The Special Criminal Court (CPS), a hybrid court of local and international magistrates in the Central African Republic, heard Monday in Bangui, for the first time since its creation seven years ago, accused of crimes against humanity in this country at war civil.
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The SCC, created in 2015 by the government under UN sponsorship, is responsible for trying war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 2003. It opened its first trial on April 25, adjourned from the first hearing. without the defendants being heard, due to the absence of their lawyers.
Massacres of 46 civilians
Issa Sallet Adoum, Ousman Yaouba and Tahir Mahamat, members of one of the most powerful armed groups that have terrorized populations for years, the 3Rs (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation), are on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, accused of the massacre, on May 21, 2019, of 46 civilians in villages in the North West, Koundjili and Lemouna.
The three men, in their orange prison overalls, without handcuffs and separated by thick glass, remained impassive, under their anti-covid masks, as they read the litany of their alleged crimes and the names of the victims: “
murders and torture, other outrages upon personal dignity, in particular inhuman treatment and other degrading acts
”.
Mutual accusations
Then Adoum and Yaouba took the floor and their first words were to present "
apologies to the Central African people
", without however recognizing the facts of which they are accused.
Mahamat expressed no remorse.
The hearing of the three men lasted approximately two hours and the hearing will resume on Tuesday.
“
The person who gave the order to attack Koundjili and Lemouna is Sidiki Abass
,” said Issa Sallet Adoum, without further details.
The 3Rs had announced the death of their leader, Sidiki Abass, in April 2021. “
They try to cast shame on each other (…) But the real victims, the survivors of these incidents are there ( …) We will listen to them and they will build the court to be able to establish a sound decision
”, estimated Claudine Bagaza Dini, lawyer for the civil parties.
Seleka Alliance Against the Anti-Balaka
The work of the CPS was launched in October 2018 with the first surveys.
This special court is made up of judges and prosecutors originating - in addition to the Central African Republic - in particular from France, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Central African Republic, the second least developed country in the world according to the UN, has been the scene of a civil war since 2013, very deadly in its first years but which has decreased in intensity since 2018. In the first years it opposed predominantly Muslim militias united within the Séléka alliance, to others - the anti-balakas - dominated by Christians and animists, the UN accusing both sides of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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It continues today between armed rebel groups, from the Séléka and anti-balaka sometimes united, and the army of President Faustin Archange Touadéra supported by hundreds of Russian paramilitaries.
