By Chris Muhizi Minembwe capital news Wednesday May 31/2023.
On May 30 in Bunia, Lieutenant-General Johnny Luboya N’kashama, the governor of Ituri, said: “The armed organization that does not want to cease abusing the populace will be met with national and international justice”. On May 30, during Karim Khan’s brief visit to Bunia, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court made this statement.
“This impunity must be stopped. This violence must be stopped. In order for the prosecutor from The Hague to come here and let all of these executioners who believed they were free know that we are continuing on our current course and that nothing will change, we are where we are today.”
He says that the passage of prosecutor Karim Khan in Ituri sends a clear message to all executioners who committed crimes against civilians while believing they were free:
Additionally, Lieutenant-General Johnny Luboya addressed a letter to the numerous armed organizations that continue to victimize defenseless civilians:
“Military operations will resume by then for those who don’t want to quit or who believe they are on ground where we can’t reach them. You now have the choice to either embrace the discussion and put an end to the violence, go to the P-DDRCS and demobilize, or face the consequences of justice.
Karim Khan says that due to the brutality committed by armed groups on defenseless citizens some violence believed to have been committed by the undisciplined national army, the people of this province have endured 20 years of horror.
He promises that an investigation will be launched soon to put an end to these atrocities and that those responsible will face consequences.
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, stated: “I came to Bunia to realize the reports we have got on the major crimes and human rights breaches that have been committed in Ituri. In Bunia on May 30 following a meeting with the province governor.
He claims that President Tshisekedi invited him to come “to carry out an independent mandate”.
“Five cases were investigated by the International Criminal Court over a long period of time, and some defendants were found guilty. Unfortunately, we can see that crimes are still being committed. Without any intervention, young men, women, girls, and boys continue to be raped or killed.
“We are going to see what the best course of action is by working with the government, the African Union, and the UN, and seeing what can account for so much human life loss in the DRC, assess what this architecture can be, and how work together and be more effective than in the past.”
The promise of ‘never again’ is not a reality for the Congolese. They experience fear, sexual assault, and gender-based violence every day, and I believe these dangers are here in Bunia .