Central African Republic's Special Criminal Court, set up to probe war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 2003, opens its first trial Tuesday, seven years after it was created.
The court was created in 2015 with the backing of the United Nations and is made up of national and international judges and prosecutors from France, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On Tuesday it will hear its first trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in May 2019.
Defendants Ousman Yaouba, Tahir Mahamat and Issa Sallet Adoum, known as Bozize, are members of 3R – one of the most powerful armed groups that have terrorised the population for years.
They are accused of massacring 46 civilians in villages in the north-west of the country.
Six women were raped during the attacks.
Challenges
While the court has been praised by some as a model of justice which could be exported to other countries facing civil war, it has been criticised for the delay in opening its first trial.
Others doubt its effectiveness.
The trial comes exactly five months after officers from the SCC arrested former rebel chief Hassan Bouba at his ministry in Bangui.
US-based non-profit, The Sentry, said Bouba was directly responsible for an attack on a camp for displaced people in November 2018 that left at least 112 villagers dead.
Days later, he was freed by gendarmes before returning to his ministry close to the court – and was decorated with the National Order of Merit.
"The SCC is facing obstacles put in place by the authorities, perfectly illustrated by the Hassan Bouba affair," said Nicolas Tiangaye, a lawyer and spokesman for the opposition Coalition of 2020, which gathers most of the unarmed opposition parties.
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The SCC has an annual budget of 12 million euros, mainly from the UN, the EU and the US.
Despite the UN being a major donor, critics say the SCC cannot even count on the support of the 14,000 UN peacekeepers in the country (MINUSCA).
"The judges' decisions must be applied by other entities. There are at least 25 arrest warrants, but neither MINUSCA nor the CAR authorities execute them even though that is part of their mandate," said Alice Banens, legal advisor for Amnesty International.
Big fish
"The real question now is whether our warrants, including those for big fish, will be carried out," said SCC president Michel Landry Louanga.
The court has also been plagued by logistical challenges that have not helped its standing – the last two foreign judges took up their posts in February and "key positions at the SCC remained vacant and difficult to fill," Human Rights Watch said in a recent report.
"The situation of the court is special, it is a functioning court while there are still clashes and our detractors forget that," Louanga said.
"Despite everything, we manage to set up war crimes proceedings and that doesn't happen anywhere else, there are no comparisons in the world."
(with AFP)
