In the Democratic Republic of Congo, civilian movements organized marches in all of the country’s major cities to demand justice for the crimes documented in the Mapping report.
Ten years after the publication of this report, recommendations have remained dead letters, and crimes remain unpunished. About 5,000 people demonstrated this Thursday, October 1, in Bukavu, South Kivu Province, to demand the creation of a special court for the DRC.
Whistles in the mouth, vuvuzelas, streamers and even torches in hand, almost all social strata in South Kivu were in place Munzihirwa in Nyawera to demand justice. It was in this place that the Archbishop of Bukavu, Christophe Munzihirwa, was assassinated in October 1996, when the AFDL arrived, former President Laurent Désiré Kabila, backed by neighboring countries in the ‘East.
Idesbald Byabuze is one of the protesters. For him, enough is enough: “There was not a genocide, but genocide in our country. All Congolese families have been affected in some way by an economic crime, war crime or crime against humanity. This is an opportunity for all Congolese to understand that the moment has come to say no to impunity and we have decided! ”
Denis Mukwege absent
The protesters handed over two memoranda to the government of South Kivu, one of which asked the UN Secretary-General to be involved in the publication of the indexed names. of the Mapping report, and the other calls on President Félix Tshisekedi to make the DRC a state governed by the rule of law.
Sifa Noella is a survivor of the rapes committed by the FDLR in Shabunda in 2000. She is concerned: “We want the perpetrators to be tried while they are still alive. They will not be judged when they are dead! Among us, the victims, there are some who can no longer walk, others are beginning to die. We should not wait until we die to do ourselves justice. ”
Despite his promise to take part in this march under the supervision of the police, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Denis mukwege was absent. His relatives talked about security reasons.
The amnesty that erases everything …
The mapping report identified 617 war crimes, crimes against humanity and possible genocide crimes and proposed the creation of mixed chambers of justice. Nothing since. It is total impunity for the former warlords who mostly refuse to go back in this period or to speak out, notes our correspondent in Kinshasa, Kamanda wa Kamanda. Some try to justify themselves but never recognize the crimes.
For Raphaël Ghenda, companion of Laurent-Désiré Kabila within the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo / Zaire and spokesman for the very first AFDL government in 1997, justice must be particularly interested in rebellions that opposed the AFDL regime. It does not recognize the crimes identified in the Mapping report. “Everywhere we went we did not engage in abuse, as we have known in Makobola, Kassika, Kissangani … Who is responsible? First, the two major Congolese political movements that you know: MLC and RCD. ”
For Roger Lumbala, former head of the RCD / National, all these crimes have already been wiped out by the amnesty in 2014. “It is not yet a question of returning to the court’s decision to initiate other actions, while the Republic of the Democratic Republic of Congo has as sovereign country already voted for amnesty to allow my peaceful coexistence, national reconciliation. ”
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