A team from the International Criminal Court (ICC) will visit Gabon next week to look into claims of post-election violence last year, the court prosecutor’s office announced Friday, in a move welcomed by rights activists.
The ICC has yet to open a formal inquiry into the claims of violence made by defeated presidential candidate, opposition leader Jean Ping and 15 non-governmental organisations.
But an ICC spokesman said Friday they would make a two-day visit next week, arriving Tuesday to carry out a preliminary investigation.
Ping and the NGOs that filed the complaints have denounced the violence that followed the controversial re-election of President Ali Bongo by a narrow margin in August last year.
“It’s good news for Gabon,” said Georges Mpaga, coordinator for the 15 groups. “The crimes committed must be acknowledged, justice must be done,” he said.
The ICC team will speak to officials in the interior, defence and justice ministries, as well as international organisations active in the capital Libreville.
Foreign Minister Pacome Moubelet-Boubeya also welcomed the visit as “a useful mission at a time when there is a lot of wild talk about the events that followed the election.”
The visit would help clarify matters, he added.
Jean-Gaspard Ntoumtoume Ayi, a spokesman for Ping,said he hoped the ICC would open a formal inquiry after their visit.
Bongo’s re-election, by just a few thousand votes, led Ping to accuse the administration of electoral fraud.
Violence broke out on August 31, four days after the election, and opposition figures say that more than 50 people died in the ensuing clashes.
The official toll was only three dead, and in a speech earlier this year Bongo played down the unrest as a “family quarrel”.
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