Concerns: Six years after the crisis caused by the Kamuina Nsapu conflict, the Congolese Society for the Rule of Law wonders?
August 12, 2016 is a historic date and a fateful day. He recalls the physical elimination of Customary Chief Jean Pierre PANDI by the defense and security forces on the decision of the central Government because of his customary politico movement deemed subversive and qualified as a terrorist group.
This heinous assassination plunged the Kasai region into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The ensuing armed clashes caused serious human rights violations qualified as crimes against the peace and security of mankind.
Six years later, the SCED is questioning the right of Congolese to know the truth about this nebula. Unfortunately, six years later and almost a year since the establishment of the Provincial Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, the truth has still not come to light. The operationalization of this truth-seeking mechanism appears to be stalled. The results of the commissioner candidate recruitment test have never been transparently published. The list of selected candidates is struggling to be published and approved. People are deprived of the right to information on the reasons for this delay which is detrimental to their inalienable right to know the truth.
Isn’t SCED right to say loud and clear that the Provincial Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission seems to have been born under the ashes of an inevitable failure?
Regarding the fight against impunity for serious crimes, the SCED seeks to understand why the judicial response has still not produced the expected results, in terms of judicial decisions cast as res judicata? Why are the emblematic and priority files, including NGANZA, MULOMBODI, TSHISUKU transmitted to the Auditor General of the FARDC in 2019, dragging to be referred to the competent Congolese courts? Why do the executioners, whether on the side of the militiamen and in the ranks of senior officers of the PNC and the FARDC, smell the air of freedom and mock justice? What to do with the gap of incidents not
selected as part of the investigation and prosecution strategy? What are the conclusions of the investigations carried out by the UN mechanism? How to ensure the preservation of evidence in the face of wear and the erosion of time?
Isn’t SCED right once again in asserting during the interactive dialogue on the human rights situation in Geneva in March 2022 that the fight against impunity for serious crimes runs the risk of become a mere political marketing slogan?
With regard to the right to reparation, has the Congolese State lost sight of its duty to develop a reparation program for having failed in its obligation to protect populations during the armed conflict Kamuina Nsapu ?
Is the Government of the Republic unable to put in place a public policy on transitional justice?
What about the solemn and public commitment made in July 2021 by the Minister of Human Rights during the reburial ceremony of the remains of the bodies of the victims of the Tshisuku massacre aimed at endowing the Democratic Republic of Congo a Victims Compensation Fund?
Is SCED wrong to remind urbi and orbi that everything passes, except the painful and tumultuous past mocking the deep wounds and tears of many victims?
To be honest and ultimately, The Congolese Society for the Rule of Law seeks to understand if transitional justice is in line with the mass crimes committed in the Kasai region?
Done in Kananga, August 12, 2022
The Director General,
President Dominique KAMBALA
