Democratic Republic of Congo — Seven Congolese Army officers have been
arrested and charged with war crimes after a video surfaced last month
that appeared to show uniformed soldiers opening fire on a group of
civilians in a massacre that left at least 13 people dead, the
military’s auditor general said on Saturday.
The video depicts a squad of soldiers gunning down a group of people, which included women and possibly children, in Congo’s
Kasaï-Central Province. Most of the victims were unarmed, though a few
men appeared to be holding slingshots. Several analysts who saw the
video said that it revealed a government-sponsored massacre of civilians
and that the video could be used as evidence of war crimes.
“In
connection with this video, we have found seven suspects, all are
F.A.R.D.C. elements, who are currently in detention,” said the auditor
general, Gen. Joseph Ponde Isambwa, using an abbreviation for the Armed
Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The
officers, he said, had been charged with several crimes including “war
crime by murder, war crime by mutilation, war crimes by cruel inhuman
and degrading treatment and denial of an offense committed by persons
subject to military jurisdiction.”
Among those arrested was Sgt. Maj. Maneno Katembo, a rifleman who is believed to have recorded the video.
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