The trial opens in Brazzaville on Tuesday of 16 people accused of slaughtering dozens of President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s opponents in the explosive case of the ”beach missing”.
The trial of those charged with the killing of people who disappeared after returning from exile in 1999 marks the last chapter in a political and legal saga that has touched both Congo and France.
Unusually for Africa, some of the highest-ranking members of the country’s military and police forces will stand accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and assassinations.
The saga began in May 1999 when dozens of exiled Congolese refugees returned home after an agreement guaranteeing their safety was signed under the watch of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The refugees had taken refuge in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after civil war broke out a year before.
However when the refugees arrived at Brazzaville’s port, known as ”the beach”, dozens of them were arrested by Sassou Nguesso’s authorities on suspicion of being supporters of a militia known as the Ninja, formerly one of the private armies political parties used in the 1990s.
They were taken to dentention centres and were never seen again.
Human rights groups and relatives of the missing claim 353 people had ”disappeared” — apparently having been tortured and executed.
The accused and authorities vehemently deny all allegations of murder, conceding only that ”mistakes” may have been made — amid civil war confusion — when the refugees returned home.
According to a legal source the Congolese examining magistrate only found 80 cases of people who had gone missing.
The victims’ families lodged a series of legal complaints in Brazzaville which never saw the light of day.
At the end of 2001, fearing the cases would be buried and forgotten, a number of relatives tracked down Congolese generals they suspected of being implicated in the disappearances and the men suspected of giving them their orders: President Sassou Nguesso and his Interior Minister Pierre Oba.
Six months later, an investigation into the incident was opened by the Congolese justice system — the only inquiry to be followed through to the end.
In 2004, the Congolese police chief — accused of crimes against humanity — faced trial on the outskirts of Paris, but legal proceedings were suddenly cancelled and he was released.
The court of appeal ruled a procedural mistake had been made in the drafting of the lawsuit but the families of the victims claimed the trial had been annulled in a bid to protect authorities.
Relatives now fear Tuesday’s trial in Brazzaville will be a sham, claiming the strings of the Congolese justice system are being pulled by the government. – Sapa-AFP