Daily Archives: May 20, 2011

DR Congo ex-fighters seek asylum in Netherlands.

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AFP

20/05/11

 

katanga_et_ngudjolo.jpgTHE HAGUE — Three Congolese ex-fighters who gave evidence in a war crimes trial here are demanding asylum in the Netherlands as they fear for their safety back home, their lawyer said Friday.

"As they cannot ask asylum from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is not a state, we have asked the court to present them to an authority that can examine their request for asylum, in this case the Netherlands," their lawyer Ghislain Mabanga told AFP.

The three, previously held in prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa in a domestic judicial process, were transferred to the ICC in The Hague in March to give evidence for the defence in the trial of militia leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.

Katanga and Ngudjolo are accused of murder and rape in an attack on the village of Bogoro on February 23, 2003, in which more than 200 civilians were killed.

 

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Rwanda’s grassroots genocide courts to close.

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AFP

20/05/11

 

gacaca_courts.jpgKIGALI — Rwanda's Gacaca grassroots courts that have judged the bulk of the people suspected of taking part in the 1994 genocide will close in December, the country's justice minister said Friday.

"A final report will be completed by December and this chapter of Gacaca will be officially declared closed," Tharcisse Karugarama said in a statement.

Based on the age-old concept of a traditional village council, the Gacaca courts were created in 2001 in a bid to clear a crippling backlog of genocide-related cases in the national courts system.

"Through Gacaca we have been able to judge and resolve up to 1.4 million dossiers," the minister said –"a great achievement that would have been impossible otherwise."

 

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