On the front page: the Congolese Catholic Church in the front line

 

Three days after the violence on December 31 in Kinshasa and other cities in the DRC, Cardinal Monsengwo, head of the Catholic Church in the country, raised the tone yesterday.

"We can only denounce, condemn and stigmatize the actions of our so-called valiant men in uniforms, which sadly and barbarously translate," said the cardinal, before continuing: "How will we trust people? leaders unable to protect the population, to guarantee peace, justice, the love of the people. It is time that the truth prevails over the systemic lie, that the mediocre emerge and that reign peace, the justice in DRC ".

News reported by Cas-Info, one of the few Congolese news sites available on the internet. Cas-Info which underlines that Bishop Monsengwo is "the most listened voice of the country since the disappearance of the opponent Étienne Tshisekedi. "

Asked by Le Monde Africa, the historian Isidore Ndaywel, member of the Coordination Committee, organizer of the event last Sunday, is convinced: "This is just a start, he says, because we do not will not let it go. The people understood that they had to take their destiny into their own hands, not just speeches. There was an awareness. The mobilization of Catholics, notes Le Monde Afrique, recalls the "Christian march" of 16 February 1992, which called for the democratization of Zaire. "The regime of President Mobutu then repressed it in blood. "

The main church against-power ...

Ledjely in Guinea welcomes the involvement of the Catholic Church.

"Nature being horrified by the void, it was expected that another counter-power would emerge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to supplant the inefficiency if not the resignation of the opposition. However, it was far from thinking that this new hope would come from the religious institution, very fond of its classic neutrality. Although in this country, the prelates are accustomed not to oppose indifference to the suffering of the population. Even if, after the flop of the New Year's Eve agreement they had wrested from the forceps, Monseigneur Monsengwo and the others, rather scared of being instrumentalised by Joseph Kabila and his family, were suspicious in recent months. But with the repression of which the faithful were the object last Sunday and the desecration of some places of worship by the forces of the order, the Church leaves of its reserve. And with it, concludes Ledjely, there is renewed hope against the monster that is Congolese power. "

Joint survey?

For their part, the authorities of Kinshasa are trying to play appeasement. Thus, reports the Congolese News website.CD, "Marie-Ange Mushobekwa, Minister of Human Rights, who yesterday exchanged behind closed doors with human rights NGOs, says he is ready to investigate with his collaborators on the violence of 31 December. "

One of those who met the minister yesterday, continues Actualité.CD, "Georges Kapiamba, president of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice, said he holds evidence of human rights violations committed by the security forces during the march organized by the Lay Committee on Coordination of the Catholic Church. "We are willing to investigate, he says, with the Ministry of Human Rights, and we told the minister that the investigation should be independent," said George Kapiamba. "

And the army?

In any case, for a large part of the West African press, President Kabila now has his back to the wall ... This is what affirms The Country in Burkina Faso, usual slayer of the Congolese president: "What is going to happen? it will happen now that Joseph Kabila was able to achieve unanimity against him, out of his torpor calculated the Catholic Church ?, questions the daily ouagalais (...) Will he find an exit window facing a people who are tired of being the scapegoat of defense forces in the pay of a power-hungry president? The big equation, in this chaotic socio-political climate, remains the army, says Le Pays, which continues to support a regime that no longer has any respect for human life. (...) Now is the time, urges the Burkinabe daily, that the military take their responsibility to protect the sheep against the impostor wolf. "

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Mouscron-Tourcoing: and another car on fire rue E. Anseele!

 

This Friday, shortly before 2 pm, the Mouscron firefighters were called for a car fire. Where ? At the end of the street Edouard Anseele, pardi! Arrived without doors and hood, the car was obviously set on fire voluntarily French side, just in front of the huge stones materializing the border. One more vehicle fire in this corner where the residents really start to be exhausted!

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Arctic oil: NGOs lose emblematic lawsuit against Norway

 

The Norwegian court dismissed Thursday Greenpeace and two other NGOs opposed to Norway's granting of oil licenses in the Arctic, an emblematic case showing that the fight against global warming is being played out more and more in the courtrooms.


In a judgment still subject to appeal, the Oslo court ruled that the Norwegian state did not violate the Constitution by granting in May 2016 concessions in the Barents Sea to 13 oil companies, among them the national champion Statoil, the Americans Chevron and ConocoPhillips, and the Russian Lukoil.

In conjunction with the Nature and Youth and Grandparents for Climate Campaigns, Greenpeace has assigned Norway for the first time by invoking a recent constitutional provision that guarantees the right of all to a healthy environment.

