MONUC Press Review - 2 December 2005

Various subjects are featured in newspapers appearing in Kinshasa this Friday, 2 December 2005

Passed on Tuesday by the National Assembly, in the absence of members of the presidential party, PPRD, "the amnesty law [has now been] transmitted to the Supreme Court," L'Avenir reports. Before even "this law was transmitted to the Head of State, it was handed to the Justice Minister who immediately sent it to the Supreme Court," L'Avenir explains. It is up to "the Supreme Court [to] decide [whether or not the law is constitutional, now that] the MPs have expressed their partisan views," according to L'Avenir.

For his part, Information Minister Henri Mova Sakani, also spokesman for the Transitional Government, has already indicated that there will be no "amnesty for Eddy Kapend, Yav, Leta..." and others convicted of for the killing of former President Laurent Désiré Kabila, Le Palmarès recalls. However, his view is contested by "leading members of the RCD and MLC who have a different outlook on the amnesty issue (...) (..). The Head of State has no choice but to promulgate the ad hoc law so Eddy Kapend and his co-detainees can regain freedom," according to Le Palmarès. "The days to come could see a difficult co-existence of the now mutually opposed two groups within the National Assembly," fears Le Palmarès, predicting possible "stormy weather for the transition."

Whatever happens, "this is no time [for the Congolese] to back away from the commitments [they] made," suggests L'Observateur, citing the Belgian Minister of Defence, André Flahaut. But it is equally true that Congolese "soldiers must be well fed or else the training [that they are receiving] will be useless," Le Phare warns. It is desirable for "the DRC to give the European Union green light to get involved in the payment process for soldiers," adds Le Phare, quoting Mr Flahaut.

Looking to next year's legislative elections, Le Potentiel announces that "protests [are already] perceptible", over the distribution of parliamentary seats. These protests arise from "the determination by the CEI [Independent Electoral Commission] of the number of seats according to the number of registered voters. Whereas these readjustments contradict the [earlier] population projections by the Interior Ministry, [which were] based on overall demographic data for every entity," Le Potentiel explains.