GUINEA BRINGS CASE AGAINST DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO TO INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Press Release
ICJ/561
GUINEA BRINGS CASE AGAINST DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO TO INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
19981230 THE HAGUE, 30 December (ICJ) -- The Republic of Guinea has brought a case against the Democratic Republic of Congo to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).In a unilateral Application entitled "Application with a view to diplomatic protection" and received at the Registry on 28 December, Guinea requested the Court to "condemn the Democratic Republic of Congo for the grave breaches of international law perpetrated upon the person of a Guinean national", Ahmadou Sadio Diallo.
According to Guinea, Ahmadou Sadio Diallo, a businessman who had been a resident of the Democratic Republic of Congo for 32 years, was "unlawfully imprisoned by the authorities of the State" during two-and-a-half months, "divested from his important investments, companies, bank accounts, movable and immovable properties, then expelled" on 2 February 1996 as a result of his attempts to recover sums owed to him by the Democratic Republic of Congo (especially by Gécamines, a State enterprise with a monopoly with regard to mining) and by oil companies operating in that country (Zaire Shell, Zaire Mobil and Zaire Fina) by virtue of contracts concluded with businesses owned by him, Africom-Zaire and Africontainers-Zaire.
Failing an amicable agreement on the dispute, Guinea decided to resort to the International Court of Justice.
As a basis of the court's jurisdiction, Guinea invoked the declarations by which it and the Democratic Republic of Congo accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court.
Guinea deposited such a declaration on 11 November with the Secretary- General of the United Nations; the Democratic Republic of Congo (the former Zaire) on 8 February 1989.
The full text of the Application of the Republic of Guinea will soon be available on the Court's website at the following address: http://www.icj- cij.org
For further information, contact Arthur Witteveen, Secretary of the Court (telephone: 31-70-302-2336) or Laurence Blairon, Information Officer (telephone: 31-70-302-2337). The e-mail address of the Information Office is: information@icj-cij.org
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