Two DR Congo soldiers convicted of rape in mass trial

Soldiers on trial for charges including rape and murder are searched before entering a Goma military court on May 5, 2014. By Alain Wandimoyi (AFP)

Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) - A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday handed down two rape convictions in a mass trial of 39 soldiers for atrocities committed during a 2012 army offensive.

A lieutenant colonel was sentenced to life in prison and a corporal got 10 years for rape during the military operation against rebels in eastern South Kivu province.

Another soldier was jailed for life for murder but acquitted on a rape charge in the trial closely watched by Congolese civil society and international rights groups.

Twenty-five of the 39 soldiers faced rape charges before the North Kivu court, which also imposed jail sentences of between 10 and 20 years against 22 soldiers for "violating instructions, looting and distributing ammunition".

Thirteen officers were acquitted of dereliction of duty, and the court said it was incompetent to try another one of the defendants.

The prosecutor, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Baseleba, had requested life sentences for most of the defendants.

A lawyer for a victims' group, Jean-Claude Zozo, said he was "gutted" by the court's ruling.

"For the court, there weren't any rapes in Minova," he told AFP.

A high-ranking police officer said at the start of the trial that the tribunal's verdict -- for both convictions and acquittals -- would be final.

The charges date to November 2012, when rebels of the now defunct March 23 Movement (M23) captured the regional mining hub Goma -- the North Kivu capital -- and held it for 10 days.

The regular soldiers were accused of committing the atrocities as they fled their positions in and around the South Kivu city of Minova in the face of the M23 onslaught.

A UN investigation said soldiers had perpetrated "135 cases of sexual violence, as well as other serious human rights violations including murders and massive looting" between November 20 and 30.

The joint investigation by the UN peacekeeping force in the country and the UN human rights agency also identified 59 cases of sexual violence committed by M23 fighters in the Goma area during the same period.

The military trial had opened in November 2013 in Goma barely three weeks after the UN-backed Congolese army defeated the M23.

The DR Congo government signed an accord with the United Nations in April 2013 to step up the fight against sexual abuse by armed groups and soldiers, which remains widespread mainly in the east, where a plethora of armed groups remain active.

Sexual violence has been rampant in the DR Congo for two decades.

The Congolese government reported 15,352 cases in seven provinces last year, with data showing that armed groups committed more than half of the assaults.

A UN report issued last month, documenting 3,635 cases between 2010 and 2013, said that just over half were committed by members of armed groups that operate in eastern DR Congo. The rest were attributed to state agents, including soldiers, who were implicated in around one in three rapes.