′′ Mapping Report It's time for those responsible for the most serious crimes perpetrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo to answer for their actions ′′ (Clément Boursin) 30.09.2020,

 


Ten years after the release of the UN's ′′ Mapping Report an inventory of human rights violations committed between 1993 and 2003, the victims are still waiting for justice.

The ′′ Mapping Report ′′ describes the horrors of ten years of violence and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in a chronological and thematic way. He analyzes 617 violent incidents committed between 1993 and 2003 in the DRC. During this decade, all parties to Congolese and foreign rebel groups of Congolese, Ugandan, Burundian, Angolese, Rwandan, Chadian and Zimbabwean conflict have been guilty of grave and massive violations of human rights.

For this work done by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the majority of the 617 documented violence can be called crimes against humanity and war crimes. Regarding the massacres aimed at Hutu people between 1996 and 1997, the report states that attacks by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) and the Alliance of Democratic Forces pour la libération du Congo (AFDL) ′′ reveal several overwhelming elements who, if proven before a competent court, could be called crimes of genocide ". This analysis was strongly criticized by Rwanda when it received the first version of the report for comments in June 2009. Until today, this part of the report continues to crystallize the tensions between Rwandan Patriotic Front (RFF) and pro-FPR and tends to hide the rest of the report's contents.

The identity of alleged perpetrators of documented abuses - approximately 200 people, including several dozens of leading military and political leaders - does not appear in the public report, but is contained in a confidential database available to OHCHR.

While the ′′ Mapping Report ′′ should have become a founding document of the fight against impunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its recommendations were not implemented. The idea of setting up a specialized court to shed light on the abuses committed between 1993 and 2003 has never been created. While the Congolese regime of former President Joseph Kabila proposed in 2013 the creation of mixed specialized chambers composed of Congolese and foreign judges and integrated into the Congolese judicial system, the law establishing such a body has never been passed. For their part, the judicial systems of neighbouring countries have systematically ignored the abuses committed by their regular armies in Congolese territory.

Major national action

While mobilization of the UN Security Council could have been salvatory on the issue of combating impunity, the latter, due to lack of political will from member states, has failed to respond to the lack of determination of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Neighbouring countries to have those responsible for the most serious crimes committed between 1993 and 2003. When in March 2016 Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize 2018, files a signed letter by nearly 200 non-government organizations (non-government) in OHCHR, calling for the publication of the database identifying the chief criminals described in the ′′ Mapping Report ", OHCHR replies that ′′ Public disclosure of this information could endanger the victims and witnesses of such violations ". However, it is questionable whether the presence of alleged perpetrators of these crimes in the highest ruling bodies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries does not further endanger the population in the country.

With the end of the Kabila family's long reign of nearly twenty-five years, during which impunity has been the rule in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the hope of taking the country into a new, more respectful path of human rights is reborn among the opinion Congolese public, with the tormented arrival of Félix Tshisekedi to the Congolese presidency in January 2019.

It is now time for President Tshisekedi, a politician who is not from the world of arms, from an armed group and has no connection with any of them, to take major national action, in consultation with civil society, to break with past impunity and commit the country to lasting peace based on justice and respect for human rights. This cannot be done without the ′′ Mapping Report ′′ whose recommendations need to be implemented, especially with regard to the establishment of transitional justice mechanisms.

It's time that politicians and military leaders of the most serious crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2003 respond to their actions before the courts and the victims finally get redress. The advent of restorative justice is essential to building peace in the country. Publicly disclosing their names, listed in the OHCHR database, could help to remove them from power, bring them to justice and free the words of victims and witnesses who are no longer forced to live in fear of reprisals of their executioners. The Mapping Report must no longer be a taboo topic.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MTN uganda on is on fire because of espionage,fraud,tax evasion and unfair competetive tendencies

MTN uganda must have faced the toughest times in its business spel for the beginning of this year.But as many may be aware,MTN's problem are not of today only but a series of mistakes and misunderstanding that gradually escalated from around mid 2010 through to early days of 2019.The most alarming of these mistakes was the unsurety of the customers privacy and the unrealistic licence it got after a long sacffle with the government of the republic of uganda. Many people have been wondering how or if its true that mtn and its staff was involved in data leakages,exposing customers privacy to intrusion or any sort of espionage.on the first two i can assure you that mtn face data leakages and its customers were exposed to dangers of loosing their private data to dubious intruders,plus fraudulent acts that did occur mostly on mobile money services,its really annoying that mtn when contacted on these fraudulent issues alway would take a low pace and in most case ignore it in tge long end
Read more

United kingdom's Coronavirus Contact Tracing App Assists 'Surveillance State'

Image
In the letter, the signatories - which include tech justice NGO Foxglove and digital rights campaigners Access Now - say the proposed app could be another step towards a surveillance state. Campaign groups have written an open letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning GCHQ and its digital arm, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), will have the capacity to re-identify the phones of people who install the country’s coronavirus contact-tracing app. They also note the legal framework underpinning the software, which is currently being trialled on the Isle of Wight, is believed to be inadequate to protect people from misuse of their data by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. “Parliament has to quickly issue an adequate legal framework that guarantees users’ human rights protection. In addition, contrary to some recommendations, the app the Government is trialling uses a centralised model for the collection, processing and storage of users’ data. The centralised rec
Read more

Citzens have done a great work in the arrest of an armed robber

Vigilant residents arrest armed man Residents of Kiwatule this afternoon foiled an attempted robbery in Kiwatule after gunman entered Liquid Cash Emergency Loans with intent to rob. The suspect, Isaac Mulengenyi, 23, reportedly fired in the air to scare onlookers however mob charged at him, arrested and handed him to police. A case of aggravated robbery has been opened at Ntinda Police Station Vide CRB 123/2019 while a rifle has been recovered with nine rounds of ammunition. The suspect is still being detained at Ntinda pending appearance before court.
Read more