DR Congo victims face long road to justice

DR Congo victims face long road to justice

By Otto Bakano (AFP) – 5 hours ago

NAIROBI — Rights groups on Saturday welcomed a UN report on crimes committed in Democratic Republic of Congo as a first step towards accountability but said the potential for victims to win justice remained slim.

The 560-page name-and-shame exercise published by the UN on Friday highlighted an "inventory" of crimes committed by the forces of at least seven African countries between 1993 and 2003 in DR Congo.

"Something has to be done about it (the report's findings). "I don't think it's going to be easy," said Suliman Baldo, the Africa director at the International Centre for Transitional Justice.

"I don't think something serious will happen without sustained and targeted campaigning by civil society and media," Baldo told AFP. "There is a real danger that nothing does get done."

Rwanda, which has been particularly hit by the genocide-related charges, led a chorus of regional protests against the report which it said was dominated by the "desire to validate the double genocide theory."

Kigali, however, stepped back on a earlier threat to withdraw its 3,500 peacekeepers from UN missions in Sudan but maintained Friday the option was open if its troops were to be tried for genocide crimes.

Uganda -- which the report accused of massacre and torture of civilians -- warned it could review the presence of its 4,300 troops in Somalia as part of an African Union contingent.

Burundi, which has also deployed troops to Somalia, said the document aimed to destabilise the region, while Angola termed the allegations against its forces as "slanderous, insulting and provocative."

DR Congo expressed shock at the level of crimes detailed in the report and demanded justice for its citizens.

"The victims deserve justice and they deserve that their voices are heard by my government and by the international community," said Ileka Atoki, Kinshasa's ambassador to the UN.

However, Human Rights Watch pointed to difficulties in trying to prosecute suspects of the DR Congo conflict, as some perpetrators may be individuals who held or still hold top military positions.

It would also be problematic to impute culpability to those who ordered the commission of the crimes without being directly involved, noted the New York-based watchdog in a report.

"There has never been justice. Time and time again those perpetrating these crimes have got away with them," said Carina Tertsakian, the Human Rights Watch researcher for Rwanda.

"Obviously it is a challenge that the governments of Rwanda and Uganda are reacting so forcefully. We need to go beyond these diplomatic games that these governments are playing," she added.

Tertsakian suggested a hybrid court comprising the Congolese justice system backed by international lawyers, or the implicated governments try suspects of those crimes.

"There is not likely much appetite, either on the part of the DRC government or the international community for establishing a full-fledged international tribunal for the Congo," Human Rights Watch said.

Marceau Sivieude, the Africa director at the International Federation for Human Rights also voiced doubt over the creation of an international tribunal for the DR Congo unrest which has claimed more than five million lives since 1998 according to the International Rescue Committee.

Sivieude argued the UN has been "scalded by previous experiences, notably because of cost and the few cases handled" by such international courts.

While accusations that the UN failed to intervene to halt Rwanda's 1994 genocide also gives impetus to criticism of the world body's probe into the crimes in the central Africa region.

A senior official in Uganda's foreign ministry said Friday the UN report was an endeavour by to "rewrite the history of the Rwandan genocide by some who feel guilty about the roles they played."