The International Criminal Court is likely to investigate war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, said this week.
Moreno Ocampo said that he was ”closely following” the situation in Ituri, the north-eastern province where thousands of civilians have been killed in tribal conflicts since last year.
”I think this is the most urgent case and the one where we could do something to prevent killing,” he said at a press conference in the Hague.
The court has received detailed allegations of starvation, executions, cannibalism, sexual slavery, recruitment of child soldiers, untreated injuries and the transmission of HIV/Aids through rape.
Legal experts said his statement indicated that the court’s first prosecution might be imminent.
The court, which was created a year ago, is the world’s first permanent international criminal court and is mandated to deal with genocide and crimes against humanity.
Moreno Ocampo said the situation in the DRC was the only one that currently fitted the court’s jurisdiction.
He would not be drawn on the question of who was likely to be charged, but a United Nations investigation earlier this year found evidence that members of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, which controls much of the north, had massacred and eaten civilians. — Â