(10 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bukavu, DR Congo – 10 February 2025
1. Wide of Bukavu military court
2. Military judges speaking during a hearing for Congolese soldiers accused of murder, rape, and theft
3. Some of the accused look on during court
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Pascal Mupenda, victims’ lawyer:
“All these soldiers, they have already killed 12 people, whose deaths we deplore. And there have been numerous cases of rape, pillaging, and thefts, all that is why they are standing there today.”
5. Lawyer writing in a notepad
6. Soldier sitting with his head in his lap
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Zawadi Chapo Ombeni, Kavumu resident:
“I am in the hospital. I was beaten up by these criminals, which is why I am interned in the Karanda hospital. I am here to be a party in this case because this cannot go unchecked, since the people who mistreated us are known and are identifiable.”
8. Various of accused in court
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Jérôme Bayawa Yaboike Basila, public prosecutor:
“The Congolese state has invested a lot of resources to train these young people. The state has invested a lot of resources to equip these young people. Starting with military uniforms. Armaments. But look in front of you all, they present themselves without uniforms.”
10. A man presenting himself before the judges
11. An accused man looks on
12. SOUNDBITE (French) Guy Simango, lawyer for accused soldiers:
“When we listen to our clients, our clients are saying that they were abandoned by their commander. They were abandoned to their fate. They even spent four days, a week, two weeks at the front, without eating, and today they find themselves here. Are they the perpetrators? Who are the real perpetrators? There are even sick people. There are people who we brought from the hospital. They are sick. And they are brought here before (the judge). Is it not the case that they were sacrificed by their commanders?”
13. Various of the accused in court
14. Lawyers speaking amongst themselves
STORYLINE:
The trial of 84 Congolese soldiers accused of murder, rape and other crimes against civilians in the country’s conflict-battered east opened Monday.
The soldiers are accused of having broken into civilian homes in several villages of the Kabare and Kalehe territories in the eastern province of South Kivu over the weekend, raping several women and killing at least 12 people.
The accused soldiers were brought before a military court in Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu, on Monday.
The civil party requested the death penalty for all of the accused.
Congo lifted a more than 20-year moratorium on the death penalty in March, a decision criticized by rights activists.
The last execution took place in 2003.
Zawadi Chapo Ombeni, a resident of Kavumu, said he was beaten and robbed by soldiers as he was preparing to flee the village from the rebels’ advances.
The trial comes as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have been making significant gains in South Kivu in recent weeks after having captured the key city of Goma in the neighboring North Kivu province.
Some 3,000 people have been killed and nearly as many injured since late January.
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