ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan visits Democratic Republic of Congo
Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
Kinshasha,
Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is in DRC on a fact finding mission. Khan who arrived in that country on Sunday, immediately headed for the east of the country, which has been plagued by war and violence for almost 30 years.
He has met with Nobel laureate Dr Dennis Mukwege in his visit to Bukavu, in South Kivu Monday.
Khan visited the Panzi hospital, which treats victims of sexual violence.
In his mission to the eastern part of DRC, Khan has said that he sought to understand the level of atrocities that have especially been meted on women and girls of all ages.
Dr. Mukwege is deeply involved in the fight for the creation of a special tribunal to try those responsible for the crimes committed in the east of the country over nearly 3 decades.
This ICC representative's visit comes a week after the DRC announced that it had asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, to investigate "the [alleged] crimes committed by the M23 rebel group and a a foreign army in North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo".
According to the DRC authorities, the complaint filed with the International Criminal Court on 23 May 2023, aims to prosecute and punish those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law committed between 2022 and 2023 on Congolese soil. Congolese Justice Minister Rose Mutombo, on a visit to The Hague, submitted the official request to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor.
In Kinshasa, the government hopes that 52-year-old Prosecutor Karim Khan will be able to initiate proceedings against the perpetrators or instigators of crimes in the DRC, whether they are in the DRC or abroad.
The Congolese authorities and several countries and international organisations, including the UN, claim that "the Rwandan army is providing support to the M23".
The ICC in Ituri
On Tuesday 30 May, the ICC Prosecutor General will visit Bunia, in the province of 'Turi', still in the east of the DRC.
This province is the ICC's historic area of operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its first defendant, Thomas Lubanga, founder and leader of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) military movement, is a national of Ituri.
He was arrested in 2006 and transferred to the ICC. He was convicted of crimes committed between 2002 and 2003 in Ituri.
Thomas Lubanga was found guilty, as co-perpetrator, of the war crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 into the FPLC (Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo) and using them to participate actively in hostilities between September 2002 and August 2003.
Another Ituri native, Germain Katanga, a general in the Congolese army, was found guilty of war crimes and participation in an insurrectionary movement.
In December 2015, Thomas Lubanga and Germain Katanga were transferred to a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they served their respective prison sentences.
