The top United Nations (UN) human rights envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has called for the creation of a tribunal of national and international judges to try abuses committed in the country.
”It is time to end impunity,” UN special rapporteur Iulia Motoc told reporters in Bunia this weekend in the DRC’s troubled northeastern Ituri province.
”The Security Council has charged Monuc (the UN mission in DRC) and the High Commission for Human Rights with reflecting on the best way to bring to justice crimes committed before July 2002,” she said.
”I favour a mixed tribunal, comprising Congolese and international judges,” Motoc added.
War crimes and crimes against humanity committed after July 2002 fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is due to investigate recent fighting in the DRC.
”The ICC prosecutors will deploy here soon to begin their investigations,” Motoc said.
The UN official also urged the transitional government recently installed in Kinshasa to leave no place for leadership figures responsible for mass rights abuses.
”It is impossible to rebuild a society around leaders who have committed mass human rights violations,” she said.
Motoc was speaking a day before the UN officially takes over from an EU peacekeeping force, sent to impose order on the Ituri region, where 50 000 people have been killed in ethnic violence since 1999. – Sapa-AFP