NGOs Call for Punishment of Journalist Murderers.

 

Nine Non Governmental organizations defending human rights of FIDH Sahel have called for Punishment of the perpetrators of the murder of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude. The NGOs call for the strict respect for the integrity of journalists, humanitarian and human rights operating theaters of conflict and remember that at least 60 journalists have died in the line of duty in 2013 worldwide.

“The murder of Ghislaine and Claude is a despicable and cowardly act that has deeply shocked and outraged us. Both were friends of the FIDH and all human rights defenders frequently interviewing them, and we often find ourselves, including in the field. We pay tribute to their professionalism, dedication and courage. We must now try and find their killers. We can no longer murder with impunity in Mali, “said Karim Lahidji, FIDH President.

Saturday, November 2 at 13:30, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, two journalists from Radio France Internationale (RFI) were kidnapped in the town of Kidal in northern Mali by several armed men and taken 12 km east of the city , on the road to Tin-Essako, before being executed by bullets. They left the house Ambery Ag Ghissa, an official of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) that Gihslaine Dupont and Claude Verlon had just interviewed. According to his statements and those of the driver of the vehicle, several armed men speaking Tamachek (the Tuareg language) took parties to the two French journalists at the threshold of his house and forced them to follow. Their lifeless bodies were found about an hour later by a patrol of the French army of the operation part Serval looking for them after being informed of their removal.

He said that those responsible for this double murder must be found and brought to justice for the impunity that has marked the Mali in recent years, not to be rededicated. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened on November 2, 2013 for an investigation of the facts of kidnapping followed by murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. The investigation, under the authority of the Paris prosecutor, was assigned to the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI) and the sub-division counter (SDAT). Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Malian government, Mahamane Baby, announced Sunday, Nov. 3 opening of a judicial investigation in Mali.

While at least 60 journalists have been killed worldwide in 2013, the murder of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon remembers the most painful ways that strict adherence to journalistic integrity as humanitarian personnel and human rights is more than ever a fight. Our organizations call upon the States of their responsibility to protect journalists, armed belligerents and all conflicts to respect the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law groups, but also the integrity of the work and the neutrality of journalists and others non-combatants in the theater of conflict.

By News from Africa