In the Central African Republic, civil society actors protested on Wednesday October 23 against a bill relating to “foreign agents”. This text, which will be voted on Friday in the Assembly, wants to force any natural or legal person receiving support from outside the country to appear on a public list and to be under reinforced surveillance, prohibiting certain of their activities.
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For these civil society actors, the adoption of this law inspired by the Russian model will put an end to the existence of democracy in the Central African Republic, just as it made it possible to close independent associations and media in Russia.
This is the position expressed yesterday, Wednesday, during a press conference in Bangui.
“ What led us to reject this law is that this law is a copy and paste of Russian law voted in 2012; the Russians, having a certain influence over our authorities, are trying to impose the same behavior on all associations in the Central African Republic,” explains to us Me Bruno Hyacinthe Gbiegba, one of the members of this civil society collective at the microphone of our correspondent, Rolf Steve Domia-leu.
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“When we ask anyone to declare funding received from outside, there is no problem. But when we now ask this association which receives external funding to constantly report to the State, but it is not the State which gave you the funding but requires you to make a report… This means that every time you receive funding from outside, you are automatically considered as spies. This is why we found this bill concerning foreign agents dangerous. And it is a law that is harmful. It is a law that is liberticidal and it is a law that is anti-democratic. »