Video as Evidence for War Crimes in DRC: Two Militiamen Found Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity
“The atmosphere in the court switched dramatically.”
On 5, May 2012, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) attacked the village of Lumenje killing 14 people, and burning down houses and a primary school. Nine days later, the FDLR carried out a similar attack in the village of Kamananga. More than thirty people were killed.
Following both dramatic attacks, people found a note signed by the commanders Castro, Sabimana, Cristophe, and Guillaume on the bodies of the victims threatening to retaliate against the civilian population, accusing it of supporting a local militia, Raia Mutomboki.
Cut to 6 years later: on 23 August 2018, the South Kivu military tribunal opened a trial in the town of Kalehe against two leaders of the FDLR, Kabumbre and Rafiki Castro. As part of the years-long investigation, over 130 victims and witnesses testified.
On 21 September 2018, the court condemned the two high-ranking commanders to life sentences for murder and torture constituting crimes against humanity. Not only is the case a success, but it’s also the first time video footage was submitted and considered vital to a case as incriminating evidence in DRC.
“We are delighted with this verdict” says Daniele Perissi, Head of the Great Lakes program at TRIAL International. “Impunity in DRC is rampant, including among armed groups’ commanders. This sends a strong warning signal to anyone committing abuses who might think their military power places them above the law.”
This success is the result of a close cooperation between TRIAL International, whose mandate is to fight impunity for international crimes; WITNESS and eyeWitness to Atrocities, which has developed a unique tool to record, file and verify videos used in judicial proceedings. Together, they assisted the victims’ lawyers in collecting the strongest incriminating evidence, including verified video footage and photos.
Video for evidence is different to video in advocacy. In order to be admissible in court, the collected material had to go through a rigorous verification procedure, to ensure there had not been any tampering. “When the footage was shown, the atmosphere in court switched dramatically” testifies Chiara Gabriele, Burundi Legal Officer for TRIAL International. “Images are a powerful tool to convey the crimes’ brutality and the level of violence the victims have suffered.”
“DRC is extremely vast and has poor infrastructures. When crimes are committed in the countryside, hours away from the nearest city, presenting evidence in court can be challenging. With videos, gathering and sharing proofs would be faster and easier, and help build stronger cases,” said Daniele Perissi. “For instance, bringing victims to testify in court can be humanly and logistically challenging. Filming them anonymously and in familiar settings would be less traumatic, and probably yield better results. Footages from the crimes scene, surroundings, etc. will also put their story into context, adding a compelling level of detail.”
Video has historically been used for evidence, but the ease in which they are used by ordinary people is the differentiating factor. Kelly Matheson, Senior Attorney and Program Manager at WITNESS shared, “Videos have been used for a long time in domestic and international proceedings. Footages of concentration camps were shown at the Nuremberg trials! The change in the technological landscape today are the video-makers themselves: ordinary people are filming video alongside professionals and at a much greater volume. In Syria, for instance, the larger part of the videos is taken by activists, not journalists.”
WITNESS and TRIAL International expect this success to be the first of many.
Background: Following the Peace, Security and Development Conference in North and South Kivu, joint operations were carried out in 2008 by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and the Rwandan army, against Democratic Forces of Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). These operations generated strong tensions and the FDLR began to unload on the civilian population, particularly in response to clashes with the Raia Mutomboki. With several million direct and indirect victims since 1994, the conflict in the DRC is the deadliest since the end of the Second World War.
