congo court urges massacre trial for foreign miner

Congo court urges massacre trial for foreign miners
03:16, Tuesday, 17 October 2006

By David Lewis

KINSHASA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - A Congolese military court has
called for three former employees of Australian mining company
Anvil Mining to be tried for complicity in war crimes
committed by government soldiers in 2004. A court document,
seen by Reuters, calls for the men to
stand trial for facilitating crimes, including summary
executions, rape and looting, alleged to have been committed by
nine Congolese soldiers when they put down a small rebellion in
Katanga province.

Rights activists welcomed the court's decision, saying it
was an important step in the struggle to end impunity in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks before the country holds
a final stage of elections meant to end years of war and chaos.

Dozens died in a massacre of civilians in the town of Kilwa,
near the southeastern border with Zambia, during a government
counter-attack to retake the town after it had been seized by a
group of 10 ill-equipped rebels in October 2004.

Anvil runs a nearby silver and copper mine and the company's
trucks and airplanes were used by the army during the operation.
Anvil said its vehicles were requisitioned by the military and
that it had no choice but to hand them over.

The court document, signed by military prosecutor Col.
Eddy Nzambi, details the charges against the soldiers and the
Toronto-listed mining company's former country manager and two
security officers. Rights activists say the ex-Anvil staffers
were a Canadian and two South Africans.

The court document says the government soldiers, led by Col.
Ademar Ilunga, committed war crimes when they bombarded the town
of Kilwa with mortars, executed at least 25 civilians and
proceeded to loot, rape and torture.

In failing to withdraw the vehicles that they had provided
to the soldiers, the Anvil staff members "knowingly facilitated
(the actions of) the accused Ilunga Ademar and his men when they
committed the war crimes" it adds.

"We call for the above named accused to be tried by the
military court," the document concludes.

According to legal experts, the document means that the
prosecutor has finished his investigation and believes there is
sufficient evidence for a trial to be held.

Human rights experts from the United Nations peacekeeping
mission in the Congo who carried out an initial investigation
into the Kilwa incident said in 2005 that at least 73 people
were killed in the military counter-offensive.

Witnesses told the U.N. investigators that at least 28 of
those killed were civilians executed by soldiers.

But as Congo has struggled to organise elections meant to
draw a line under a 1998-2003 war, the country's justice system
has remained in disarray and crimes often go unpunished.

Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), a
British-based human rights organisation that has followed the
Kilwa incident closely, welcomed the court's Oct. 12 decision.

"A trial conducted in accordance with international
standards should proceed as this is the only way of bringing
justice to the victims of the Kilwa massacre," said Patricia
Feeney, executive director of RAID.

"The precise circumstances in which Anvil provided
`logistical support' used by the Congolese military in the
terrible events that occurred in Kilwa must be fully investigated
and resolved," she added.

((Editing by Alistair Thomson and Mary Gabriel; Dakar Newsroom
+221 864 5076))