A/HRC/41/31 the reliability of testimony, which is often the only evidence available, and making it more difficult to identify and preserve physical evidence, such as mass graves. 40. The team of international experts notes that the senior military prosecutor’s office of the former Province of Kasai Oriental has not yet opened any investigations into the international crimes committed in this region, owing to the recent arrival of a new senior military prosecutor. Although the Provinces of Kasai Oriental, Lomami and Sankuru were not so heavily affected by the violence, the fact remains that serious crimes, including crimes of sexual violence, were committed in this area by members of the Kamuina Nsapu militia and the defence and security forces. 27 At the workshop in Tshikapa on 28 February 2019, the team could see that the military prosecutor’s office for this region was willing to start the investigation process. Given that the availability and quality of evidence is affected by the passage of time, it is urgently necessary to launch the criminal investigations as soon as possible. (b) Allocation of sufficient specialized human and logistical resources 41. The Kasai region covers an area of more than 320,000 km2. There are virtually no roads or tracks that are suitable for vehicles and the security conditions are unstable. Conducting investigations there in order to identify the perpetrators of the many crimes committed requires considerable human and logistical resources. For example, at the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a single case involves a team of more than a dozen professionals, including both investigators and prosecutors, with specialized equipment and a budget that allows them to travel to the sites where crimes were committed. It was in this context that the previous team of international experts recommended that the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo should increase the human and logistical resources of military prosecutors’ offices in Kasai.28 Since the cases identified by the senior military prosecutor’s office of the former Province of Kasai Occidental are still at the investigation stage, the team of international experts has focused its attention primarily on the resources allocated to military prosecutors’ offices. 42. The team of international experts notes with concern that the senior military prosecutors’ offices in Kasai face a severe lack of resources that has not been remedied since the submission of the previous team’s report. For example, at present, the senior military prosecutor’s office of the former Province of Kasai Occidental has only two prosecutors: a senior military prosecutor and his deputy. The military prosecutors’ offices of the garrisons of Kananga and Tshikapa, which are under the responsibility of the senior military prosecutor’s office, have only seven prosecutors in total. These prosecutors must not only lead the investigations into the serious crimes committed since 2016 but also deal with cases that are pending. The premises of the military prosecutor’s office are in a bad state of disrepair and lack a secure space for storing evidence. Furthermore, the office has no specialized equipment for forensic investigations, including the exhumation of mass graves.29 The team of international experts was informed that, in 2018, the operating funds of the senior military prosecutor’s office of the former Province of Kasai Occidental provided for in the Budget Act had not yet been transferred. 43. Given the number and the scale of the international crimes committed in Kasai since 2016, these levels of staffing and resources are far below what is required in order to be able to conduct investigations effectively and build strong cases against those who have committed serious crimes, even if only those who are suspected of bearing the greatest responsibility. The team of international experts believes that this shortage of resources is one of the factors that explains why the investigation and prosecution strategy has not yielded tangible results. 44. The few investigations that have been carried out thus far by the senior military prosecutor’s office of the former Province of Kasai Occidental would not have been 27 28 29 10 A/HRC/38/31, paras. 49–50 (Kasai Oriental Province) and para. 65 (Lomami Province). Ibid., para. 111 (c) (i). For the moment, it is the technical assistance team that provides the necessary expertise. GE.19-07485