the congo tribunal

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MILO RAU / IIPM – INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL MURDER
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
CONTENT
0
CREDITS
3
1
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
4
2
SCHEDULE
7
3
A CONVERSATION WITH MILO RAU
10
4
MILO RAU / IIPM
14
5
MEMBERS TRIBUNAL / JURY
16
6
ABOVE THE RADAR BY MILO RAU
18
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
CREDITS
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
A PRODUCTION OF MILO RAU / INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
POLITICAL MURDER (IIPM)
HEARINGS:
29 - 31 MAY 2015, BUKAVU HEARINGS, COLLÈGE ALFAJIRI,
BUKAVU (EASTERN CONGO)
26 - 28 JUNE 2015, BERLIN HEARINGS, SOPHIENSAELE, BERLIN
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Milo Rau RESEARCH AND CASTING
Eva-Maria Bertschy PRODUCER Arne Birkenstock, Olivier Zobrist
CO-PRODUCER Milo Rau STAGE DESIGNER Anton Lukas CAMERA
Thomas Schneider SOUND Jens Baudisch, Marco Teufen EDITING
Katja Dringenberg LINE PRODUCER Mascha Euchner-Martinez,
Mirjam Knapp PRODUCTION MANAGER Mascha Euchner-Martinez,
Kirsten Schauries, Eva-Karen Tittmann ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Mirjam Knapp RESEARCH ON SITE Kris Berwouts, Chrispin Mvano Ya
Bauma, Jean Moreau Tubibu TECHNICAL MANAGER BUKAVU Patric
Byamungu CORPORATE DESIGN Nina Wolters PUBLIC RELATIONS
Yven Augustin CROSSMEDIA Sebastian Lemke EDITORIAL BOOK
Rolf Bossart
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL is a film and theatre production of Milo Rau and the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM).
The theatre project is a coproduction of IIPM and Sophiensaele Berlin, in cooperation with Fruitmarket Arts and Media, Langfilm, European Center for Constitutional
and Human Rights and Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, funded by Regierender
Bürgermeister von Berlin – Senatskanzlei – Kulturelle Angelegenheiten,
Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (bpb) and the
Goethe Institut Johannesburg. With the kind support of Brussels Airlines.
The film is a German-Swiss coproduction of Fruitmarket Arts and Media and Langfilm, in cooperation with IIPM and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF & Radio
Télévision Suisse RTS, Lemafrika Culture et Développement (Bukavu) and Kwetu
Film Institute (Kigali), funded by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Bundesamt für
Kultur (Switzerland), Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien
(Germany), Kulturförderung Kanton St. Gallen / Swisslos, Zürcher Filmstiftung,
Filmförderungsanstalt, Deutscher Filmförderfonds and Volkart Stiftung.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
1.
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
Milo Rau’s theatre and film project “The Congo Tribunal”
convenes in the tradition of Jean-Paul Sartre's “Vietnam
Tribunal” in Bukavu – the “World Capital of Rape” – and in
Berlin – the city of the historical Africa Conference of 1885.
More than 60 witnesses and experts investigate the causes
and backgrounds to the 20 year ongoing war in Eastern
Congo – one of the richest regions of natural resources in
the world.
Over six days Congolese government and opposition politicians, soldiers, rebels, UN and World Bank officials, large mining companies as well
as ordinary Congolese citizens, philosophers, economists and lawyers face
an international jury. In Bukavu the
economical perspectives of a politically
unstable region haunted by rebels and
ethnic conflicts are examined, based on
three concrete cases. Subsequently the
hearings in Berlin shed light on the
involvement of the international players - the multinational companies and the World Bank, the industrial nations, the UN and the NGOs - in the war in Eastern Congo
and the mechanics of „disaster capitalism“ (Naomi Klein).
The subjects of the inquest are discussed controversially and
with an open end. The hearings are filmed and form the centrepiece of the same-titled documentary film with international cinema release in autumn 2016.
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Milo Rau during a film shooting with Congolese soldiers.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
For over 20 years, an unfathomable civil war has transformed
an area the size of Western Europe into Hell on Earth: It is the
Congo War, a war that has claimed the most victims of all wars
since World War II. It first presented itself merely as a repercussion of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda and the subsequent
fall of the Congolese dictator Mobutu. It soon developed into an
ongoing massacre of the Congolese population. In its early stages
the conflict was limited to a split among the genocide militias who
fled Rwanda, before it developed into a globally networked, autonomous "economy of war", to which child soldiers armed with cheap
Kalashnikovs and machetes belonged just as much as the German
NGOs, biodiesel producers, Chinese commodity traders and Canadian mining companies.
This is because the reason for the continuation of the war in
the Congo is no longer ethnic antagonism, but commodities, such as coltan,
niobium or cassiterite, which were essential to survival in the upcoming 21st
century. "Our mobile phone manufacturers lead in the Congo War", as the
daily newspaper "Die Welt" summarized - because nowhere else are the
deposits of coltan, which is crucial for
communication technology, greater
than in Eastern Congo. Coltan which is
equally applicable as a base material
for new technology that will go into
mass production in the context of the
"green revolution".
