Meeting the Senate: from left- Marco Perduca, Elisabetta Zamparutti, André Obami Itou (Senate President), Francesco Paolo Venier (Italian Ambassador to Brazaville), Benjamin Boukoulou (First Vice President of the Senate and President of the Italy-Congo Friendship Committee), Gabriel Oba-Apounou (President of the Senate Foreign Commission)

CONGO: HANDS OFF CAIN MISSION – MEETINGS WITH THE CHAMBER AND SENATE FOR ABOLTION OF THE DEATH PENALTY

November 23, 2010: after meeting the Secretary General of the Congo Foreign Affairs ministry Daniel Owassa yesterday, the Hands Off Cain and Non Violent Radical Party delegation (comprising parliamentarians Elisabetta Zamparutti and Marco Perduca and accompanied by the Italian Ambassador in Congo Francesco Paolo Venier) today met with representatives of the Congolese Senate and National Assembly in Brazaville.
President André Obami Itou was at the senate meeting, accompanied by Benjamin Boukoulou (First Vice President of the Senate and President of the Italy-Congo Friendship Committee) and by Gabriel Oba-Apounou (President of the Senate Foreign Commission). “Congo must not stay at the margins of human rights reforms,” Senate President Obami Itou said. “Congo is part of the international process for the protection of human rights. At the internal level, even though there is not currently a debate on capital punishment, there is an evolution which is being formalised with reforms to the codes.” “Congo is ready for this,” the Senate President added, also because “if Congo wants to be a part of the UN Council of Human Rights it cannot stay at the margins of the abolitionist campaign.” Personally, the President also expressed his solidarity with Marco Pannella's non violent initiative against Tarek Aziz's death sentence.
At the meeting with the National Assembly was Pierre Ngolo, First Secretary of the Office of the President, accompanied by Bati Benoît Tsiaki, President of the Italy-Congo Friendship Association and member of the Justice Commission, and by parliamentarian Gaston Ndivili. Pierre Ngolo said "Congo fights to be a democratic country and acknowledges the huge importance human rights play in this. As evidence that this is a priority, a National Commission for human rights was created.” “The abolition of the death penalty is a long process," added Pierre Ngolo. Bati Benoît Tsiaki, a judge, underlined the importance "of jail conditions, but also the necessity of never losing sight of Abel as well as Cain.” He explained that “the Justice Minister is in the process of revising the penal code, and that starting a parliamentary debate that must include the death penalty depends on this.” “Congo doesn't have serious problems of widespread criminality, while the problem of extra judicial executions exists, even if limited." (Sources: HOC, 23/11/2010)