Pillage: Swiss businessman under criminal investigation for war crimes in the DRC
TRIAL International and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) welcome the opening of a formal criminal investigation by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland into Chris Huber, a Swiss national active in the mining sector. Huber is suspected of having committed pillage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a war crime under Swiss law. Both organizations had been investigating the case since 2013, and had filed a criminal denunciation, backed by numerous pieces of first-hand evidence, in November 2016.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has now confirmed having opened criminal proceedings against Swiss businessman Christoph Huber. In March 2018, the OAG decided to investigate the alleged illegal trade of minerals in the DRC during the armed conflicts of the Second Congo War (1998-2003), following TRIAL International and OSJI’s criminal denunciation.
“Our investigations unveiled corporate documents, as well as internal paperwork belonging to the RCD-Goma, which demonstrate Chris Huber’s business dealings with the armed group”, said Bénédict De Moerloose, “At a time when the public increasingly demands from corporate actors that they respect and protect human rights, the opening of an investigation into a Western businessman conducting illegal trade in a conflict zone sends a strong signal to the whole mining sector”.
According to Ken Hurwitz, head of OSJI’s Anticorruption program, “Too many conflicts around the world are fueled by the illegal sale of pillaged resources into global markets. Yet the international businesses and business people involved are rarely, if ever, prosecuted. The Swiss are to be applauded for taking on the hard work of pursuing this complex and important case.”
IN BED WITH AN ARMED GROUP
Among other evidence, the organizations uncovered that Mr. Huber was in a direct business relationship with the RCD-Goma, an armed group accused of war crimes and controlling large portions of Eastern Congo during the Second Congo War. In 2001, the company represented by Huber was granted four mining concessions by RCD-Goma, whose armed forces were militarily occupying the area where the relevant mines were located. The granting of the mining concessions involved protection guarantees to be enforced by the soldiers of the armed group. Before obtaining these concessions, Huber appears to have already been involved in the trade of minerals from the region since at least 1997, on behalf of other companies, including Swiss entities.
If Huber is found to have illegally exploited and appropriated natural resources from a conflict zone, he could be held liable for the war crime of pillage, a crime prohibited by international humanitarian law, and punishable under Swiss law by a prison sentence of no less than three years.
Both organizations call upon the OAG to promptly complete its investigation.
Should this investigation lead to a trial, it would constitute a historical precedent. Indeed, since the aftermath of the Second World War, it seems that no corporate actor has ever been found guilty of pillage, although this practice, in particular the looting of raw materials in conflict zones, has in the past decades reached alarming proportions.
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