Australians on trial in Congo, say lawyers

Australians on trial in Congo, say lawyers

Nick McKenzie, The Age

14th December 2006

THE Australian Federal Police is trying to confirm whether three former employees of the Australian stockmarket-listed Anvil Mining are being tried in the Democratic Republic of Congo over their links to a massacre in a village in 2004.

Four international non-government organisations, including British human-rights advocates Rights and Accountability in Development, and Australian law firm Slater & Gordon, claimed yesterday that a war-crime prosecution naming three former employees as defendants began on Tuesday.

The Age believes the AFP has obtained court documents naming the Anvil employees as defendants, but that Congolese authorities have ignored repeated requests to confirm the existence of the court case.

The AFP said yesterday it had "made inquiries with authorities in the DRC to verify reports of any court proceedings and to determine whether it would impact on an ongoing AFP investigation into an Australian company and its connection to war crimes in the DRC".

Anvil Mining confirmed in October that Congolese authorities had ordered the former employees to attend a military court over allegations that they "knowingly facilitated the commission of war crimes" in relation to an incident in which Congolese soldiers killed and tortured residents of Kilwa. More than 100 people reportedly died.

Congolese court documents obtained by The Age state that former Anvil deputy general manager Pierre Mercier, from Canada, and two South African security workers "voluntarily failed to withdraw the vehicles placed at the disposal of the 62nd Brigade".

Anvil Mining did not respond to calls from The Age yesterday, but has rejected allegations against its former employees.

The AFP's economic and special operations division has been investigating whether Anvil broke any Australian laws.

Representing victims, Slater & Gordon lawyer Richard Mearan said he was surprised the AFP had not sent someone to monitor the court case.

"If they are serious about investigating this, as they told us they are, we would expect them to be there," he said.