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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: UN rights commissioner calls for implementation of power-sharing deal

KINSHASA, 14 January 2003 (IRIN) - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello has appealed for the speedy implementation of the power-sharing accord signed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on 17 December 2002.

"My principal concern on this voyage is the putting into place of the accord," he told IRIN in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, on Tuesday.

Since his arrival on Sunday, De Mello has met DRC President Joseph Kabila, the head of the UN Mission in the DRC, armed forces representatives, human rights activists, students and politicians.

"It is up to the Congolese people to involve themselves in the implementation of the accord," he said. "You, the people, also have the responsibility of putting pressure on the politicians to put it into place."

Commenting on the sentencing to death of 30 people by a military court on 7 January for their involvement in the assassination of former President Laurent-Desire Kabila, he said: "I told the president that due to the irregularities that blemished the legal proceedings, there should be a retrial."

De Mello added that the amnesty necessary for reconciliation in the country would not mean that impunity would be extended to those who had committed war crimes.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Governance

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