The International Criminal Court has opened its first investigation, into crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo including rape, torture and the use of child soldiers.
"The opening of the first investigation of the ICC is a major step forward for international justice," Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, ICC chief prosecutor, said in a statement today.
Prosecutors will investigate crimes committed in Congo since July 2002 when the court's statutes came into force, noting that thousands of deaths by mass murder and summary execution had been reported in the country since that date.
"The reports allege a pattern of rape, torture, forced displacement and the illegal use of child soldiers," they said.
As the first permanent global criminal court, the ICC was set up to try perpetrators for the world's worst atrocities - genocide, war crimes and systematic human rights abuses.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of more than 90 states to have ratified the court treaty, although dozens of countries, notably the United States, have spurned the court.
"This is an enormous milestone in the struggle to limit impunity from mass killings, widespread rape and ethnic cleansing," said Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch.
"The recent killings and rapes in eastern Congo underscore the urgent need for a thorough investigation." After tentative moves towards peace in Congo, fighting has flared again in recent weeks after an uprising in eastern Congo that has stoked fears of a return to more widespread violence in
central Africa's Great Lakes region.
UN officials have blamed militant Hutus, who escaped from Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, and rebel groups loyal to Rwanda.