For the first time, "The Congo Tribunal" creates an unshrouded
portrait of this, one of the most immense economic wars in human
history, as well as of its economic and political causes and its
tangible face on the ground. Why do all the efforts of the UN
(which does not shy away from the term "genocide") and the
processes against the militias conducted by the International
Criminal Court remain completely ineffective? Is the reason
perhaps that the war in the Congo is not being allowed come to an
end that too many local and international players are involved in
the booming commodity trade in the Eastern Congo?
In May 2015, "The Congo Tribunal" convenes the main
protagonists and analysts of the Congo War in Bukavu – the
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Theatre hall of the Collège
Alfajiri in Bukavu, where
„The Congo Tribunal“ will
taking place at the end of
May 2015.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
provincial capital of South Kivu, the province in the Congo most
affected by the war – and one months later in Berlin for a
large, three-day tribunal. Based in form on the RussellSartre Tribunal (1966) about the crimes of the Vietnam War
and presided over by a half-Congolese and half-international
panel of experts as well as the two leading human rights
lawyers in the region, the central lines of the conflict in the
Congo War will be examined based on hearings with victims,
witnesses, militia officers, politicians, UN and NGO
members, commodity traders and local human rights
activists. Unlike the International Criminal Court or national
courts, not only the local players, rebel leaders and low-rank
soldiers will be held accountable before the Congo Tribunal
but also their international accomplices who provided the
supply lines for this atrocious civil war or prevented its
cessation.
As in Milo Rau's film "The Moscow Trials", acclaimed by the international press, the subjects of the investigation are controversial and debated with an open end: Are the causes of the "African
World War" to be found in a colonial past which has still not yet
been overcome? To what extent is the energy revolution with its
enormous demand for rare metals and biodiesel a declaration of
war on the Congo region? And will one of the biggest and bloodiest
economic wars of human history decide the future order of the
global community?
With "The Congo Tribunal", Milo Rau completes his
preoccupation with Central Africa, which he started with the
theater, film and book production of "Hate Radio" (about the
Rwandan genocide) in 2011 and, amongst others, with the
2013/2014 talk show series "The Berlin Dialogues". The
international cinema release of "The Congo Tribunal" will be at the
beginning of 2017.
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„The Congo Tribunal“ convenes more than 60 witnesses and experts of the
Congo War in Bukavu and
Berlin.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
2.
SCHEDULE
A. THE BUKAVU HEARINGS
Collège Alfajiri, Bukavu, Eastern Congo
29 - 31 May 2015
Opening Session (Friday 17:00 - 19:00)
Introductory Speeches
Explanation of the rules and the objectives of the tribunal
Session 1: The Bisie Case (Saturday 11:00 - 14:00)
In 2002 artisanal miners discovered a large deposit of cassiterite
on a hill close to the city of Walikale in the North Kivu province. As
the region was occupied by numerous armed groups, troops of the
Congolese army occupied the mine in order to protect it and
walked away with a large part of the profits. Four years later the
company MPC acquired an exploration licence for the mine from
the government in Kinshasa. This led to an open conflict with the
miners on the site.
Key Question: Does the industrial mining of the raw materials in
Bisie contribute to the security and economical development of the
region or are the foreign mining companies the only ones who
profit?
Session 2: The Twangiza Site Case (Saturday 16:00 - 19:00)
When Zaire (later Democratic Republic of Congo) was on the verge
of bankruptcy in 1996, the Canadian start-up company BANRO
bought the licence for gold mining from Mobutu for the Twangiza
site near Bukavu. When the company began mining in 2003, the
local population were to be relocated. This led to a conflict with the
inhabitants of Luwhindja.
Key Question: Has BANRO profited from the political instability
during the war in order to plunder the natural resources of Eastern
Congo or are they pioneers of the industrialisation of the region?
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
Session 3: The Mutarule Case (Sunday 13:00 - 16:00)
In June 2014 a massacre took place in Mutarule, a village in the
border region between Rwanda and Burundi in Eastern Congo,
resulting in 35 deaths. This was the fourth massacre in two years.
Although the local authorities had on a number of occasions
warned about the increasing insecurity in the region, neither the
troops from the UN Mission nor the Congolese army could prevent
the atrocity.
Key Question: Is there no end to the insecurity in Eastern Congo
because too many local and international players are involved in
the numerous conflicts and profit from them, or do they in fact
prevent something even worse?
Closing Speeches (Sunday 17:00 - 19:00)
Press Conference (Monday 13:00 - 15:00)
Presentation of the results by the jury
B. THE BERLIN HEARINGS
Sophiensaele Berlin, Germany
26 - 28 June 2015
Opening Session (Friday 19:00 - 21:00)
Introductory Speeches
Summary of the results from the Bukavu Hearings
Explanation of the rules and the objectives of the tribunal
Session 1: Responsibility of the Multinational Companies
and the World Bank (Saturday 12:00 -15:00)
The different measures – like the Dodd-Frank Act or the OECD
guidelines – designed to stem the trade and processing of socalled “conflict minerals” from Eastern Congo, to date seem to
above all serve the cultivation of the image of the electronics industry, while local conditions have barely improved. Instead the
Congolese mine workers are displaced by multinational companies
who profited during the war, acquiring concessions under favourable conditions.
