Keywords

DR Congo government

1.2

"Even though cruel crimes happen every day, the conscience of the world community remains untouched."

Sylvestre Bisimwa (investigator-in-charge, Bukavu / Berlin) was a lawyer in a mass rape trial committed by the Congolese army in the city of Minova. It is, at present, the only process of this kind. He acts regularly as lawyer for the International Court of Justice in Den Haag.

2.1

"BANRO has decided to build a factory and expelled me and my children."

Zilahirwa Chakirwa (witness, Bukavu) is a Priest in the community of Cinjira that had to resettle since the Canadian mining company BANRO has started its operations in the Twangiza territory.

2.2

"To deny a population access to drinking water, basic medical supplies and food is also a way to destroy them."

Peter Mugisho Matabishi (witness and expert, Bukavu) is a political activist from Luhwindja. He took the case of BANRO and Twangiza to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). He considers the concessions from Kinshasa to be land theft.

2.3

"It was a Machiavellian manipulation."

Serge Lammens (witness, Berlin) was the administrative director of Somniki, the Belgian mining company that was taken over by BANRO in 1996. He reported that BANRO laid off all 6000 local workers only a few months after they took over of the company.

3.3

"According to Congolese law, artisanal and industrial mining may not be under the same concession."

Nadine Lusi (witness, Bukavu) is the development and PR commissioner of the Canadian Alphamin Ressource Corporation. The corporation operates in the mine of Bisie.

4.3

"There were disagreements in the military command chain."

Jean-Julien Miruho (witness, Bukavu) is Minister of the Interior of South Kivu. He was the only Congolese politician on-site in Mutarule. He declines all government's accountability. According to him, it is a “regrettable dispute about cattle“.

4.4

"Mutarule is not the first case of inability, passivity and powerlessness of the UN mission."

Luc Henkinbrant (witness and expert, Bukavu) was the regional director of the MONUSCO-office in Bukavu until 2011. Currently, he works as a professor at the University of Bukavu, leading different research projects on the lack of law enforcement in this region.

5.4

"The dream of dignity and respect for human rights is omnipresent."

Marc-Antoine Vumilia Muhindo (member of the jury, Berlin) is an author and director living in exile in Sweden. He was a member of the government of Kabila and a notable politician. In 2003 he was arrested, held responsible for the death of Laurent-Désiré Kabila and sentenced to death. A few years later he managed to flee the country.

5.5

"There is no clear differentiation between perpetrators, spectators and those who are indirectly involved."

Harald Welzer (member of the jury, Berlin) is a social psychologist, founder and director of the non-profit organization “Futurzwei”. He is an honorary professor at the University of Flensburg and an author (“Climate Wars").

6.1

"The corporations that dominate this world have no interest in making human rights truly universal."

Jean Ziegler (expert) is a Swiss sociologist and one of the best-known globalization critics worldwide. He is a member of the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council and is a specialist in the role of the World Bank and the strategies of a consciously used "poverty policy".

6.3

"The idea to protect themselves and the community by militias arises in the minds of the people."

Sylvestre Bisimwa (investigator-in-charge, Bukavu / Berlin) is a lawyer in a mass rape trial committed by the Congolese army in the city of Minova. It is, at present, the only process of this kind. He regularly acts as lawyer at the International Court of Justice in Den Haag.

6.4

"International companies want a weak government and a powerless local population."

Vénatie Bismiwa Nabitu (member of the jury, Bukavu) is a human rights activist from Bukavu (Province of South Kivu) and one of the most committed critics of the NGOs, the UN and the big multinational corporations in Africa. She specialized in the field of mass rapes as a war strategy and the continued existence of colonial structures in the current Congolese society.