This trial therefore initially had two notable absentees. And then, to these was added the defendant himself. After appearing at the first two hearings, Lumbala decided to boycott the rest of the trial, claiming that the Paris court had no competence to try him. His box remained empty. The defendant also dismissed his lawyers, thus depriving himself of any defence. The parties to the trial contented themselves with the evidence gathered and his statements to the investigating judges to form the court\u2019s decision. Outside the courtroom, Lumbala\u2019s relatives denounced the trial as unbalanced, going so far as to accuse organizations representing the civil parties of recruiting false victims to incriminate Lumbala, on the basis of \u201cpromises of money and a stay in Paris\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But despite these major absences, the court heard -- both in Paris and by videoconference -- victims and witnesses of crimes in Bafwasende, Epulu, Mambasa, Mandima and Isiro, as well as former UN experts, humanitarian workers, researchers, and journalists who worked on crimes in the DRC. It examined reports, including a UN \u201cMapping\u201d report, and read the press of the time to help clarify Lumbala\u2019s level of responsibility in these crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RCD-N, an autonomous armed group<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The accused has consistently maintained that he was acting under Bemba, as part of their alliance to conquer the territories held by Mbusa Nyamwisi\u2019s RCD-KML. But the facts and testimony have instead shown that the Congolese Rally for Democracy-National (RCD-N), headed by Lumbala, was initially an autonomous armed group that subsequently benefitted from the support of Bemba\u2019s Mouvement de lib\u00e9ration du Congo (MLC) after an initial defeat at the hands of Nyamwisi. It was Robert Ombilingo, a former \u201cminister\u201d of Lumbala during the rebellion who came to testify on behalf of his absent defence, who curiously clarified this fact. According to him, when Lumbala arrived in Bafwasende in June 2000, accompanied by a Ugandan contingent, he inherited military deserters from the RCD-KML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe soldiers were thousands of kilometres from the original stronghold of the RCD-KML,and because he [Lumbala] had been brought in by Uganda, they rallied to him, and we, the administrators, did the same to protect our jobs,\u201d Ombilingo told the court. Ombilingo was then deputy administrator of the Bafwasende territory and, thanks to his loyalty to the new strongman, he was appointed \u201cminister\u201d of propaganda and mobilization for the new armed movement launched by Lumbala with a view to gaining popular support in the area he came from. The RCD-N had soldiers and set up an administration in the Bafwasende region, where Lumbala would rule for a year. He then moved to Isiro, following a botched attempt by Uganda in early 2001 to reunify the three movements (MLC-RCD-KML and RCD-N) beneath his command, under the banner Front de lib\u00e9ration du Congo (FLC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharing the spoils<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In October 2002, under the command of his military officer Freddy Ngalimu, alias Mopao Mokonzi (\u201clord\u201d in Lingala, one of the DRC languages), Lumbala unilaterally launched Operation \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d. \u00a0Initially, this enabled him to conquer Epulu, Mambasa, and Mandima, amid summary executions, rape, torture, and looting. However, he immediately lost these localities following a counter-offensive by the Congolese People\u2019s Army (APC, the armed wing of Nyamwisi\u2019s RCD-KML). Lumbala sought the support of Bemba, whom Nyamwisi had just driven out of Beni after the FLC initiative failed. Bemba sent him a battalion commanded by Ramsens Widi Divioka, alias \u201cKing of Fools\u201d, under the coordination of Constant Ndima, Bemba\u2019s right-hand man, who decided to set up headquarters in Lumbala\u2019s headquarters of Isiro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe enemy [RCD-KML] is an unnecessary stain on the board and must be erased.\u201d This is how Ndima explained the concept behind this military operation, which successfully drove Nyamwisi out. In their closing arguments, lawyers for the civil parties concluded that the RCD-N was an armed group that succeeded in a few months \u201cin establishing itself over a territory four times larger than Belgium\u201d to make itself important in a context where \u201cyou needed to have troops and effective control over a territory to be present at the negotiating table.\u201d This explains why Lumbala, along with Bemba and Nyamwisi, was a signatory to the Gbadolite ceasefire agreements that ended \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d, as well as the Pretoria agreements that ended the Second Congo War. And, like other belligerents, he benefitted from the dividends of the transition: \u201cpositions, salaries, and cars,\u201d according to the civil parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\t
Accomplice to crimes against humanity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By trying to hide in Bemba\u2019s shadow, \u201cLumbala intends to escape justice\u201d, said civil parties\u2019 lawyer, Jeanne Sulzer. \u201cHe is seeking impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she believes he was indeed responsible for the \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d operation. In this, she is joined by attorneys general Nicolas Perron and Claire Thouault, who explained to the judges and jurors in their lengthy closing arguments on December 12 that the operation had been planned, coordinated, and claimed by Lumbala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe travelled around the conquered localities in military uniform, presented himself as the Head of State of the Republic, held meetings, boasted of his conquests, presented specific military objectives for conquering Mbusa Nyamwisi\u2019s territory, asked forgiveness for the crimes committed by his