Key Question: Are the companies responsible for the human rights
violations in Eastern Congo or do they in fact contribute to the
stabilisation of the region?
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
Session 2: Responsibility of the EU, its Member States and
Switzerland (Saturday 17:00 – 20:00)
While the sanctions against “conflict minerals” affect the Congolese
artisanal miners in particular, the multinational companies are
scarcely held responsible for the violation of human rights in Congo. In view of the increasing need for natural resources in western
industrial countries, the regulation policies of the EU in Central
Africa presumably conduce to the security of future consumption.
Thus the “clean” energy policies of the industrial states rely on a
neo-colonial outsourcing of all “dirty” primary industries, accompanied by a massive resettlement programme.
Key Question: Are the multinational companies not prosecuted for
their human rights violations because their involvement in Africa is
necessary for Europe's current energy policies?
Session 3: Responsibility of the NGOs and the United Nations (Sunday 14:00 - 17:00)
In Congo, like many other former colonies, independence could
never cultivate a stable government - let alone a functioning civil
society. The ruined traditional and civil society structures and absent state monopolies have been superseded by western financed
parallel structures: the NGOs and the UN peace missions. They
currently find themselves in a crisis of legitimacy. Denounced as
merely self-sustaining, fatally entangled in the respective power
systems.
Key Question: Is the peace-keeping policy of the international
community in the field responsible for the continuing conflict by
stabilising the status quo?
Closing Speech (Sunday 18:00 - 20:00)
Press Conference (Monday 14:00 - 16:00)
Presentation of the results by the jury
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
3.
„IT IS ESSENTIAL TO BECOME
INVOLVED.“
A CONVERSATION WITH MILO RAU
ABOUT THE BACKGROUND TO “THE CONGO TRIBUNAL”
Dirke Köpp: Mr. Rau, you were recently in Congo for your
new documentary project “The Congo Tribunal”. A journey
into the heart of darkness?
Milo Rau: In a sense, yes. “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad
is a book about classic colonialism and Europe's stake in Africa's
darkness – which is currently being repeated in a neo-colonialism
at a higher level. In regions like Eastern Congo people are paying
the price for what we in Europe are gaining
in quality of life. When we mine raw materials like coltan, when we plant mono-cultures
for bio-diesel. And as for the work on “Congo
Tribunal”, it really is a journey into the heart
of darkness: mass deportations, massacres,
20 years of war. And although I have already
seen a lot, it was a new dimension for me.
»In regions like Eastern
Congo people are paying the
price for what we in Europe
are gaining in quality of
life.«
Milo Rau
What exactly is the “Congo Tribunal”
about?
Milo Rau: “The Congo Tribunal” is similar to
my previous projects - e.g. “The Moscow Trials” or “The Zurich
Trials” - a tribunal format. Over three days in Bukavu and another
three days in Berlin we will conduct hearings with international and
Congolese experts, who will examine the involvement of local
players, multinational raw material traders and mining companies
in this war that has claimed more victims than any other since
World War Two. But also the involvement of the EU, the United
Nations and China. For example, what has Europe's African policy
to do with the massacre in Eastern Congolese Mutarule, which I
coincidentally witnessed a year ago? Another case we will hear is
the resettlement programme of thousands of people in a region
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The massacre of Mutarule in
June 2014 (film still research
trip “The Congo Tribunal”).
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
that is actually uninhabitable, so that raw materials can be mined
on a large scale. This all happens with the UN present, with the
largest blue helmet contingent in its history. One has to ask: who
is the contingent protecting actually? For their part, the Congolese
government collaborates with the international companies –
against the interests of their own people. The project tries to shed
light on such involvements and backgrounds.
Where do you draw the line between fiction and reality? Are
you not afraid the project will get out of control? The war in
Congo is far from over.
Milo Rau: There will be no actors, no
script – this tribunal is not biased. I have
no idea how the whole thing will end.
Everyone will be questioned, from highranking officials to ordinary mine workers, from rebel to UN officer. It will conclude with the jury of experts announcing
their verdict in Bukavu and in Berlin. I
think it will have a direct influence on
politics, because the cases heard at the
“Congo Tribunal” in reality have been
protracted or not heard at all - or then on
a level that affects only the lowest underlings. When one takes the resettlement
actions by large companies, that are illegal both in international
and Congolese law, it is classic economic crime. At the same time
one can say: it is just the birth pains of industrialisation, in the
end the majority will profit, like in Europe. To hear such cases
without prejudice – and then in collaboration with all sides, the
mining companies as well as civil rights organisations, rebels as
well as the official army, with globalisation critics, the OECD and
the World Bank – is of course a balancing act. The danger is that
the whole thing will be taken so seriously that in the end the tribunal will founder on its own ludicrous demands.
At the same time you and your tribunal will become involved in this conflict.
