A/HRC/41/31 possible without the financial and logistical support of MONUSCO and the technical assistance team through the joint investigation mechanism. The team of international experts is concerned by this over-reliance on external actors, whose role is to provide assistance in specific instances and for a limited time only, especially as discussions on an exit strategy for MONUSCO have begun.30 At the workshop in Tshikapa on 28 February 2019, the international experts addressed the issue of empowering the military prosecutors’ offices to work independently and building on the progress that has been made thanks to external actors. 45. In this context, the team of international experts calls on the military justice authorities as a whole to review the allocation of resources to the Kasai region. At the moment, the only trial concerning events in Kasai that is under way – namely, the trial for the killing of the two Security Council experts, Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalán, and the four Congolese nationals who were accompanying them – is fully mobilizing the scarce resources available, as the military court of the garrison of Kananga has only two members. To ease the burden placed on the Kasai military justice system, the team of international experts calls on the national authorities to consider the possibility of temporarily deploying additional public prosecutors and judges to Kasai. Since the public prosecution service is being directly represented by the general military prosecutor’s office at the trial for the killing of the experts and the four persons who were accompanying them, the team expects the same level of interest to be shown for all other cases involving acts of violence committed in Kasai. 46. Public prosecutors and inspectors need specialized knowledge and skills in order to be able to deal with crimes of the kind that were committed by all parties to the conflict, that is, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In this connection, the team of international experts notes that the previous team recommended in its report that the national authorities should, for example, ensure that specialized personnel are assigned the specific task of investigating and prosecuting crimes of sexual violence. 31 47. The workshop that was held in Tshikapa on 28 February 2019 brought together members of the military prosecutors’ offices in Kasai and representatives of the bar association and the civil justice system around the same table for the first time. Both during this workshop and at earlier work sessions, the team of international experts noted that the members of the military prosecutors’ offices had a good knowledge of the legal framework applicable to international crimes, including sexual crimes. However, the team also noted that the military prosecutors’ offices in Kasai lacked women prosecutors. Given that women are among the main victims of the violence in Kasai, the team considers that particular attention should be paid to the recruitment of women into the military justice system in Kasai. 48. Lastly, the team of international experts draws attention to the previous team’s recommendation that the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo should ensure that the officers in charge of the prosecutors’ offices have at least the same rank as the operational officers who may be held criminally liable. 32 The two senior military prosecutors who are currently in charge of the military prosecutors’ offices in Kasai have the rank of colonel. Since senior military prosecutors in other regions of the country hold the rank of general, and in order to ensure that members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who were involved in the crimes committed in 2016 and 2017 can be investigated without fear of rank-related conflict between prosecutors and suspects, the team of international experts reiterates the previous team’s recommendation that the military prosecutors’ offices in Kasai should be placed under the authority of officers with the rank of general. 30 31 32 GE.19-07485 See Security Council resolution 2463 (2019) of 29 March 2019, para. 44. A/HRC/38/31, para. 111 (d). Ibid., paras. 109 and 111 (c) (ii). See also article 67 of Act No. 023/2002 of 18 November 2002 establishing the Code of Military Justice: “The prosecutor who represents the public prosecutor’s office at the hearing must hold a rank higher than or equal to that of the accused.” 11