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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Government requests establishment of UN criminal court

NAIROBI, 17 January 2003 (IRIN) - The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) asked the UN Security Council on Thursday to establish a UN criminal court to try rebel groups accused of committing atrocities, including genocide, in the northeast of the country, news agencies reported.

A letter from the DRC's ambassador to the UN, Ileka Atoki, said the court should try "all persons presumed to be responsible for acts of genocide or other serious violations of international humanitarian law", AFP reported.

Atoki also asked the Council to authorise publication of the full report, compiled by the UN Mission in the DRC (known as MONUC), on atrocities committed in late 2002 by the rebel group Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) and its ally, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-National (RCD-N), as well as the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC).

On Wednesday MONUC confirmed that it had received witness reports of members of MLC and RCD-N being involved in cannibalism and forcible cannibalism in Mambasa and Mangina, respectively situated 50 and 70 km northwest of Beni, Ituri District.

All three groups were also reportedly involved in looting, perpetrating systematic rape, summary executions and kidnappings in an operation called "clean the blackboard [effacer le tableau]".

Themes: (IRIN) Human Rights

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