France Asks for Lifting of Zaire Envoy’s Immunity After Fatal Car Accident
PARIS — France on Monday asked Zaire to lift the diplomatic immunity of its ambassador so that authorities might bring charges against him in the deaths of two boys killed when he hit them with a car he was driving.
Public outrage in the small Riviera town where the boys lived led French officials to take the step against Ambassador Ramazani Baya, who remains in Paris.
“We ask Zaire to lift the immunity of its ambassador so that he can, as he himself has proposed, present himself before the French justice system,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yves Doutriaux said Monday.
Zaire recalled the diplomat Sunday at France’s request, but the boys’ families demanded harsher action. More than 5,000 people held a silent march Saturday in the town of Menton to mourn the 13-year-old boys and demand that Ramazani be punished.
Witnesses said the envoy hit the two boys while speeding through Menton in a rental car Nov. 23 en route to a meeting with Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko.
A blood-alcohol test indicated Ramazani was not intoxicated.
Mobutu, who is recuperating from cancer surgery at his Riviera villa, was to meet with Menton’s mayor today, a Mobutu aide said.
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