Milo Rau: I think it is essential to become involved. If I am later
asked: “What did you do as six million people in Congo died?” then
I don't want to say: “I de-constructed a book by Michel Houellebecq in Paris.” Anyone with any moral decency has to be active,
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Milo Rau during a technical
rehearsal for the Bukavu
Hearings in February 2015.
»Anyone with any moral
decency has to be active,
has to become involved.
The globalised economy
demands that art acts
globally.«
Milo Rau
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
has to become involved. The globalised economy demands that art
acts globally.
What politicised you?
Milo Rau: I don't think I'm very good at blocking things out – I
cannot forget the massacre I witnessed in East Congo, or the deported people, the refugee camps, the unbelievable misery. But
above all I cannot forget that these things are cynically necessary
to guarantee our prosperity, to preserve the world economy. What
politicised me is plain and simply the reality in which we live - the
utterly different standards that apply to Europe and Africa for example. But the Congo is not a distant
planet, where beings live without any
entitlement to be happy. I have to become involved, I can't distance myself,
otherwise I'd go mad.
»Either we find an alternative to the global capitalism
we have today or it is the
end of this planet.«
Milo Rau
In your opinion, what is next for
Congo?
Milo Rau: Difficult to say. I've met different politicians and in my opinion there
are a few who are actually independent
and can possibly change something. Also
the current head of the UN Mission in
Congo, Martin Kobler, has put a few things into motion. One hope
is that the federal system can be strengthened, that the Congolese
federal states receive more independence. You have to remember
that this country is nearly as big as Europe – it is impossible to
travel from West to East on land. Without infrastructure, without
thinking locally, without an industrialisation negotiated with the
population, nothing will ever change. My impression is that everything - the direct neighbours, the rebel organisations, the international mining companies, even the government and the NGOs –
profit from the constant chaos. It is a war economy: coltan, gold,
tin, crude oil, crop land, even raped women bring money onto the
world market. And as long as so many people earn their money
with this war, nothing will change in Congo.
Very pessimistic...
Milo Rau: Not at all. I am not interested in wallowing in misery, or
filming massacres and indicting people. Instead I want to have a
vision of how to move forward. The world is bad because we profit
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Milo Rau while film shooting
“The Congo Tribunal” in a
gold mine in Eastern Congo.
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from it. We no longer need a well-meaning cultural exchange, we
need justice and truth, but especially we need an alternative plan.
In the words of the globalisation critic Naomi Klein or the German
sociologist Harald Welzer: either we find an alternative to the
global capitalism we have today, with its incredible cheapening of
commodities, its disruption of the processing and producing industry, its increasingly shorter investment periods, that makes any
sustainability impossible – or it is the end of this planet.
This interview was taken by Dirke Köpp (Deutsche Welle).
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4.
MILO RAU / IIPM
Milo Rau was born in Bern in 1977. He studied sociology, German
and Roman studies in Paris, Zurich and Berlin under Tzvetan
Todorov and Pierre Bourdieu among others. He started his first
reporting trips in 1997, travelling to Chiapas, Cuba. From 2000 he
worked as an author for Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and from 2003 as
a director and writer at home and abroad.
»One of the most sought
after theatre directors of his
time.«
Süddeutsche Zeitung
In 2007, Rau founded the theatre and film production company
International Institute of Political Murder which he has been running ever since. His theatrical works and films have been invited to
some of the biggest national and international festivals, including
Berliner Theatertreffen, Festival d'Avignon, Theaterspektakel Zürich, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen, Festival
TransAmeriques, Wiener Festwochen and the Kunstenfestival
Brussels.
Alongside his work for stage and film, Milo Rau lectures on direction, cultural theory and social sculpture at universities and
colleges. His productions, campaigns and films (including
“Montana”, “The Last Hours of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu”,
“Hate Radio”, “City of Change”, “Breivik’s Statement”,
“The Moscow Trials”, “The Zurich Trials”, “The Civil Wars” and “The
Dark Ages”) have been touring in more than 30 countries around
the world.
In 2014, Milo Rau received u. o. the ‘Swiss Theatre Price’, the
‘Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden’ (for "Hate Radio”), the Special
Jury Price of the ‘German Film Festival’ (for "The Moscow Trials")
and the Great Jury Price of the German Theatre Trienale Festival
“Politik im Freien Theater” (for "The Civil Wars").
Milo Rau's philosophical essay "What is to be done. Critique of
the Postmodern Reason" (2013) became a bestseller, was awarded
as "Best Political Book 2013" by the German daily newspaper ‘Die
Tageszeitung’, while his play "The Civil Wars" was selected as one
of "The 5 best plays 2014" by the expert's commission of Swiss
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In 2007, Rau founded the
theatre and film production
company International
Institute of Political Murder
(IIPM) in Zurich and Berlin.
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State Television. The Civil Wars" was also chosen as one of the
"best plays in the Netherlands and Flanders in 2014/15."
The belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique recently named Rau
"Europe's most sought after director”, with the German weekly Der
Freitag calling him “the most controversial theatre director of his
generation”.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
5.
