One month after arriving in the DRC’s capital of Kinshasa, I was able to go on my first mission to Bunia, capital of the Ituri district, to visit our office there. It is almost an 8 hour journey, from door to door, from the far west to the far east of the country. The Ituri district is our main area of activities, as there are many communities there that have been affected by crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction. During this first visit, I assisted in two outreach sessions in Bunia, the first with NGOs and the second with local journalists. While this gave me a good impression of the ICC’s activities in the region, our main activities are usually held in small villages directly with the affected communities. I could not wait to have time to join one of them.
Finally, this opportunity arrived! It was the 1st of April 2015. I travelled to a small village related to the Bosco Ntaganda case, for the ICC’s first Outreach session there. It was one of the last stops of a three-week mission across the district. The day was going to be intense. We left at 7 in the morning, after a short briefing among the mission participants. The village is located only about 90 km from Bunia, but it took us almost 3 hours to reach. It was just the beginning of the rainy season, so the dirt roads were still in quite good condition, as good as we could imagine, at least. I could not get stable video images of the landscape, villagers in their daily occupation or walking with fruit and vegetable baskets on their heads. There were so many potholes that I sometimes had to choose between the camera and the car handle! I will keep the beautiful scenery for my own eyes.
Before reaching our destination, we passed so many villages I had read about in judicial documents and Outreach activity reports that they already seemed familiar. When we reached the village, about 80 people were waiting among NGOs representatives, authorities and both female and male leaders. They were seated and waiting quietly in a wooden Church, the only venue big enough to organize such a gathering. I ask if it would not bother anyone that I film the activity to document our work. During the filming, they asked me not to record only once.
Speakers placed outside the Church yelled out our main messages enabling the words to travel through the hills. Children were gathering in front of the door. From outside, the National police members who escorted us were also listening carefully. During the video projection of ICC hearings, I spotted a couple of people filming the screen with their phones. When the debate started, questions poured in: first regarding the case, then more generally on the Court. Villagers even had questions on Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda. I was amazed by their knowledge of ICC cases. When a participant asked why the ICC is not pursuing other criminals in the DRC, surprisingly, some local leaders stood up to explain that it was first the responsibility of national jurisdictions to take on such cases.
After the session, I set up the video camera outside and invited people that would like to ask questions to the Court officials to come. I loved seeing these people faces – old, young, women and men – in front of the camera. Unfortunately, our time was limited; the Security officer reminded me that we had to leave to reach Bunia before the nightfall.
Though I wished I had more time to get questions filmed, I will make sure to keep the Ask the Court video programme running and make time to film more questions in the next villages.
* No names have been provided, in order to protect those in affected communities. As part of the ICC Registry, a neutral organ of the Court, Outreach speaks to all groups, from victims of crimes under the Court's jurisdiction to groups that show support to suspects before the Court. Outreach seeks to engage and inform, without taking sides, and to help relay the questions and concerns posed in these communities to the Court, creating two-way dialogue between the Court and communities.
