DEFIANT CONGOLESE DOCTOR CONTINUES TO CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF MASSACRE COMMITTED IN HIS COUNTRY

Nobel Laureate and renowned doctor, Denis Mukwege, has made another public call for justice to be served for the victims of war crimes committed particularly in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This comes as Dr Mukwege and  his organisation, The Panzi Foundation, are  commemorating the horrific event of the August 24 1998 Kasika  massacre.

The massacre, which according to the doctor, is well documented in a United Nations report , saw rebel soldiers from the ANC/ APR movement kill more than a 1000 civilians. The victims included children and  women, who were first subjected to torture and rape before being brutally murdered. The incident took place in the village of Kalama, Kilungutwe and Kasika; located 108kg from the South Kivu Provincial capital of Bukavu.

Dr Mukwege expressed his disbelief that 22 years after the unimaginable man inflicted horror, the perpetrators continue to walk freely.
For the doctor this kind of impunity is what has contributed to the cycle of violence that has plagued  eastern Congo over the decades.

Dr Denis Mukwege again insisted on the implementation of the recommendation tabled by the United Nations report, which details the massacre of Kasika. According to him this will act as a deterrent for  those fuelling the violence in the region and prevent further atrocities

The call by the doctor can be seen as a sign of defiant after he began receiving death threats when he initially requested for the re-tabling of the United Nations mapping report on Congo.

Last week, Physicians for Human Rights , an American rights organisation, accused former Rwandan defense minister James Kabarebe for making a threat on the doctor's life when he spoke ill of him on a Rwandan television channel.

The United Nations report had also named Rwanda as the country that had countless times  sponsored rebel groups in Congo.