Friends For Peace In Africa

Milton Allimadi (July 27, 2007)

Fresh International Criminal Court indictments loom in connection with alleged atrocities committed by armed forces and Uganda-backed militias in Congo, The Black Star News has learned.

After more than three years, the ICC’s Office Of the Prosecutor (OTP) confirms to BSN that its investigations covering militias and armed groups have spread beyond the Congo’s Ituri province where it has reached an “advanced stage” to cover alleged atrocities elsewhere in the country.

Uganda’s army had occupied the Ituri region and backed militias there.

Separately, The Black Star has learned that Uganda urged the United States to block the alleged Congo atrocities investigation; Uganda volunteered to send troops to stabilize war-torn Somalia earlier this year, a move the United States badly wanted.

A U.S. Department of State spokesperson said the department was “coordinating a response with other bureaus” to detailed questions sent by The Black Star to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; the department didn’t respond by publication time.

Last year a major newspaper reported that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni urged then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to block the investigation and Annan said he had no such powers. The cases were all referred by Congo’s President Joseph Kabila in 2004, the ICC confirms.

“The case against Mr. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is the first but not the last in the ICC investigation in the DRC,” confirms Nicola Fletcher, spokesperson for the ICC’s OTP, in a statement to The Black Star News. “Please note that as a matter of principle we do not discuss the content of ongoing investigations,” elsewhere reads the statement. Dyilo is the first DRC militia leader indicted.

Fletcher declines to comment on whether the ICC’s probe may include political and military leadership in Uganda, including President Yoweri K. Museveni, or whether the investigation will focus only on leaders of the armed groups and rule out their fighting men.

The ICC’s Congo atrocities probe started when President Joseph Kabila of the DRC “referred the situation to the Prosecutor on 3 March 2004,” says the statement from the OTP’s Fletcher.

“Upon assessing the situation in the entire DRC, the Office of the Prosecutor determined that, at the time of the assessment, the gravest crimes had allegedly occurred in Ituri,” adds the statement. “Within the complex conflict in Ituri, in which many militias have committed crimes, the Office focused its investigation on those groups allegedly responsible for the most serious crimes. The DRC situation requires a long-term investigation involving a series of cases.”

The statement adds that the Office of The Prosecutor, which conducts investigations and asks for indictments when warranted, “continues to investigate crimes allegedly committed by various parties to the conflict in Ituri and to analyze crimes allegedly committed elsewhere in the DRC.”

It continues, “Our efforts to investigate a second armed group in Ituri are well advanced. In parallel, we are also in the process of selecting a third case to investigate in the DRC and we anticipate that this investigation could start before the end of 2007.”

The Black Star has learned that Bernard Lavigne, who was team leader of the DRC investigation has quit and returned to Southern France. It’s unclear whether it had anything to do with alleged US interference. Reached by telephone, Lavigne asked that The Black Star submit questions via e-mail message. He did not respond by press time.

Despite being found liable in 2005 for war crimes in the DRC by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a separate jurisdiction, which handled the civil aspect, Uganda continues to enjoy warm relations with Washington and the West.

In addition to providing troops to the Somali stabilization force at the urging of the United States, the East African country is slated to host the Commonwealth Summit in November. (Commonwealth’s Secretary General Don McKinnon and the Secretariat didn’t respond to an e-mail message seeking comment regarding contingency plans in case the ICC links Uganda’s leadership to the DRC atrocities).

In the separate ICJ case, Uganda was ordered to pay reparations and the Congo wants $10 billion see: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/116/10455.pdf

When asked if the ICJ’s ruling would have any bearing on its own investigations, the ICC declined comment. It’s been estimated that as many as four million Congolese have perished through war, hunger, diseases, and massacres allegedly committed by foreign-backed militias and foreign armed forces.

In a 2003 report “Ituri: Covered In Blood,” Human Rights Watch (see http://hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/DRC0703-04.htm#whoiswho) identified at least 10 militias it said were Uganda backed.

While militia leader Dyilo now faces trial on war crimes charges more indictments could come this year. The Court is also investigating alleged atrocities committed by a militia under Laurent Nkunda, who commands a breakaway force from the Congo army near the Rwanda border.

The United Nations has increasingly sought to deflect criticism that those responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes elude justice.

Separately, Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor is being tried in the Hague on war crimes charges before the UN's Special Court established for Sierra Leone’s war crimes. He allegedly sponsored and financed armed militias that caused mayhem and destruction and committed gross atrocities in Sierra Leone, including mass murders, rapes, mutilations, and the recruitment and training of child soldiers; these were all features of the alleged Congo atrocities.

In its June 8, 2006 edition, The Wall Street Journal, referring to the ICC investigation reported: “President Museveni of Uganda asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to block the Congo investigation, according to one person familiar with the matter. Mr. Annan replied that he had no power to interfere with the court, this person said. A Ugandan government spokesman, Robert Kabushenga, declines to comment on the matter.”

Annan was not available to comment a spokesperson told The Black Star by e-mail message. An e-mail message sent to Kabushenga, who now heads Uganda’s government-controlled newspaper, The New Vision, seeking comments wasn’t replied to; Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Francis Butagira, also didn’t respond. Officials at DRC’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations didn’t return a call seeking comment. The ICC declined comment on the Journal's report.

In dealing with cases the ICC focuses on those who “bear  the  greatest  responsibility” for the crimes and the Court also considers the “gravity,” of the crimes, according to a court document.

The ICC in addition to the DRC probe has investigated Darfur and northern Uganda atrocities; in the latter cases indictments also have been returned and more are expected.

Congo’s conflict escalated in 1998, pitting then president Laurent Kabila’s government backed Zimbabwe, Angola, and Namibia, against several rebel movements backed by Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.

http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=122&a=3535
Original post at Black Star News