Congo says French court ruling could damage ties
Source: Reuters
By Christian Tsoumou BRAZZAVILLE, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Congo Republic said on Thursday a French court decision to reopen an investigation into an alleged massacre in the African country was a "grave affront to its sovereignty" and could seriously harm cooperation ties. France's highest court ordered on Wednesday the reopening of a probe into whether Congolese officials were involved in torturing and killing hundreds of refugees from civil war who vanished in 1999 after returning to the capital Brazzaville. "The interference of the French judiciary ... could cause, if it is not checked, a serious deterioration in cooperation relations between France and Congo," the government said in a statement read by Communication Minister Alain Akouala. It branded the court decision as a "grave affront to the sovereignty of our state". "Congo is a sovereign state which will not accept its sovereignty being questioned," Akouala told reporters. "Nobody should be judged twice for the same deeds." Earlier Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who currently holds the revolving chair of the African Union, denounced the court decision as "provocation" and said he would accept no foreign interference. "Believe you me, we will never allow an institution of another country to interfere in the affairs of our country," Sassou Nguesso told reporters at Brazzaville's airport late on Wednesday after returning from a foreign trip. He said the affair had already been fully dealt with by Congo's justice system. It is the second time in weeks a French court decision has strained France's ties with an African government. Rwanda severed diplomatic ties with Paris in November after a French judge said its president, Paul Kagame, should be tried for his role in the 1994 plance crash that killed President Juvenal Habyarimana and is widely seen as a trigger for the country's genocide. OFFICIALS ACQUITTED A Congolese tribunal in 2005 acquitted 15 suspects, including several army generals, of charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and other offences relating to the incident. But the Congolese tribunal did recognise that people had disappeared, and awarded compensation of 10 million CFA francs ($19,730) to the family of each of around 100 identified victims. "For us this is a closed affair. We are just watching and listening so we know where this provocation comes from, and it will deserve a response on our part," Sassou Nguesso said. Human rights campaigners accuse soldiers loyal to Sassou Nguesso of torturing and killing more than 350 young male refugees shortly after they returned home from the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the other bank of the Congo river. A court in the French town of Meaux, where former Congo police chief Jean-Francois Ndengue owned a house, launched an investigation after human rights groups filed a complaint in 2001 against the president and other officials. Ndengue was placed under formal investigation in France, but returned to Congo when a French appeals court halted the investigation and ordered Ndengue's release in 2004. However, France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, quashed the appeals court ruling on Wednesday, opening the way for the French investigation to resume. (Additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Paris)
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