The plaintiffs also argued that new oil activities in the fragile Arctic would defeat the Oslo Accord of 2016, which aims to limit global warming to less than 2 ° C. climate.

While recognizing that paragraph 112 of the Constitution provided new rights to the individual, the Oslo court concluded that this did not apply to the granting of oil licenses.

In particular, the judge ruled that Norway, the largest producer of oil and natural gas in Western Europe, could not be held responsible for the carbon dioxide emissions generated by its hydrocarbon exports to other countries.

The plaintiffs will also have to pay 580,000 crowns (more than 59,000 euros) of court costs of the state.

"We are pleased that the court has given a clear content to the paragraph on the environment (...) that can be used to halt harmful political decisions," said Greenpeace Norway leader Truls Gulowsen.

"At the same time, we are very disappointed that it has created a legal vacuum by claiming that emissions from Norwegian oil abroad are not covered by this provision of the Constitution," he said. AFP.

The oil industry satisfied
An NGO victory would have had serious economic repercussions for the kingdom, which owes its wealth to oil. This allowed him to raise a sovereign fund of over $ 1 trillion, the largest in the world.

In the face of the decline in oil production, halved since 2000, Norway now has the Far North: according to official estimates, the Barents Sea holds about 65% of the remaining resources to be discovered off the coast of the country.

At the trial in November, the State - 67% shareholder of Statoil - said that the granting of exploration licenses had been in accordance with the law. His lawyer, Attorney General Fredrik Sejersted, also denounced a "show" of NGOs.

"The oil policy of Norway is the business of Parliament, not the judicial system," said Thursday Tommy Hansen, spokesman for the organization representing the oil sector.

"And this is a unanimous Parliament, less a vote that has adopted the 23rd cycle of oil concessions, so it has a solid political and democratic majority," he told AFP.

The horizon of the oil industry in the Norwegian Far North is not clear: the last prospecting campaigns have been disappointing and the exploitation costs of any discoveries are expected to be high, which has diverted several majors of the region.

The case illustrates in any case the growing judiciarisation of the fight against global warming.

The London-based Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change has indexed more than 260 climate-related cases in 25 jurisdictions, most of them for less than a decade. This figure excludes the United States, where the number of disputes of this kind is greater than 700.

Judicial battles sometimes successful.

The Netherlands was condemned in 2015 to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020, a decision that was appealed.

In November, the German court also agreed to consider the request of a Peruvian peasant who wants to force the energy giant RWE to repair the effects of climate change in the Andes.

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Moldova: President Igor Dodon suspended from office

Moldova is a former Soviet republic that lies on the geopolitical divide between Europe and Russia. This is why it is often the scene of political crises. Like the one that just burst after the Constitutional Court decided to suspend the president, Igor Dodon, who is an assumed Prorusse.

Régis Genté, you are one of our correspondents in the former USSR. Why this crisis?

This is in fact yet another showdown between the pro-Russian and pro-Western fringes of the country. Knowing that opinion is divided into two relatively equal parts, between pro-Europeans and pro-Europeans. It turns out that Igor Dodon, very Prorusse, and who was elected president in 2016, opposes the appointment of seven ministers proposed by the Prime Minister Pavel Filip, a pro-European that one.
The head of state, which has little power in the Moldovan parliamentary regime, can indeed oppose these appointments, but only once. But as he does not want to give in, the Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday, January 2, to suspend its powers ... temporarily, the time to appoint ministers.

Is it just an opposition between pro-Russian and pro-Europeans?

Basically, yes. Even though there is another dimension behind it. Mr. Dodon invokes, in a very unsupported way, the fact that some of these prospective ministers are involved in a huge banking scandal dating back to 2012-2014, a billion-dollar money laundering case from Russia, a dimension that the Prorusse Dodon tends to erase. But basically, in the internal political game of this country of 3 million and a half inhabitants, Mr. Dodon attacks the omnipotence of Vladimir Plahotniuc, an oligarch who really controls the country.
Be it the government, the judiciary or the Central Bank. And the prime minister is his man.

Who is Mr. Dodon, then?

It is the boss of a socialist party, which has the name at least, and has discovered a propensity Prorussian quite recently, after having been the supporter or even the actor of rapprochement with Europe. Today, he acts as a pawn of Russia. For example, it has recently signed, on its own, a memorandum of cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union, the great geopolitical project of Mr Putin. It also displays conservatism and proximity to the Orthodox Church, such as the Kremlin.

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