BUKAVU, Congo (AP) — The trial of 84 Congolese troopers accused of homicide, rape and different crimes towards civilians within the nation’s conflict-battered east opened Monday.
The troopers are accused of getting damaged into civilian houses in a number of villages of the Kabare and Kalehe territories within the japanese province of South Kivu over the weekend. They allegedly raped a number of ladies and killed at the least 12 folks, Pascal Mupenda, one of many legal professionals representing the civilian victims mentioned.
“They turned their weapons towards the civilian inhabitants that they had been supposed to guard, whereas the enemy was at our doorways,” Mupenda advised The Related Press, including that extra accused troopers might be delivered to trial within the coming days.
Trusted information and day by day delights, proper in your inbox
See for your self — The Yodel is the go-to supply for day by day information, leisure and feel-good tales.
The accused troopers had been introduced earlier than a navy courtroom in Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu, on Monday. The civil celebration requested the demise penalty for the entire accused. Congo lifted a more than 20-year moratorium on the demise penalty in March, a choice criticized by rights activists. The final execution befell in 2003.
Zawadi Chapo Ombeni, a resident of Kavumu, mentioned he was overwhelmed and robbed by troopers as he was making ready to flee the village from the rebels’ advances.
“We had been robbed by navy personnel identified by the state, which might be serving the state,” Ombeni advised the AP over the telephone. “We ask the state to compensate us as a result of every part we had was taken away by these navy personnel.”
The trial comes as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are reportedly advancing on Bukavu after having captured the key city of Goma within the neighboring North Kivu province. Some 3,000 folks have been killed and almost as many injured since late January.
Final week, the rebels introduced a unilateral ceasefire to facilitate humanitarian assist, however the Congolese authorities later dismissed that as a “false communication.”
On Thursday, the rebels had been advancing into South Kivu province and had been 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Bukavu, based on Nene Bintou, president of the civil society within the province.
The rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, based on U.N. consultants. They’re probably the most potent of the greater than 100 armed groups active in Congo’s east, which holds huge mineral deposits crucial to a lot of the world’s expertise.
On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched a commission that will inquire into atrocities, together with rapes and abstract executions, dedicated by each Congo’s military and M23 in japanese Congo because the starting of the yr.
___
Kabumba reported from Goma, Congo. Related Press author Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo contributed to this report.
Source link