal/article.php3?id_article=1189.

Please note these are an unofficial translations provided by the CICC as a
service to our members, and should not be used for quoting in any official
documents.

Please take note of the Coalition's policy on situations before the ICC (below),
which explicitly states that the CICC will not take a position on potential or
pending situations before the Court. The Coalition, however, will continue to
provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Regards,
Linda Gueye
French Information Services Coordinator
Coalition for the ICC

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