MEMBERS OF THE TRIBUNAL /
JURY
SYLVESTRE BISIMWA (INVESTIGATOR)
Sylvestre Bisimwa was the lawyer for a group of women rape victims in the so-called Minova trial against the Congolese army and
regularly works at the International Criminal Court.
COLETTE BRAECKMAN (JURY)
Colette Braeckman is the Africa correspondent for the Belgian
newspaper “Le Soir”. She is one of the leading authorities on the
Congo war, its antecedents and the involvement of European governments.
JEAN-LOUIS GILISSEN (CHAIR OF THE TRIBUNAL)
Jean-Louis Gilissen is an expert for international criminal law and
as a counsel at the International Criminal Court represented a
group of child soldiers in a trial against Congolese militia leaders,
among others.
SARAN KABA JONES (JURY)
Saran Kaba Jones formed the aid agency FACE Africa in 2009,
which provides remote regions of Liberia with safe drinking water.
She is listed by the Guardian as one of Africa's 25 Top Women
Achievers and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
WOLFGANG KALECK (JURY)
Wolfgang Kaleck is the General Secretary of the European Centre
for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin, that litigates cases of human rights violations by state actors and multinational companies. As a lawyer he is currently representing the
whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
GILBERT KALINDA (JURY)
Gilbert Kalinda is a lawyer and a member of the district government in Walikale. Two years ago he became a lawyer for the multinational mining company Alphamin/MPC, operating in Eastern
Congo.
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PRINCE KIHANGI (JURY)
Prince Kihangi is a jurist in Goma and one of the leading experts
on the gouvernance of natural resources in the African Great Lakes
region. He is considered to be one of the harshest critics of the
“Dodd-Frank Act”.
VÉNANTIE BISIMWA NABINTU (JURY)
Vénantie Bisimwa Nabintu is a Congolese human rights activist
from Bukavu. She is one of the most active critics of the role of
the NGOs, the UNO and the multinationals in Africa.
KATHRIN RÖGGLA (CLERK)
Kathrin Röggla is an Austrian author living in Berlin. She addresses
social crises in her text and staged readings (including “Worst
Case”), which have won her numerous awards.
SASKIA SASSEN (JURY)
Saskia Sassen sociologist, economist and one of the worlds leading
globalisation critics, examines the destruction of local civil society
as an intrinsic necessity of globalisation.
MARC-ANTOINE VUMILIA MUHINDO (JURY)
Marc-Antoine Vumilia Muhindo grew up in Kisangani (DRC) and is a
playwright and director living in exile in Sweden. He fled Congo,
after he and 84 other suspects were held responsible for the death
of Laurent-Désiré Kabila and sentenced to death.
HARALD WELZER (JURY)
Harald Welzer is a social psychologist, founder and director of the
foundation Futurzwei as well as an honorary professor at the University of Flensburg and author of “Climate Wars: What people will
be killed for in the 21st century”.
JEAN ZIEGLER (JURY)
Jean Ziegler is a Swiss sociologist and a member of the Advisory
Committee of the Human Rights Council at the UN. He is one of
the world's most noted globalisation critics, with his books having
been translated into over 50 languages.
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6.
ABOVE THE RADAR
Milo Rau „Above the Radar“, taz – die tageszeitung, 26.05.2015
RE-ENACTMENT Notes by the theatre director Milo Rau on his
research in the Congo. This coming weekend he stages his latest
project “The Congo Tribunal” with high-profile participation in
Bukavu.
BY MILO RAU
The Congo Tribunal
For over a year the author and director Milo Rau and his team
have been preparing the “Congo Tribunal” in eastern Congo. In
Bukavu between 29 and 31 May they will gather 40 witnesses and
experts for a three-day tribunal on the economic backgrounds to
the 20 year ongoing Congo War. Members of the government and
the opposition, the Congolese armed forces and militias, mine
workers, geologists, diplomats, women's rights campaigners, international observers and members of the UN will appear before
the international jury, headed by two lawyers from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In Berlin between 26 and 28
June the second part of the tribunal will discuss the role of the EU,
the World Bank and the international NGOs in the Congolese civil
war. In Berlin Rau's jury will expanded to include, among others,
the author and sociologist Harald Welzer and Wolfgang Kalec, the
Snowden lawyer and specialist for international economic crime.
The documentary feature film of Milo Rau's “Congo Tribunal” will
be released in cinemas in 2016.
The UNO and the Tribunal
Rau's team together with the leading investigator Sylvestre Bisimwa, a lawyer in Bukavu and at the International Criminal Court in
The Hague, investigated events in the mining regions of North and
South Kivu, in particular a massacre in the village of Mutarule in
which the Congolese military are said to have been involved.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
The New York UN headquarters should be protecting the tribunal in
Bukavu but according to Rau's information they have partially
backtracked. Yet the event is to be staged in the presence of international guests and press observers, starting on 29 May at the
Collège Alfajiri in Bukavu.
