Roger Lumbala: France opens investigations on former warlord

Roger Lumbala: France opens investigations on former warlord

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An armed group he led is accused of crimes, including rape, summary executions, mutilation and cannibalism during a deadly civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

French prosecutors also accuse Lumbala of “participating in a group formed to prepare for war crimes”.

According to a 2003 UN Security Council report, Lumbala led an armed group called Rassemblement Congolais pour la démocratie-National (RCD-N), created in 2000 and supported by the Ugandan military during the country’s deadly civil war.

The UN investigation “confirmed a pattern of looting, killing and raping as tactics of war” in 2002 for RCD-N forces in the Beni area, in the northeast of Ituri.

“Summary executions targeted the Nande ethnic group and the pygmies, who were forced to flee into the forest for the first time to escape persecution,” said the UN report.

“The victims reported several cases of mutilation followed by acts of cannibalism,” added the report.

The fighters involved in the so-called ‘Clean the blackboard’ operation confirmed that they were sent by Lumbala, the UN Security Council said. A separate report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states that participants in the operation “tortured, mutilated and killed” other combatants before using their organs “as war trophies”.
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Between October 12 and 29, 2002, RCD-N soldiers allegedly killed 173 civilians and committed “acts of cannibalism”, the report says. An unknown number of civilians were maimed while soldiers raped a “large number” of women and children.

The report links other incidences of mutilation, rape and cannibalism to the ‘Clean the blackboard’ operation.

The French judiciary has jurisdiction to try cases of crimes against humanity committed abroad against foreign victims, if the perpetrators are present in French territory or residing in France.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire, gained independence from Belgium in June 1960. The head of the army, General Mobutu Sese Seko, came to power through a military coup in 1965 and remained virtually unchallenged during the decades of 1970 and 1980.

In 1996, splinter groups led by Laurent Kabila – and strongly supported by Rwanda and Uganda – rebelled against endemic corruption. They entered the country’s capital, Kinshasa, in May 1997, and Kabila declared himself president.

Internal and external dissatisfaction with Kabila gradually grew until 1998, when a new rebel group – again supported by Rwanda and Uganda – was formed and a second conflict broke out.

In January 2001, Kabila was murdered by one of his bodyguards and his son, Joseph Kabila, took over. Under young Kabila, foreign forces gradually departed and the Congolese parties managed to reach an agreement for a transitional national government that included the three main belligerent groups, a series of minor movements by ex-rebels and representatives of civil society and opposition policy.

Lumbala became minister of this government between 2004 and 2005.

Correction: This story has been updated to include the correct image of Roger Lumbala. ‘

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