20 years' jail for man who led Congo soldiers in mass rape

Published on Monday 21 February 2011 16:45

AS THE uniformed soldiers on trial sat nearby, a newly married bride flung her torn and bloodied clothing on to the floor of the stifling hot makeshift courtroom in a remote corner of eastern Congo. She swayed in her chair as she recounted the brutal rape she'd survived.

One mother of six threw herself to her knees and raised her arms, crying to God and the military judges to grant her some peace. Other survivors spoke so softly it was hard to hear them over the sniffling and whimpers of babies, and the occasional drumming of an equatorial thunderstorm on the tin roof.

Yesterday, a mobile military court convicted an army colonel of crimes against humanity, a landmark verdict in the Central African country where aid groups say thousands of women are brutally raped each year and where impunity prevails for the soldiers and militia groups who terrorise civilians.

Yet even as Lieutenant Colonel Mutuare Daniel Kibibi was sentenced to 20 years in jail - the first time a commanding officer has been tried for such a crime - the women who told their stories feared that not all the perpetrators have faced justice. The 11 on trial were the only ones who had been identified after the New Year's Day attacks.

One woman, nursing a baby, said: "Most of the rapists are still right here in our village. If we go to the river for water, we get raped; if we go to the fields for food, we get raped; if we go to the market to sell our goods, we get raped. Our lives are filled with danger. There is no peace."

Asked if she had been raped before, the woman looked down at the baby in her lap and wept.

Rape has long been a weapon of war here, with soldiers and militias using sexual violence to punish and intimidate the population. The country suffered back-to-back civil wars starting in the 1990s, and its east is still brutalised by armed groups.

At least 8,300 rapes were reported in 2009 alone; aid workers say the true toll is higher.

The mobile court of military judges and pro bono lawyers that tried Kibibi and the others was paid for by George Soros's Open Society Initiative and aided by several agencies including Lawyers Without Borders and the UN Mission to Congo.

But even as these soldiers stood trial, local aid groups said new reports of rapes were emerging, this time women believed to have been attacked by Rwandan Hutu rebels.

And arrests and prosecutions remain rare.

Following the rape of more than 300 people last year, one only man was arrested in connection with the case - handed over by fellow fighters.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Kibibi, who was accused of ordering his troops to attack the village of Fizi on New Year's Day. Doctors later treated 62 women for rape. One woman testified that Kibibi raped her for 40 minutes.

Prosecutor Colonel Laurent Mutata Luaba said the men had "behaved like wild beasts".

As the defendants were being led away in handcuffs, hundreds of people jeered at them, booed and shook their fists. Some shouted, "Kibibi! You thought you could get away with this! Now you are going to jail!" and "You must pay for your crimes!"

Kibibi, 46, who is married with eight children, was convicted of four counts of crimes against humanity, but will serve no more than 20 years in prison. His wife came to his trial each day, where she listened to testimony with their baby in tow.

Kibibi denied all the charges and said the court testimony was part of a plot to denigrate him.

Lawyer Alfred Maisha described his client as a "valiant hero" who had served in the army since 1984 and had put his life at risk many times in the defence of the country.

Witnesses said the soldiers descended in a fury upon Fizi, a sprawling village 20 miles south of Baraka on an escarpment of verdant mountains covered in banana trees. Residents there had stoned a soldier to death who had been involved in an altercation with a local shop owner.

The soldiers then smashed down doors and went house-to-house, pillaging, beating and raping, from 7pm until 6am the following day, witnesses said.

The 49 women who testified about those attacks are to receive up to $10,000 each in compensation from the government as part of the verdict handed down yesterday - double that given to victims in previous cases.

Three of Kibibi's officers received the same sentences; five others got lesser sentences. One man was acquitted and another will be tried in juvenile court.