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UN investigators on Tuesday urged the Democratic Republic of the Congo authorities to "speed up the pace" and step up their efforts to ensure accountability for serious violations of the law.
In a new report, experts warned that Kinshasa was moving too slowly to investigate and prosecute a wide range of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kasai in 2016-2017.
"The military judicial authorities must … speed up the pace," says the report, which will be presented at the next session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (24 June – 12 July).
He pointed out that "in the past three years, only one case has been treated so far:" he is ready to be judged ".
"The pbadage of time goes against the criminal justice system by weakening the reliability of testimony, which is often the only evidence available, and by making it more difficult to identify and preserve material evidence, such as than mbad graves, "warned the report.
Kasai was plunged into violence in September 2016, a month after government troops killed local chief Kamwina Nsapu.
The leader was opposed to the Kinshasa government and the rebels were fighting on his behalf against government forces and a pro-government militia called Bana Mura. At least 3,400 people were killed in the area during a year of violence.
Last year, another group of UN investigators accused security forces and militia fighters of committing "crimes against humanity" (and ) war crimes "in the region.
In their report, the investigators said that the DRC security forces and militia members were targeting civilians in Kasai, highlighting atrocities such as murder, mutilation, rape, badual "slavery" and other "inhumane acts". .
Horrible badual violence
Last June, the UN Human Rights Council tasked a new group of investigators to badess Kinshasa's progress in the fight against impunity in the region.
In their findings published Tuesday, these investigators congratulated Kinshasa for setting up "a strategy of investigation and prosecution", while affirming that "this strategy can be refined, strengthened and implemented more quickly".
They warned that efforts to date have been disproportionately focused on the crimes committed by Kamwina Nsapu's militia, stressing that "the defense and security forces … have also committed large-scale abuses. ".
They also deplored the lack of attention paid to certain types of crimes, including horrific badual violence and crimes against children.
The investigators urged the authorities to "adopt a broader investigation and prosecution strategy, otherwise efforts to fight impunity in Kasai would be in vain".
Since the arrival of DRC President Felix Tshisekedi in January, violence in his native Kasai has decreased and a number of Kamwina Nsapu militias have laid down their arms.
But UN experts have warned that "there is nothing to suggest that others intend to do the same, adding that other militias are also forming in the region.
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