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00:00 The announcement is still causing a stir in Kinshasa.
00:03 The government lifted a long-standing moratorium on the death penalty, according to a ministerial
00:08 memo dated March 14.
00:10 Congress authorities say they want to rid the army of traitors, as the east of the country
00:14 is in the grips of a rebellion by the M23 group, which is backed by Rwanda.
00:19 "I am for the death penalty.
00:22 Why?
00:23 Because the country is being betrayed at the highest level."
00:25 "Human dignity is sacred.
00:28 Mr. Tshisegedi simply wants to lead us into dictatorship."
00:33 Human rights organizations have denounced the lifting of the moratorium and called for
00:37 it to be cancelled.
00:38 The Catholic Church is also up in arms against the idea of executions.
00:42 For Cardinal Fridola Mbongo, the death penalty is incompatible with fundamental law and the
00:47 sacred principle of life, but it's also dangerous to apply in Congo, he says.
00:52 "We have heard the head of state himself say that justice in the Congo is ill.
01:04 Applying the death penalty means putting this instrument in the hands of an ill justice
01:08 system.
01:09 And an ill justice system, how is it going to objectively and calmly apply a decision
01:15 as serious as taking the life of a human being?"
01:20 Mbongo placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2003, but the courts continued to hand
01:25 down death sentences, which were then commuted to life imprisonment.
01:29 The ruling political coalition points out that the death penalty was never abolished
01:33 and exists in Congolese law to punish the worst crimes.
01:37 "The country, in its sovereignty, has the right to take measures that it considers important
01:43 in a context such as this, to try to dissuade those who attempt to betray, believing that
01:49 tomorrow they will be forgiven, they will return to business."
01:54 In the city of Goma, in the east of the country, 11 soldiers are currently facing the death
01:58 penalty.
01:59 Congo's public prosecutor has accused them of fleeing the front.
02:02 If the sentence is handed down, Congo could carry out its first executions in more than
02:07 20 years.