soldiers, and never attributed them to anyone else. He had an effective intelligence service, integrated within the civilian population. He collected taxes that he called war efforts,\u201d argued the prosecutors. They accuse Lumbala of complicity in crimes against humanity, through his orders and assistance. \u201cHe provided the direct perpetrators with the means to commit the crimes,\u201d argued prosecutor Thouault. \u201cHe supplied the soldiers with food and transported ammunition during his trips to the localities. Without this complicity, such crimes could not have reached the scale that characterizes them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEighty percent of the women who came forward to testify were raped. Seventy percent of them were raped in the presence of their relatives. Forty percent were young girls and 40% of the victims also witnessed other cases of rape,\u201d said lawyer for the civil parties Cl\u00e9mence Bectarte. These acts of rape, she emphasized, have repercussions on the social lives of the victims. They are rejected, abandoned by their husbands or fathers, made to feel dehumanized, and suffer psychological breakdowns. \u201cRoger Lumbala did not rape my clients, but he was a leader who made these crimes possible. He was an accomplice, without whom these crimes would not have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attorneys general denounced the absence of any trials in the area controlled by Lumbala to punish his soldiers for atrocities. They cited the case of two RCD-N soldiers executed in Isiro on Lumbala\u2019s orders and in his presence for committing rape and murder. But they viewed this as an execution without any form of trial, perceived as a response to public pressure following a case of rape committed by a female soldier against an 11-year-old girl in the streets of Isiro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The victims\u2019 courage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Another lawyer for the civil parties, Cl\u00e9mence Witt, saw Lumbala\u2019s boycott strategy as \u201ccontempt for the victims and a denial of their status as victims\u201d, which \u201chijacked the hearings and made forgiveness impossible by his absence from the dock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRefusing to come here is continuing to show contempt for those who speak out, by saying \u2018I owe you nothing\u2019,\u201d said her colleague Claire Denuau. According to Denuau, their clients had no desire to visit Paris, \u201ca city that imposes stifling clothing\u201d on them during this winter, but were driven by exceptional courage and their desire for justice. This prompted them to defy threats of reprisals from Lumbala\u2019s relatives and attacks by Islamists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The ADF is yet another armed group in eastern DRC, which has been ravaged by conflict for more than 30 years, and often ambushes vehicles on the Mambasa-Bunia and Mambasa-Beni roads, two places that allowed the victims to reach Paris via Kinshasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTheir bodies and minds are so scarred by the crimes that they still remember them 23 years later. The guilt and shame have been cast on the victims,\u201d Witt said. \u201cFor us, justice ends here, but for the victims, it begins there [in the DRC] with fear, fear of reprisals,\u201d added Denuau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 5 p.m. on December 15, the judges and jurors entered the courtroom after a long day of deliberation. That morning, the presiding judge had summoned the defendant to attend the verdict. \u201cI note that Lumbala is not here to hear his verdict. It is 5:04 p.m., and I am issuing a summons for him to be here,\u201d said the judge. The hearing was suspended. Fifteen minutes later the two lawyers appointed to defend Lumbala, Hugues Vigier and Phillipe Zeller, entered the courtroom. Police officers got the dock ready. Less than five minutes later, Lumbala entered handcuffed, wearing a black jacket, sweatpants, and sneakers. He agreed to introduce himself and was asked to stand up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In ten minutes, his fate was sealed. He was found guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity for aiding and abetting acts of torture, rape, and pillage constituting inhuman acts, forced labour and sexual slavery. He was sentenced to 30 years\u2019 in jail, plus a permanent ban from French territory. A written judgment will be sent to him within three days. He has ten days to appeal. A hearing in a civil case, which may rule on reparations, is set for June 30, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cImpunity still reigns\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Until this verdict, no foreign court had ever convicted anyone for atrocities committed in eastern DRC. In his closing arguments on December 11, a day after Rwanda-supported M23 rebels leading an offensive against Kinshasa captured the strategic town of Uvira in eastern DRC, Bectarte urged the court to send \u201ca strong signal to the warlords that justice can still catch up with them, even 22 years after the events\u201d. \u201cInternational justice must be able to go after the powerful, the warlords who still commit crimes,\u201d he said. \u201cImpunity continues to reign. Impunity creates the conditions for crimes to be repeated. It is because no one has ever been tried, because those in high places have never been tried, that the crimes continue.\u201d He thinks that \u201cthe legitimacy of this court comes from the participation of the victims. This trial is certainly taking place before a French criminal court, but it has been made possible because it is the Congolese victims, Congolese witnesses and Congolese NGOs who have turned to the French justice system. Because there was no other way to obtain justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe DRC has been turned into a funeral parlour,\u201d added Deniau. \u201cConvicting Lumbala means recognizing that the courage of the victims has not been in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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