European Parliament deplores sine die postponement of mini-summit in Goma and instead calls UN security council to establish an international criminal tribunal against all crimes committed in DRC as earlier demanded by DR Denis Mukwege.

In a resolution adopted this Thursday, the European Parliament deplores the postponement of the mini-summit in Goma originally scheduled for September 13, 2020, following the invitation of the DRC, in order to bring together the five leaders State of the African Great Lakes region to discuss ways to restore peace in the region.

The European Parliament strongly hopes that this summit can be rescheduled as soon as possible and that it can lead to a calm of tensions between neighbouring countries ". In the same document, it also calls for cross-border cooperation in the African Great Lakes region and the implementation of a regional strategy by neighbouring countries to fight violence and human rights violations in the DRC.

Kinshasa didn't throw in the sponge. The Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, is fighting to get this mini-summit organized on September 20th.

Subregional cooperation is essential to solve the security problem in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, given that MEPs are emphasizing that the violence in this region ′′ is perpetrated by groups armed with domestic and foreign rebels, which are funded by the trade of ore and who are fighting for access to this trade.

The European Parliament underlines that all companies, persons, states or actors linked to a State that contribute to the perpetration of such crimes must be brought to justiceIn a resolution adopted this Thursday, the European Parliament calls on the member states of the United Nations Security Council to call for the creation of an international criminal tribunal ′′ that would advance proven cases of human rights violations dating back to before 2002 ".

In the adopted text, the European Parliament also welcomes Dr Denis Mukwege's firm commitment to the work carried out in the UN report 2010 on the mapping project. It condemns the international community's lack of progress in implementing its recommendations.

The European Parliament calls on the DRC authorities to step up their efforts to prevent further human rights violations in the east of the DRC and to take measures to put in place mechanisms that will guarantee victims of future conflicts respect for their rights to justice and repair.

As a reminder, the mapping report documents crimes listed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This document reviews the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in Congolese territory between March 1993 and June 2003.

Denis Mukwege and several Congolese figures including Martin Fayulu support the need to dig up this report, which draws an inventory of 617 war crimes and humanity crimes. If these crimes are brought before a competent court, some of the atrocities documented in the Mapping report could be the crime of genocide, some NGOs noted.