By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – About 39 to 41 military officers have been accused of war crimes. They are now on trial in eastern DR Congo.
Most of the charges relate to the mass rape and other acts of sexual violence against more than 130 women and girls in November 2012 by a retreating army.
The charges also include murder and looting, governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, told AFP. He also said that judges had arrived from Kinshasa, the capital, to reinforce those in Goma, the eastern regional hub where the trial is taking place.
Correspondents say the military trial comes after months of international pressure after 23 soldiers were initially suspended but not charged.
The UN then threatened to stop funding army units suspected of abuses.
A high-ranking police officer said the tribunal’s verdict will be final. “There’s no appeal. They are definitely convicted, or if they are to be freed, they are freed.”
The soldiers at trial are mostly low-ranking officers.
According to a UN report, at least 102 women and 33 girls were victims of rape or other acts of sexual violence by government troops in the market town to the south of Goma.
The UN, in an interview, has explained that many families were and are separated as a result of those experiences. That raped women find themselves isolated and the harmony within the families broken. Entire communities become weakened and divided. This leads to an atmosphere of fear where the rebels become more powerful.
In October of this year, the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO lamented that: “Almost a year after these incidents, none of the presumed perpetrators of these human rights violations has been brought to justice . . . in spite of the Congolese authorities’ commitment to persecute the perpetrators.”
Soldiers, who requested anonymity, admitted to the BBC in April that they had raped women in Minova, but said that they acted under orders from above.
The DR Congo government signed an accord with the UN in April to step up the fight against sexual abuse by armed soldiers and groups, which remains rampant.
The trial opens barely three weeks after the UN-backed Congolese army defeated the M23.
For more information, please visit:
BBC News – DR Congo officers in rape and war crimes trail – 20 November 2013
The Daily Star – Forty-one DR Congo soldiers go on trial for rape – 20 November 2013
allAfrica – Congo-Kinshasa: Q&A – Why ‘Rape Victims Must Talk About Their Trauma’ – 20 November 2013
Modern Ghana – Forty-one DR Congo soldiers go on trial for rape – 20 November 2013
Wopopular – Congo Soldiers Tried For Mass Rape – 20 November 2013