For one and a half years we have collected witness statements in
eastern Congo for the “Congo Tribunal”. The stories of the miners,
farmers and ordinary Congolese citizens fill me with incomprehension and anger. Like the case of a young woman who was raped so
many times by the militias and the Congolese army who contest
the mine, that she is paralysed and incontinent. Or the stories
from the survivors of a massacre, organised by a general in the
Congolese army. Even more disturbing not just because it is so
typical for the region but that is was the fate of a village community who I have been filming for months. They were deported to a
hilltop by a Canadian company because under the village lies
“probably the largest undiscovered gold belt in Africa”, as it is
called in a company PR film.
The gold belt was “discovered” by the village inhabitants a long
time ago and mined for many years in accordance with valid land
rights – until the Canadian company secured the concessions in
Kinshasa with a few tricks. Those former miners who haven't migrated to Bukavu perish from malnutrition sooner or later. “Here
you die from starvation only to be buried between the riches” one
of my witnesses told me.
Beginning of the election campaign
Normally with my projects I try to fly under the radar of the local
media – at least until the final clapper board. For a week now it
has been known that the opposition leader Vital Kamerhe will also
appear at our tribunal and the Congolese media have been buzzing. Even the motorcycle taxi drivers have heard about the three
day tribunal, that is widely perceived as the start of the next presidential election campaign. Vital Kamerhe comes from a village
close to Bukavu, that lies within the Canadian company's concession. Who is better qualified to represent the population than he?
Because simply nothing of the duties from the international mining
companies flows back into the east, shaken by civil war. Instead
they disappear into the administrative apparatus of the capital
Kinshasa. In the region of Walikale north of Goma, the focus of
one of the tribunal sessions, 10,000 prospectors have been driven
from the world's largest coltan mine in the last few years; a Swiss
company will begin industrial mining there in 2016. What was visi-
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PRESS KIT
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
ble on a daily basis during our research is the social negative to
the growth statistics of the World Bank. Or to put it more sarcastically: in order to understand eastern Congo, one imagines the
one-to-one implementation of all the prejudices of a paranoid leftwing globalisation critic – and then adds a civil war with a current
toll of 6 million dead.
I met Kamerhe last January in Kinshasa, when president Kabila
tried to use a constitutional trick to postpone the presidential elections indefinitely. The bloodily quelled unrest shows the weakness
of the regime: Kabila's advisers had to back-pedal, a third presidential term is now unlikely. Similar to the “Moscow Trials”, that I
realised in 2013 in Moscow, the “Congo Tribunal” benefits from
this fragile stalemate between government and opposition. Everyone wants to be seen in the best possible light at the end of May,
as does every adversary. Sitting in the jury are advocates of industrialisation as well as representatives of civil society. Appearing
before the tribunal will be dispossessed miners and government
politicians, middle men from the large companies, civil rights activists and rebels. For the first time in the history of the Congo, all
these people will find themselves in the same room at the end of
May: in the huge theatre auditorium of the Collège Alfajiri in
Bukavu, protected by the Congolese police and a private security
company.
Because the looming reduction of international protection troops
and the unrest in neighbouring Burundi makes the safety situation
of our nearly 40 witnesses and jury members extremely sensitive.
According to our preliminary research, high-ranking government
and military authorities are involved in all three cases that will be
heard at the tribunal – including a massacre on the border with
Burundi. While shooting last year, permits were relatively easy to
obtain but every week they became increasingly more difficult to
obtain. Mining companies refused us access to their concessions,
flights in the civil war areas were cancelled hours before take-off
for spurious reasons. And there were absurd rumours: I wanted to
hijack a mining company helicopter or I was a member of Kamerhe's election campaign team.
Witnesses with Veils
That is why my lawyer, on the advice of the UN, developed a special witness protection programme for the “Congo Tribunal”. A row
of inconspicuous private apartments have been rented for the witnesses: “safe houses” that we know from American TV series. The
journey to Bukavu will be on market days, when the tribunal participants in the overcrowded buses won't attract attention. The
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PRESS KIT
THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
most threatened witnesses will appear before the jury in a fullbody veil, their voices altered. We film the testimonies in the
mines and massacred villages anonymously: we only see our leading investigator, the witnesses remain out of focus. To begin with
these precautions seemed excessive, typical for the UN who fear
nothing more than bad press. But the closer the tribunal came, the
more the fears of the participants grew. Too often in the Congo
witnesses for the prosecution in military and economic trials simply
disappear, some directly out of the court room. “A human life is
worth shit here” one of my key witnesses recently told me, who is
hiding in a hut outside Bukavu.
My real gauge for the appraisal of the situation is Maître Sylvestre
Bisimwa, the chief investigator at the tribunal. Of all the charismatic civil rights activists, lawyers and politicians that I have met
over the last few years in the Congo, he is the most charismatic
and also the calmest. If one was to name a truly “righteous” person in this wholly unmanageable economic war, where economic
and ethnic conflict lines overlap, it would surely be him: Bisimwa,
who has tried local land disputes as well as large militia trials at
The Hague and is also a professor at the University of Bukavu.
He has no illusions about the Congolese justice system. “I didn't
think it possible” he recently told me, “but the younger generation
is more corrupt than my generation could ever have dreamed of.”
