Sidorova G.M. The political dead end in the Democratic Republic of Congo: war crimes and the issues of justice

Abstract: The object of this study is the influence of war crimes on the background of armed conflict on the regional security on the African Great Lakes region. The subject of research are armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The author draws attention to the issue of crimes committed by military and law enforcement personnel, and the reaction of courts to the demands to punish offenders by human rights organizations and specific political and public figures. This article accents the issue of restoring peace in the central region of the African continent, the humanitarian catastrophes and their consequences. Among the theoretical methods the author gave preference to the systemic, institutional and comparative analysis. Prioritized empirical methods include field research, including interviewing. The scientific novelty of this research is in the uncovering the underlying causes of armed conflicts, and the defining of the contradictory processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo aimed at resolving the military and political crisis, as well as in the examination of the influence of armed conflict on the humanitarian situation in this country. The author introduces a multitude of new sources, previously untapped by Russian researchers and, as presumed, are available only to a handful of foreign scientists who work directly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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