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DRC: ICC may hold the Lubanga trial hearings in DRC; Outbreak of fighting in North Kivu in eastern DRC; Reaction from the UN

06 Sept 2007

Dear All,

Please find below the latest developments concerning the International Criminal Court's investigation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including reports that the ICC may hold the Lubanga hearings in DRC, the latest about the outbreak of fighting in North Kivu province in eastern DRC and the reaction from the United Nations.

Please note that all translations from the French are unofficial and have been prepared by CICC Secretariat staff.

As always, please also take note of the Coalition's policy on situations (below), which explicitly states that the CICC will not take a position on potential or pending situations before the Court. The Coalition, however, will continue to provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Regards,

Linda Gueye
CICC Communications
[email protected]

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I. THE ICC CONSIDERS HOLDING LUBANGA TRIAL HEARING IN DRC

i. "International Criminal Court considers holding trial hearings in Congo," The Associated Press, 4 September 2007, http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/04/europe/EU-GEN-International-Court-Congo.php

"The International Criminal Court is investigating whether hearings for its first trial of a former Congolese warlord charged with conscripting child soldiers can be heard in Congo, rather than The Hague, a judge said Tuesday. 'The possibility of in situ hearings is being considered,' judge Adrian Fulford said at a pretrial hearing for Thomas Lubanga, the only suspect in the court's custody. Fulford said an official was studying the feasibility of holding hearings in Congo. He did not elaborate and it was not immediately clear if the court, which has two purpose-built trial chambers in its Hague headquarters, is proposing to stage parts or all of the trial in Africa. No date has yet been set for the trial, but it is unlikely to start before the end of 2007. Speaking after Tuesday's hearing, the court's deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told The Associated Press that prosecutors supported the idea. 'We are always in favor of bringing justice closer to the victims and certainly one way of doing this is having the trial in the region,' Bensouda said. The judge's comments came as fighting in the east of the country - near where the alleged crimes happened - has intensified. However, human rights activists welcomed the news. 'I think the people (in Congo) would very much welcome that because for them the ICC is very far away,' said Geraldine Mattioli of New York-based Human Rights Watch. 'They have the impression that the whole process is quite remote.' But Mattioli acknowledged that there would be major logistical and security difficulties in staging the trial in Congo. She said that Lubanga's supporters in his former power base of Bunya resent the fact that Lubanga is so far the only person indicted by the court despite widespread reports of atrocities committed by all sides in savage interethnic fighting after Congo's 1998-2002 civil war. 'Our impression ... is that probably having in situ hearings in Bunya in that kind of atmosphere would not be safe,' Mattioli said...."

ii. "ICC may move Lubanga war crimes trial to DR Congo," by Leslie Schulman (The Jurist), 4 September 2007, http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/09/icc-may-move-lubanga-war-crimes-trial.php

"The ICC is investigating whether to move the war crimes trial of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ICC judge Adrian Fulford said Tuesday. The announcement was made at pretrial hearings held at the ICC at The Hague, and comes more than a month after the ICC initially expressed a desire to have the trial moved to the DRC. Fulford has said that, despite security concerns, he believed that the trial should be moved from The Hague to the DRC because it would resonate more with the people of that country if they could witness it first-hand. The trial is not expected to commence before the end of 2007...."

II. RENEWED FIGHTING IN NORTH KIVU

"Renewed fighting erupts in DRC," Agence-France Presse, 4 September 2007,
http://www.suntimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=555373

" 'Fighting between the regular army and renegade troops resumed on Monday after a weekend lull in an escalating battle for control of territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),' United Nations observers said.

'We're extremely alarmed by renewed clashes reported from the Ngungu zone, south of Sake,' about 30km from Nord-Kivu province capital Goma, said Sylvie van den Wildenberg, local spokesperson for the UN mission in DRC (Monuc).

...The main force which took on the DRC army again in several places last week, in battles that claimed more than 100 lives, according to regular army commanders, is led by cashiered general Laurent Nkunda, a powerful local leader...."

III. UN REACTION TO CRISIS IN NORTH KIVU

i. "North Kivu : Secretary General Deeply Concerned by Shootings," United Nations News Center, 4 September 2007, http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID=14736&Cr=RDC&Cr1=secrétaire (in French only)

"The [United Nations] Secretary General said today to be 'deeply concerned' by the shootings that occurred in Nord-Kivu in the Eastern DRC. Today, in a message through his spokesperson, he called 'the DRC government and all the local parties involved to continue their efforts to find a peaceful solution'...."

ii. "DRC: UN Calls for Respecting Human Rights in North Kivu," UN News Center, 5 September 2007, http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID=14741&Cr=RDC&Cr1=holmes (in French only)

John Holmes, Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, met the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila on 5 September 2007 and called for the protection of civilians in particular in North Kivu:

" 'John Holmes and the president shared their deep concern for the humanitarian situation in the East Congo,' the Office of Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) explained in a press release in Kinshasa. 'They also discussed the need to increase the protection of civilians and fight more efficiently against sexual violence against women'...."

iii. "Thousands more civilians flee new clashes in eastern DR Congo, UN reports," UN News Center, 4 September 2007, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23689&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo

Thousands of Congolese civilians are on the move in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) strife-torn North Kivu province, fleeing their homes amid reports of renewed fighting, cases of rape, and rising tensions between Government forces, renegade troops and rebel groups, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.

" 'We fear that the pursuit of a military solution to the problems in North Kivu would further worsen the province's humanitarian crisis through the potential displacement of hundreds of thousands of additional Congolese civilians,' UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva. [...]"

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