Raped if you lack money, convicted of slander or rebellion, land
rights bent in favour of the highest bidder. Every sentence has its
price, hardly a surprise considering the ridiculously low wages of
public prosecutors and judges. A few days ago I filmed Maître Bisimwa at a trial. On the key piece of evidence (a bill of sale for a
piece of land) the signatures of the minister were not only forged
but spelt incorrectly. “Either we declare that our ministers cannot
write their own names” said Bisimwa in his plea “or we declare this
whole process illegal.” The judge smiled indulgently when it came
to legal hair-splitting and Bisimwa lost the trial. The “Congo Tribunal”will be the first time that he can truly freely argue a case with
an open outcome.
Nevertheless: more than with my previous projects, I ask myself if
it worth the effort. What outcome can justify the uncontrollable
danger to all the participants? The megalomaniacal, technical and
organisational effort involved in a shoot with five cameras and 40
participants at a location where one cannot even buy a 100 watt
light bulb? I ask myself: what are we doing here? When we are
berated as rats by a mine manager or after a five hour drive suddenly chased by militiamen.
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THE CONGO TRIBUNAL
Of course: a global economy demands that art acts globally, leaving the European provincialism behind it, like the World Bank, the
major mining companies and the OECD have long since done.
When one talks about Europe, one first has to talk about the Congo, because in the mines of Central Africa not only the economic
future of Europe and North America, but the whole world is decided. Ultimately it is the moral passion of a Bisimwa, it is the civil
rights activists and miners from all over eastern Congo who repeatedly convince us of the necessity of the tribunal. Their pathos,
their hope carries us – and the actuality of their suffering, which is
solely down to the wealth of their country.
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Source: taz – die tageszeitung, 26.05.2015
Above the Radar
RE-ENACTMENT Notes by the theatre director Milo Rau on his research in the Congo.
This coming weekend he stages his latest project “The Congo Tribunal” with high-profile
participation in Bukavu.
BY MILO RAU
The Congo Tribunal
For over a year the author and director Milo Rau and his team have been preparing the
“Congo Tribunal” in eastern Congo. In Bukavu between 29 and 31 May they will gather 40
witnesses and experts for a three-day tribunal on the economic backgrounds to the 20
year ongoing Congo War. Members of the government and the opposition, the Congolese
armed forces and militias, mine workers, geologists, diplomats, women's rights
campaigners, international observers and members of the UN will appear before the
international jury, headed by two lawyers from the International Criminal Court in The
Hague. In Berlin between 26 and 28 June the second part of the tribunal will discuss the
role of the EU, the World Bank and the international NGOs in the Congolese civil war. In
Berlin Rau's jury will expanded to include, among others, the author and sociologist Harald
Welzer and Wolfgang Kalec, the Snowden lawyer and specialist for international economic
crime. The documentary feature film of Milo Rau's “Congo Tribunal” will be released in
cinemas in 2016.
The UNO and the Tribunal
Rau's team together with the leading investigator Sylvestre Bisimwa, a lawyer in Bukavu
and at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, investigated events in the mining
regions of North and South Kivu, in particular a massacre in the village of Mutarule in
which the Congolese military are said to have been involved.
The New York UN headquarters should be protecting the tribunal in Bukavu but according
to Rau's information they have partially backtracked. Yet the event is to be staged in the
presence of international guests and press observers, starting on 29 May at the Collège
Alfajiri in Bukavu.
For one and a half years we have collected witness statements in eastern Congo for the
“Congo Tribunal”. The stories of the miners, farmers and ordinary Congolese citizens fill
me with incomprehension and anger. Like the case of a young woman who was raped so
many times by the militias and the Congolese army who contest the mine, that she is
paralysed and incontinent. Or the stories from the survivors of a massacre, organised by a
general in the Congolese army. Even more disturbing not just because it is so typical for
the region but that is was the fate of a village community who I have been filming for
months. They were deported to a hilltop by a Canadian company because under the
village lies “probably the largest undiscovered gold belt in Africa”, as it is called in a
company PR film.
The gold belt was “discovered” by the village inhabitants a long time ago and mined for
many years in accordance with valid land rights – until the Canadian company secured the
concessions in Kinshasa with a few tricks. Those former miners who haven't migrated to
Bukavu perish from malnutrition sooner or later. “Here you die from starvation only to be
buried between the riches” one of my witnesses told me.
Beginning of the election campaign
Normally with my projects I try to fly under the radar of the local media – at least until the
final clapper board. For a week now it has been known that the opposition leader Vital
Kamerhe will also appear at our tribunal and the Congolese media have been buzzing.
Even the motorcycle taxi drivers have heard about the three day tribunal, that is widely
perceived as the start of the next presidential election campaign. Vital Kamerhe comes
from a village close to Bukavu, that lies within the Canadian company's concession. Who
is better qualified to represent the population than he?
Because simply nothing of the duties from the international mining companies flows back
into the east, shaken by civil war. Instead they disappear into the administrative apparatus
of the capital Kinshasa. In the region of Walikale north of Goma, the focus of one of the
tribunal sessions, 10,000 prospectors have been driven from the world's largest coltan
mine in the last few years; a Swiss company will begin industrial mining there in 2016.
