UPDATE 1-Congo court clears former Anvil staff of war crimes 290 words 28 June 2007 11:59 Reuters News English courtesy 2007 Reuters Limited
KINSHASA, June 28 (Reuters) - A military court in Democratic Republic of Congo acquitted three former employees of Australian mining company Anvil Mining Ltd on Thursday of complicity in war crimes by government soldiers in 2004.
"All of those accused of war crimes, including the former Anvil mining agents have been acquitted. The charges of war crimes were found to have been unfounded," the president of the military tribunal, Colonel Joseph Mokako, told Reuters from Lubumbashi, the capital of mineral-rich Katanga province.
Canadian Pierre Mercier and South Africans Peter Van Niekerk and Cedric Kirsten had been accused of willfully offering logistical assitance to Congolese soldiers during a shortlived armed uprising in the mineral-rich Katanga province.
Scores died in a massacre of civilians in the town of Kilwa, near the southeastern border with Zambia, when government forces launched a counter-attack to retake the town after it had been seized by a group of 10 ill-equipped rebels in October 2004, a U.N. human rights investigation found.
Anvil runs a nearby silver and copper mine and the company's trucks and planes were used by the army during the operation.
Anvil said its vehicles were requisitioned by the military and it had no choice but to hand them over.
All nine Congolese soldiers also on trial before the military tribunal were acquitted of war crimes. However two officers received life in prison for the killing of civilians, and two other soldiers received shorter sentences for lesser crimes.
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