The arrest was greeted on Tuesday January 5 by the Congolese Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege.
A former Congolese rebel leader, Roger Lumbala, was indicted and imprisoned on Saturday in France for "complicity in crimes against humanity" committed in 2002 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The arrest and indictment of Roger Lumbala in Paris is an important step for international justice and the fight against impunity from which many Congolese and foreign alleged perpetrators continue to benefit," the famous gynecologist wrote in a statement. .
Roger Lumbala was indicted on Saturday as part of a preliminary investigation opened in December 2016 by the Crimes Against Humanity pole of the Paris prosecutor's office.
"Universal jurisdiction" of French justice
Aged 62, Roger Lumbala, a former opposition deputy, was at the time leading the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-National (RCD-N).
This armed group, founded in 1998, has been accused in several United Nations reports of rape, summary executions, kidnappings, mutilations and cannibalism in Ituri (northeast), mainly against the Nande and ethnic groups. twa (Pygmies).
Former minister in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004-2005, Roger Lumbala had refuted these accusations in a first UN report in 2003.
By virtue of "universal jurisdiction" for the most serious crimes, French justice has the possibility of prosecuting and convicting the authors and accomplices of these crimes when they are on French territory.
Fight impunity
"Impunity is one of the main causes of the perpetuation of massacres on Congolese territory," said the Congolese Nobel laureate.
He called on other European states to initiate similar procedures on the basis of universal jurisdiction "for facts documented in the UN mapping report".
This shock report, made public in 2010, documented more than 600 human rights violations (systematic rapes, killings, etc.), especially during the two Congo wars (1996-98 and 1998-2003).
The largest country in sub-Saharan Africa (2.3 million km2), the Democratic Republic of the Congo came close to breaking up during these two wars involving numerous militias and the armies of several countries in the region.
For the ten years of this report, in October, Dr. Denis Mukwege, nicknamed "the man who repairs women", denounced "impunity" and the failure to take into account the recommendations it contained.
The country is still plagued by violence in its eastern part, especially in the Kivu and Ituri regions.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, at least 21 civilians were killed in an attack by fighters from the armed group of the Allied Democratic Forces, former Ugandan Muslim rebels with roots in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
With AFP
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