The authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo launched on Friday 9 December a book entitled the White Book. It is a collection of irrefutable evidence of Rwandan aggression and international crimes committed by the M23 on Congolese soil.
This white book of the Congolese government took into account events from November 2021 to 8 December 2022. It traces the various acts of violations perpetrated by Rwanda in the DRC and the irrefutable evidence of its support for the 23 March Movement called M23. The aim is to bring them before international courts.
“In today’s exercise, what we wanted to do through this White Book is to take up the illicit, non-exhaustive facts constituting violations of international law and establishing without doubting the international responsibility of Rwanda, the aggressor State and its obligation to make reparation. The development of the facts in 7 chapters, evoking in particular these decried facts, their consequences, their qualifications as well as the expectations of the Democratic Republic of Congo”, declared Patrick Muyaya, Minister of Communication and Media at the launching of the book.
Furthermore, “this White Book should also serve as a basis for criminal prosecution of the sponsors and alleged perpetrators of established crimes under international law such as crimes of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and environmental crimes,” he added.
Establishment of an international criminal court
The Congolese authorities, after painting a bleak picture of the humanitarian situation in the east of the DRC as a result of the Rwandan aggression which caused enormous loss of life, called for the creation of an international criminal court to judge these crimes.
“This time we want to go all the way. Let justice be done. We therefore demand the establishment of an international criminal court to judge all the crimes committed,” said the Minister of Communication and Media, Patrick Muyaya.
It should also be noted that the book also discusses the Kishishe massacre which “resulted in the death of more than 227 civilians”, according to Muyaya. According to the latter, this massacre “constitutes the crime of genocide in that the RDF (Rwandan army) and the M23 targeted 102 Congolese Hutus whom the Rwandan regime seeks to avenge for the 1994 genocide. It should be noted that more than a week after the mass killing of civilians in Kishishe in the Ruthsuru territory in North Kivu on 29 November, the Congolese authorities referred the matter to the International Criminal Court and requested an investigation.
