Uvira, 24 July 2015 – From 21 through 24 July 2015, the military court of Uvira barracks organized mobile court hearings in Runingu, roughly twenty kilometers away from Uvira in the South Kivu province.

The organizers of the hearings received support from the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office of MONUSCO-Uvira and the “Union Chrétienne pour la Protection et la Défense des Droits de l'Homme/Christian Union for Human Rights Protection and Defense (UCPDHO), a local NGO. Three legal cases were reviewed, inter alia, the case of a chief warrant officer of the 3312nd Regimen of FARDC, prosecuted for killing four people on 8 February in Kashatu, near Runingu; the victims allegedly stole goats.

It is worth highlighting that one of the military members killed his own wife; another raped a 2-year and 9 months old child in Kitemesho on 25 February 2015 and another one used assaults and batteries and concealed ammunitions.

At the end of the hearings, the military staff who murdered 4 civilians was sentenced to capital punishment and fined $400,000; the military member who was responsible for rape was sentenced to 10-year capital punishment and fined $10,000 and 90,000 CFA; the one responsible for assaults and batteries was sentenced to 6-month imprisonment. None of the convicted made appealed against the court decisions.

Throughout the hearing, the president of the court sensitized the population on the importance of the mobile hearing and explained the role of justice, the right of the victims to refer their gangsters to the court and demand reparation for the damages suffered the right of the defendants to defend themselves against accusations…. He also insisted on the principle that no one is above the law.

The local population applauded the initiative for bringing Justice closer to the underprivileged through organizing mobile court hearings.

Jean-Tobie Okala.