Paris (France) Dozens of DR Congolese women living in France on Thursday, appealed to the French president to help support the setting up of a special International Criminal Court (ICC) to judge those accused of war crimes and sexual abuses committed in the country over the last decade.

These Congolese ladies under the umbrella of the Alliance of Patriots for the Reform of DR Congo (APARECO) justified their call by the fact that the French President considers human rights as core of the cooperation between his country and the African continent.

” We call on France�s support because, as a country sitting at the United Nations Security Council, we think that it can use its power to help set up a special International Criminal Court for DR Congo”, APARECO�s Public Relations Officer Candide OKEKE told a press conference Thursday in Paris.

“Our appeal is a feedback to your various messages on the kind of relationships you wish to establish between France and Africa”, they said alluding to Nicolas Sarkozy, and reminded him of his commitment to protect human rights everywhere.

They said the court should be tailored after the one trying the genocide case in Rwanda, and war criminals of former erstwhile Yugoslavia.

Published by Korir, API/APN africanpress@chello.no source.apa

London (United Kingdom) Authorities in London on Thursday summoned Sudanese ambassador Omer Mohammed Ahmed Siddig to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as diplomatic pressure mounted on Britain and Sudan over the British teacher charged with blasphemy for allowing her school pupils to name a teddy bear �Mohammed�.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown got personally involved in the affair of the 54-year-old teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who appeared in a Khartoum court on Thursday under threat of punishment under sharia law, which would include 40 lashes, a prison sentence and a fine if convicted.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the Sudanese envoy that the UK �wants to make clear to the Sudanese authorities that Ms Gibbons has not shown any lack of respect for Islam.\”

Gibbons is charged with insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs.

London said it was “unfortunate that despite all the diplomatic interventions and other proceedings, Gibbons was still taken to the Sudanese court where conservative leaders have to decide her fate.”

Authorities and Gibbons� family have expressed fears the teddy bear row might snowball into an international clash-of-civilizations crisis similar to the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet of Islam.

Miliband firmly declared: “We hope common sense would prevail on Khartoum and its hard-line leader President Omar Bashir”.

While Britain intensifies pressure on Khartoum, UK officials alleged that Sudan�s top clerics are calling for the full measure of the law to be used against Gibbons “because her actions were part of a Western plot against Islam”.

\”We are worried because even some sections of Sudanese academia insisted that Gibbons had been wrong to name the bear Mohammed because the animal does not exist in Sudanese folklore; �if you call someone a bear they will be angry.�”

Miliband said the issue has to be resolved on time to avoid an explosive diplomatic row and escalation among “angry Sudanese who are threatening large street protests after Friday prayers to call for the Briton to be lashed in public or even hanged.\”

\”We want to see her freed as soon as possible. This is a human story, no malice is involved. Her security and welfare are absolutely at the forefront of our concerns…this is not a political dispute.\”

The Liverpool-born Gibbons, a mother of two, taught at an elite British-run Unity School in Khartoum until the outbreak of the teddy bear row.

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By Lassima Serme�

Korhogo (Cote d�Ivoire) The disarming process of the former Ivorian rebels and the militia dismantlement will resume “at the latest” on 22 December, as recommended by the new Ouagadougou complementary accord released Thursday in Korhogo by the delegation led by the Foreign and Cooperation Minister Djibril Bassol�, APA learnt here in northern Cote d�Ivoire.

“The former rebels� reassembling and the storage of weapons are expected to start at the latest on 22 December”, the new accord signed by the Ivorian head of state, Laurent Gbagbo, and his Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, also New Forces� former leader, said.

The new accord read by the Executive Assistant to the Ivorian Foreign and Cooperation Minister, Zakaria Zakan�, underscored that “the operations will be conducted by the Integrated Command Centre (CCI) under the supervision of neutral forces, such as the United Nations peacekeeping forces and the French Licorne Forces”.

According to the complementary accord�s signatories, the country�s presidential polls could be held “at the latest” in mid-2008.

According to the Burkinabe authorities, the choice of the French company Sagem as technical operator to provide a design for the country�s identification cards was also confirmed.

Both Gbagbo and Soro on Tuesday jetted off to Ouagadougou not only to discuss the new time table relating to the implementation of the 4 March Ouagadougou accord, but also to confirm the choice of the French technical operator SAGEM to provide national identification cards and voters� cards to the Ivorian population.

Published by API/APN africanpress@chello.no source.apa