Congolese officers found guilty of rape

[News_Editor]

Congolese officers found guilty of rape

2011-02-22 21:59:41 GMT+7 (ICT)

BARAKA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (BNO NEWS) -- A military court in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) sentenced on Monday an army colonel to 20 years in jail for mass rapes committed on New Year's Day.

Lt. Col. Mutuare Daniel Kibibi, 46, was found guilty of crimes against humanity for sending his troops to rape, beat and loot from the population of Fizi on New Year's Day. Doctors later treated 62 women for rape, and one woman testified that Kibibi himself raped her for 40 minutes, The Mail & Guardian reported.

Judges also sentenced three officers serving under the commander to 20 years and five soldiers to between 10 and 15 years.

Kibibi, who is married with eight children, denies all the charges and says the court testimony by his bodyguards was all part of a plot to denigrate him.

The 49 women who testified will receive up to $5,000 each in compensation from the government and unspecified other damages must be paid for the attackers for their "traumatism, humiliation, degradation of their health, social stigmatisation, risk of divorce, and possibility of HIV," presiding judge Colonel Fredy Mukendi ordered, as cited by The Mail & Guardian.

A senior United Nations official welcomed the verdicts since this the first time that a commanding officer and several other army personnel are arrested, tried and sentenced for sex crimes in the strife-torn African nation.

"The sentences send a strong signal to all perpetrators in the DRC and beyond that conflict-related sexual violence is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. It also shows that accountability for sexual violence is possible," the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, said in a statement.

Last October, Wallström, who previously described DRC as "the rape capital of the world," told the Security Council that hundreds of women who were raped by rebels in eastern DRC in the summer faced the possibility of the same abuse from government troops.

More than 300 civilians, including some boys and men, were raped between 30 July and 2 August in the Walikale region, in eastern DRC, by members of armed groups including the Maï Maï Cheka and the Rwandan rebel group known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, according to the UN.

"It is now imperative that the remaining perpetrators are found and brought to justice, for the Fizi incident as well as last year's Walikale atrocities. It is equally important that the victims of and witnesses to instances of sexual violence are protected, as well as their families," she said.

The 1990’s civil war officially ended in 2003, but rape is still being used as a brutal weapon of war in eastern DRC.

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