5 May 2008
Briefing
RAID and Global Witness
The Kilwa trial, which opened before a military court in December 2006, concerned a massacre in October 2004 in which at least 73 civilians were killed by soldiers of the 62nd Brigade of the Congolese Armed Forces, with logistical support from the Australian/Canadian mining company, Anvil Mining. Anvil Mining has stated that its transport and equipment were requisitioned and that it had no choice in the matter.
On 28 June 2007, the court in Lubumbashi acquitted all those accused of war crimes and other crimes in relation to the Kilwa events. The court ruled inter alia that the majority of those who had died had been members of a rebel group killed in confrontations with the Congolese Armed Forces. The court did not accept that the military had carried out extrajudicial executions or that some the victims had been buried in unmarked graves in Nsensele. The court ruled that the site indicated by numerous witnesses and UN human rights investigators was a cemetery, not a mass grave, and that Anvil Mining’s vehicles and logistical support had been requisitioned.
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