Congo amnesty fuels debate over Kabila killers
02 Dec 2005 18:19:07 GMT

Source: Reuters

By David Lewis

KINSHASA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Supporters of Congo's President Joseph Kabila, whose father was assassinated by his own guards, say a new amnesty law covering crimes committed during the country's war should not apply to the killers.

After years of acrimonious debate, the law, meant to help reconcile the divided nation after a decade of conflict, was passed by parliament this week despite members of Kabila's party boycotting the vote in protest.

According to the draft legislation, crimes and political offences committed in Democratic Republic of Congo between August 1996 and July 2003, but not war crimes or crimes against humanity, are covered by the amnesty.

Rights groups and U.N. officials say the 30 men convicted of the January 2001 assassination of then-president Laurent Kabila should be freed by the law.

Vital Kamerhe, secretary general of the PPRD party that backs Joseph Kabila, disagreed, saying: "The law does not say the killing of a head of state is a political crime."

He added this meant the amnesty would not cover the assassins of the former president.

"If this was a political crime, we want to see the party responsible show the courage to stand up in front of people and claim responsibility for it," he told a news conference packed with hundreds of cheering PPRD supporters.

The law still needs to be promulgated by President Kabila, who came to power after his father's death and heads a divided transitional government that includes political opponents and former rebels from Congo's last five-year war.

Kamerhe cited agreements signed by Kinshasa in the 1960s with neighbouring Congo Republic, Burundi and Rwanda, which said assassinations of the head of state were not political crimes.

The amnesty law is seen as an important step in reconciling a country divided by a war which sucked in six neighbouring states at its height and killed four million people, many of them from hunger and disease caused by the conflict.

But the protest in parliament highlighted the deep-rooted splits between the many rebel movements and opposition groups that make up the government.

"These are very weak arguments that they (PPRD) are using ... This amnesty law clearly includes those who killed Kabila, as the head of state is a political representative," said one official in Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission.

"They are looking for ways to keep these people in prison. They are scared that these people will talk about this case, which we still don't know enough about," the official said.