The
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has found the government of the
Democratic Republic of Congo responsible for the 2004 massacre of over 70
people in Kilwa, in the southeast of the country, and granted landmark
compensation of US $2.5 million to the victims and their families, three human
rights groups who initiated the complaint have said.
An
Australian-Canadian mining company, Anvil Mining, who operated a copper and
silver mine at Dikulushi, 50 kilometres from Kilwa, was publicly rebuked for
its role in the violations, which included providing logistical support to
soldiers who indiscriminately shelled civilians, summarily executed at least 28
people and disappeared many others after a small group of lightly armed rebels
tried to take control of the town.
The
Commission urged the Congolese government to launch a new criminal
investigation and “take all due measures to prosecute and punish agents of the
state and Anvil Mining Company staff”.
The
complaint on behalf of 8 of the victims was brought to the Gambia-based African
Commission in November 2010 by the Gambia-based Institute for Human Rights and
Development in Africa (IHRDA), UK-based Rights and Accountability in
Development (RAID), and Congo-based Action against Impunity and Human Rights
(ACIDH). The Commission communicated its decision to the parties in French last
month.
“The
Commission’s decision is an extraordinary victory for the Kilwa victims who
have long sought justice for what they endured at the hands of government
soldiers and Anvil Mining who assisted the army,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg,
the Executive Director of RAID.
“The
Congolese government should fully implement the decision, pay the compensation
and issue an apology to the victims as the African Commission has recommended.”
In
a ground-breaking decision, the Commission found the Congolese government had
violated nine human rights provisions of the African Charter, including
extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary arrests, disappearances and forced
displacement, amongst others.
It
awarded the 8 victims named in the complaint US$2.5 million, the highest ever
award by the African Commission. It urged the Congolese government to identify
and compensate other victims and their families not party to the complaint who
were also directly affected by the attack.
The
Commission said the Congolese government should formally apologize to the
people of Kilwa, exhume and re-bury with dignity the bodies dumped in a mass
grave, construct a memorial, provide trauma counselling for those affected and
rebuild the schools, hospital and other structures destroyed during the
attack.
It
requested the Congolese government to report back to the Commission within180
days (or by December 17, 2017) on what action it has taken to implement its
recommendations.
“The
African Commission has set a far-reaching new precedent with this decision,”
said Gaye Sowe, IHRDA’s Director. “This decision covers not only compensation
for the direct harm the victims suffered, but also acknowledges the needs of
the larger Kilwa community so terribly affected by the massacre.”
The
decision followed a 13-year legal battle for justice by the victims and their
families, who have still not seen any soldier or company official brought to
justice. The Commission found senior Congolese officials had interfered in the
judicial process in Congo and failed to ensure the victims had impartial and
independent justice.
The
Commission was particularly scathing about the Congolese military trial held in
2006 which dropped charges against three Anvil mining personnel and exonerated
Col. Ademar Ilunga, the commanding officer in charge of the soldiers at
Kilwa. In its verdict, the Congolese
Military Court had sought to justify the soldiers’ abuses on the grounds the people
of Kilwa supported the rebels.
“Aside
from the utter improbability of this hypothesis, nothing justifies the
indiscriminate bombing and extra-judicial executions of numerous individuals
including women and children,” the Commission said in its decision.
It
added: “Given the flagrant and public nature of the facts, it was simply
impossible to sustain the erroneous conclusion that the entire civilian
population had been party to the conflict and not a single extra-judicial
execution had taken place.”
Anvil
Mining began to work the Dikulushi mine in 2002. It evacuated many of staff
from the mine following the minor uprising in Kilwa and provided an aeroplane
and vehicles to transport some 150 soldiers to Kilwa.
In
2010, the Dikulushi mine was sold to Mawson West, a small Australian mining company.
In January 2015, Mawson West stopped industrial production at Dikulushi,
stating the mine was no longer economically viable.
The
African Commission is a quasi-judicial body of the African Union tasked with
promoting and protecting human by interpreting the African Charter of Human and
Peoples’ Rights and considering individual complaints. Its decisions are not
formally binding.
“The
Congolese government should not turn a blind eye to the human rights findings
of its African peers,” said Donat Ben-Bellah, the Executive Director of ACIDH.
“The Commission has put the Congolese government on notice that it must address
the crimes in Kilwa and finally bring the soldiers and the Anvil Mining staff
who assisted them to justice.”
Quotes
from two victims who were represented in the African Commission complaint:
Dickay
Kikumbi Kunda, whose father, Pierre Kunda Musopelo, the police chief of Kilwa,
was arbitrarily arrested by the soldiers, held incommunicado for three months
and tortured.
“The
Kunda family welcomes the decision of the African Commission which at long last
has recognized that my father was tortured and forced to live out his days in
poverty and pain after his release from arbitrary detention.”
Adele
Mwayuma Faray, who lost two of her sons in Kilwa, presumed to have been
summarily executed by the soldiers:
“Like
other families of the disappeared, we suffered even more because we were denied
the right to give our sons a proper burial according to the customs of the
Bemba people. The compensation cannot bring them back, but it will help me and
my family rebuild our lives. We are profoundly grateful to the African
Commission for this decision in our case.”