Posted on 08.11.2021 at 6:18 p.m. by APA News
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For Dr Denis Mukwege, the time has come to break with policies aimed at giving promotions to those who should be held accountable for their actions in court. The recent presidential appointment of a former rebel leader of RCD-Goma, M -23 and the Alliance for the Liberation of Eastern Congo (ALEC), as Coordinator of the Disarmament, Demobilization, Community Recovery and Stabilization Program (P-DDRCS) does not pass to the winner of the Nobel Prize for the peace 2018.
In a statement made public on Wednesday, Dr Mukwege, a Kino-Congolese gynecologist and human rights activist expressed his “circumspection” following this promotion of Emmanuel Tommy Tambwe Rudima to the head of the P-DDRCS.
“By thus rewarding criminals instead of bringing them to justice, this strategy of carpet-pullers in Kinshasa (DRC), Kigali (Rwanda), Kampala (Uganda) and Bujumbura (Burundi) encourages armed groups in the bush to await their death. tour ”, lamented the winner of the 2014 Sakharov Prize.
Dr Mukwege is all the more saddened that “this situation favors the emergence of a system legitimizing violence and the commission of crimes as a mode of access to power. (And) it maintains (at the same time) an infernal spiral of endless violence and jeopardizes the establishment of lasting peace. “
Starting from there, he believes that to move forward on the path of lasting peace, the leaders of his country should remember the mistakes of the past and break with the policies that have prolonged and worsened the suffering of the Congolese people and the instability that caused disastrous consequences for the protection of civilians.
For this, he pleads for the adoption of a holistic national strategy for transitional justice. According to him, this should prioritize institutional reforms aimed at preventing the non-repetition of atrocities committed against civilian populations, in particular through a profound reform of the security and justice sectors.
“The most obvious link between transitional justice and the reform of institutions consists in the establishment of reorganization procedures which aim to identify and exclude from public institutions those responsible for human rights violations. human rights and international humanitarian law as well as the establishment of mechanisms for checking the background of human rights of those who aspire to enter public services, ”he recommends.
Continuing, he stressed that as part of the genesis of the transitional justice process to which the Congolese people aspire, the government should also undertake, without delay, institutional reforms to guarantee respect for the rule of law, promote a culture of human rights and restore confidence in institutions.
For the Evangelical Pentecostal pastor, if there is a real political will to apply his recommendations, the government of President Félix Tshisekedi will be able to count on women and men of integrity without a history of serious human rights violations available to his country.
“The time has come to fully exploit the potential of this human capital in love with peace and justice and to break with policies aimed at granting promotions to those who should be held accountable for their acts in court,” he concludes.
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