Press Releases

Military Sex Crimes Investigators and Prosecutors Arrive from the U.S.
for a Training Program with FARDC

A team of military investigators and lawyers arrived from the United States and Europe this week for the beginning of a collaborative training project with the Congolese military on the investigation and prosecution of sex crimes subject to military jurisdiction.  There will be two combined teams of Congolese and Americans working together within the cooperative framework established by MONUC.  The U.S. team of military attorneys and criminal investigators from the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies will assist the Congolese in a comprehensive legal and investigative workshop. 

The trainings will consist of four seminars on investigating sexual crimes for the judicial police inspectors and magistrates of the FARDC Military Justice system.  The seminars are the first part of ten weeks of training that also includes personal equipment for the investigators and comprehensive legal resource books for the members of the military justice system, many of whom have few resources but large jurisdictions across the country.  In this first cycle, the team will deliver two weeks of training in Kinshasa along with a week of training each in Kisangani and Matadi.   The first part of the program, opened on Monday by Acting DCM Craig Cloud and Deputy Defense Minister Luc Amuri, will run until Friday, February 8th, The second part of the program is forecast for the month of May, with further training and donations of equipment anticipated in the future.   

The trainings will be accomplished using MONUC logistical support to move equipment, trainers, and participants to the necessary locations in the regional capitals.  The goal of the seminars is to combat the scourge of sexual violence in the DRC by strengthening the capacities of the investigators and magistrates in the military justice system to investigate and prosecute sexual crimes, and in turn to move the FARDC closer to its goal of attaining professional, disciplined military standards.