Joseph Kabila judged for “crime against peace”

Former Congolese president Joseph Kabila, an opponent declared to the current government, is tried by the country’s high military court, from Friday July 25, for “participation in an insurrectional movement, crime against peace and security of humanity, intentional homicide by bullets, betrayal, apology, rape, torture and deportation, open occupation of the city of Goma”. He is accused of complicity with the March 23 movement (M23), an armed group supported by Rwanda.

Joseph Kabila, who has lived abroad for more than two years – even if he has recently been seen in the east of the country – should not be present at the opening of his trial. The facts for which it is prosecuted are liable to the death penalty in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where a moratorium on the execution of the capital sentence in force since 2003 was lifted in 2024 (no execution has however taken place since).

Son of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, rebellious having dropped the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Joseph Kabila, 54, had inherited power in 2001 after the assassination of his father. He directed the DRC until 2019 and remained very discreet after his departure from power. The political coalition he formed with his successor, Félix Tshisekedi, had broken out after two years.

In April, the former Minister of Justice Constant Mutamba had seized military justice in order to initiate prosecution against Joseph Kabila “For its direct participation” per m23. The prosecutor general of the army had filed a request for the lifting of his immunity to the Senate, which had approved it by 88 votes to 5 and had authorized the prosecution. Mr. Kabila benefited from this immunity as a former head of state and senator for life.

Machination

One of the main elements exposed by the prosecutor is a testimony which would attest that Joseph Kabila held a telephone conversation with a senior M23 managers about a plan orchestrated by Rwanda aimed at assassinating President Tshisekedi. According to this testimony, Mr. Kabila would have advised the implementation of such a scheme, which would lead to erect Mr. Tshisekedi in « martyr »and would have said that a military coup was preferable.

In a rare speech sent online on May 23, after the lifting of his immunity, the former leader had denounced the “Dictatorship” of the Tshisekedi government and castigated justice being, according to him, “That an instrument of oppression of a dictatorship which desperately tries to survive”.

Joseph Kabila, who had left the country at the end of 2023, returned in May Goma, a great city in the east of the country controlled by the M23 and Congolese militias. The Congolese East, a region rich in natural and border resources in Rwanda, has been torn apart by conflicts for thirty years. The violence has intensified in recent months with the takeover by the M23 of Goma and Bukavu, capitals of the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

On July 19 in Qatar, the M23 and the government of Kinshasa signed a declaration of principles for a “Ceasefire” permanent in this part of the country. However on Thursday, at least eleven people were killed in fighting between M23 and pro-Kinshasa militias in the territory of Masisi, in North Kivu, according to local sources. The agreement signed in Doha was praised by the international community as a “Advanced” Towards a global peace agreement in the east of the DRC. Previous peace and ceasefire agreements have been raped in recent years.

Rwanda denies militarily supporting M23. But in early July, UN experts denounced the “Definiting role” Played by his army in the offensive of the armed group in January and February. According to a relative of Joseph Kabila with the France-Presse agency (AFP), no formal alliance was concluded between the former president and the M23, but they share a “Same objective” : put an end to the Félix Tshisekedi diet.