French probe angers Nguesso
2007-01-11 08:29
Brazzaville - Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso on Wednesday accused France of interfering in his country's affairs after France's highest court decided to revive an investigation into the presumed massacre of more than 350 civilians.
An angry Sassou Nguesso described the decision by France's Cour de Cassation as "provocation" and said Congo would never accept another country "interfering in our affairs."
He said: "A month-long trial has already been held in our country. Senior officers from our country appeared before the court. This is a provocation."
France's Cour de Cassation earlier overturned a 2004 decision by a lower court to quash the investigation, in which Congo's police chief Jean-Francois Ndengue faced charges of crimes against humanity.
The French probe was being revived after the acquittal of 15 accused, all of them top-ranking military and police officials, in a 2005 trial in Brazzaville dismissed by rights groups as a farce.
Scores of Congolese, returning from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where they had fled to escape civil war, were arrested in May 1999 at the Congo river port of Brazzaville Beach on suspicion of backing an anti-government militia.
According to rights groups and relatives of the missing, 353 people "disappeared", having apparently been tortured and executed by Sassou Nguesso's authorities.
France opened an inquiry in 2002, after legal action by families of the victims, made possible because one of the accused, General Norbert Dabira, was resident in France.