26th July, 2017
UN on Wednesday named three human rights experts to lead an international investigation into killings and other crimes in the Kasai region of Democratic Republic of Congo, a move that could set up a showdown with the government.
Congo insists that its own justice system is in charge of the inquiry with the UN providing “technical or logistical support”.
Some Western countries and campaign groups have said they had hoped for a stronger UN mandate.
A day after saying “elements” of the Congolese army dug most of dozens of mass graves in Kasai, the UN named Bacre Ndiaye, a UN investigator from Senegal, to lead a fact-finding team that includes Luc Cote, who worked on a previous UN inquiry into Congo atrocities, and Mauritania’s Fatimata M’Baye.
They were named by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Al-Hussein who has called for perpetrators to be prosecuted, including government-linked Bana Mura militia whom he said cut off childrens’ limbs and sliced open pregnant women.
UN says no fewer than 3,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million displaced in the violence, part of growing unrest in the country since President Joseph Kabila refused to step down when his mandate expired in December.
The resolution on the inquiry cited reports of “recruitment and use of child soldiers, sexual and gender-based violence, destruction of houses, schools, places of worship, and state infrastructure by local militias, as well as of mass graves”.
Kinshasa has been fighting insurgents in the Kasai region since August, triggering fears of a wider conflict in the large central African country, a tinderbox of ethnic rivalry and competing claims over mineral resources.
UN also said 58 mass graves have also been found and several of the defendants in Mbuji Mayi had faced more serious war crimes charges, but those were dropped mid-trial.
Congo’s government denies any systematic use of excessive force and has said the prosecutions show its justice system’s ability to deal with crimes committed during the conflict.
The UN and rights groups, however, say Congolese authorities have not done enough to hold perpetrators responsible.
The UN Human Rights Council voted last month to establish an international investigation.
Militia violence in Congo, a tinder box of conflicts over land, ethnicity and minerals, has been worsened by President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down when his mandate expired in December, and analysts say it risks spinning out of control.