What was visible on a daily basis during our research is the social negative to the growth
statistics of the World Bank. Or to put it more sarcastically: in order to understand eastern
Congo, one imagines the one-to-one implementation of all the prejudices of a paranoid
left-wing globalisation critic – and then adds a civil war with a current toll of 6 million dead.
I met Kamerhe last January in Kinshasa, when president Kabila tried to use a
constitutional trick to postpone the presidential elections indefinitely. The bloodily quelled
unrest shows the weakness of the regime: Kabila's advisers had to back-pedal, a third
presidential term is now unlikely. Similar to the “Moscow Trials”, that I realised in 2013 in
Moscow, the “Congo Tribunal” benefits from this fragile stalemate between government
and opposition. Everyone wants to be seen in the best possible light at the end of May, as
does every adversary. Sitting in the jury are advocates of industrialisation as well as
representatives of civil society. Appearing before the tribunal will be dispossessed miners
and government politicians, middle men from the large companies, civil rights activists and
rebels. For the first time in the history of the Congo, all these people will find themselves in
the same room at the end of May: in the huge theatre auditorium of the Collège Alfajiri in
Bukavu, protected by the Congolese police and a private security company.
Because the looming reduction of international protection troops and the unrest in
neighbouring Burundi makes the safety situation of our nearly 40 witnesses and jury
members extremely sensitive. According to our preliminary research, high-ranking
government and military authorities are involved in all three cases that will be heard at the
tribunal – including a massacre on the border with Burundi. While shooting last year,
permits were relatively easy to obtain but every week they became increasingly more
difficult to obtain. Mining companies refused us access to their concessions, flights in the
civil war areas were cancelled hours before take-off for spurious reasons. And there were
absurd rumours: I wanted to hijack a mining company helicopter or I was a member of
Kamerhe's election campaign team.
Witnesses with Veils
That is why my lawyer, on the advice of the UN, developed a special witness protection
programme for the “Congo Tribunal”. A row of inconspicuous private apartments have
been rented for the witnesses: “safe houses” that we know from American TV series. The
journey to Bukavu will be on market days, when the tribunal participants in the
overcrowded buses won't attract attention. The most threatened witnesses will appear
before the jury in a full-body veil, their voices altered. We film the testimonies in the mines
and massacred villages anonymously: we only see our leading investigator, the witnesses
remain out of focus. To begin with these precautions seemed excessive, typical for the UN
who fear nothing more than bad press. But the closer the tribunal came, the more the fears
of the participants grew. Too often in the Congo witnesses for the prosecution in military
and economic trials simply disappear, some directly out of the court room. “A human life is
worth shit here” one of my key witnesses recently told me, who is hiding in a hut outside
Bukavu.
My real gauge for the appraisal of the situation is Maître Sylvestre Bisimwa, the chief
investigator at the tribunal. Of all the charismatic civil rights activists, lawyers and
politicians that I have met over the last few years in the Congo, he is the most charismatic
and also the calmest. If one was to name a truly “righteous” person in this wholly
unmanageable economic war, where economic and ethnic conflict lines overlap, it would
surely be him: Bisimwa, who has tried local land disputes as well as large militia trials at
The Hague and is also a professor at the University of Bukavu.
He has no illusions about the Congolese justice system. “I didn't think it possible” he
recently told me, “but the younger generation is more corrupt than my generation could
ever have dreamed of.” Raped if you lack money, convicted of slander or rebellion, land
rights bent in favour of the highest bidder. Every sentence has its price, hardly a surprise
considering the ridiculously low wages of public prosecutors and judges. A few days ago I
filmed Maître Bisimwa at a trial. On the key piece of evidence (a bill of sale for a piece of
land) the signatures of the minister were not only forged but spelt incorrectly. “Either we
declare that our ministers cannot write their own names” said Bisimwa in his plea “or we
declare this whole process illegal.” The judge smiled indulgently when it came to legal hairsplitting and Bisimwa lost the trial. The “Congo Tribunal”will be the first time that he can
truly freely argue a case with an open outcome.
Nevertheless: more than with my previous projects, I ask myself if it worth the effort. What
outcome can justify the uncontrollable danger to all the participants? The megalomaniacal,
technical and organisational effort involved in a shoot with five cameras and 40
participants at a location where one cannot even buy a 100 watt light bulb? I ask myself:
what are we doing here? When we are berated as rats by a mine manager or after a five
hour drive suddenly chased by militiamen.
Of course: a global economy demands that art acts globally, leaving the European
provincialism behind it, like the World Bank, the major mining companies and the OECD
have long since done. When one talks about Europe, one first has to talk about the Congo,
because in the mines of Central Africa not only the economic future of Europe and North
America, but the whole world is decided. Ultimately it is the moral passion of a Bisimwa, it
is the civil rights activists and miners from all over eastern Congo who repeatedly convince
us of the necessity of the tribunal. Their pathos, their hope carries us – and the actuality of
their suffering, which is solely down to the wealth of their country.