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The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1 July 2002.
Moreno-Ocampo announced his intensions in a communiqué released on Friday. An investigation into grave crimes in the Congo would be in the interests of justice and in the interest of the victims, he said.
The court said it had been analysing the situation in the Congo since July 2003, initially with an emphasis on the northeastern region of Ituri. The ICC added that the Congolese government had shown it support and had welcomed its involvement in the country.
"The decision to launch an investigation had been taken with the cooperation of the DRC, other governments and international organisations," Moreno-Ocampo said.
He said the investigation would focus on individuals "most responsible for grave crimes" under the jurisdiction of the court. The court's jurisdiction extends to crimes committed after 1 July 2002, when the court came into being under the Rome statute.
The court said International organisations, nongovernmental organisations, and states had reported patterns of rape, mass murder, summary executions, torture, forced displacement and the illegal use of child soldiers in the Congo.
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