DRC

DR Congo's Bosco Ntaganda pleads not guilty at ICC trial

NEWS STORY

Source: BBC

Former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda has pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of his war crimes trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

2 September 2015 - The 18 charges include murder, rape and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Evidence has been gathered from more than 2,000 alleged victims, including former child soldiers.

Nicknamed "The Terminator", Gen Ntaganda's trial is the biggest and most complex case in the ICC's history.

He fought for different rebel groups as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo's army.

He made his not guilty plea in a barely audible voice, standing in the dock with his signature pencil moustache, reports the BBC's Anna Holligan from court.

The start of the trial was a historic moment for international justice and for the Democratic Republic of Congo, our correspondent adds.

The 41-year-old is accused of killing at least 800 civilians during separate attacks on a number of villages between 2002 and 2003.

He is also accused of raping girl soldiers and keeping them as sex slaves.

"Humanity demands justice for these crimes," ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court.

The prosecutor used her opening statement to describe the experience of one witness in chilling detail. It was the aftermath of an attack on a village in the Ituri region of eastern DR Congo.

Ms Bensouda said the witness searched though a pile of bodies, and found his wife, toddler son and daughter, whose head was punctured and her throat slit. Then, he discovered his remaining two children who had been killed in the same way. He gathered the bodies of his family and buried them in a field.

According to the prosecutor, the rape and sexual enslavement of girls was so prevalent in Gen Ntaganda's Union of Congolese Patriots (UCP) rebel army, that girls were referred to as "a large communal cooking pot" - commanders, she alleged, could pass the girls around and use them for sex whenever they pleased.

Human rights groups here in The Hague have celebrated Gen Ntaganda's appearance, saying it is proof that even the most powerful leaders may one day be brought to justice.

In 2013, Gen Ntaganda handed himself in at the US embassy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

He had evaded capture for seven years after the ICC first issued warrants for his arrest.

Bosco Ntaganda was part of the UCP rebel group, led by Thomas Lubanga, who in 2014 became the first person to be convicted by the ICC.

Gen Ntaganda was one of the leaders of the M23 rebel movement, which had fought government troops until signing a peace deal in 2013.

Eastern DR Congo has suffered two decades of violence linked to ethnic rivalries and competition for control of the area's rich mineral resources.

Who is Bosco Ntaganda?

• 
  

  Born in 1973 in Rwanda.

• Fled to DR Congo as a teenager after attacks on fellow ethnic Tutsis.
• At 17, he begins his fighting days - alternating between being a rebel and a soldier, in both Rwanda and DR Congo.
• In 2006, indicted by the ICC for allegedly recruiting child soldiers in Ituri.
• In 2009, he is integrated into the Congolese national army and made a general.
• In 2012, he defects from the army, sparking a new rebellion which forces 800,000 from their homes.
• In March 2013, hands himself in to US embassy in Kigali.

Congo-Kinshasa: Statement by Prosecutor on Opening of the Trial against Bosco Ntaganda

PRESS RELEASE

Source: http://www.icc-cpi.int/EN_Menus/icc/Pages/default

Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, at the Press Conference on the Opening of the Trial against Bosco Ntaganda:

2 September 2015 - Good morning and thank you all for coming.

Your presence here today is a testament to the importance you attach to international criminal justice and to bringing accurate information to the world about the Court's proceedings. I thank you once again for being here, and the critical role you play in this regard.

Tomorrow, as you know, the trial starts against the accused, Bosco Ntaganda, a notorious and powerful leader of the UPC (Union des Patriotes congolais) and of its armed branch, the FPLC, a militia from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Indeed, Bosco Ntaganda is not only known by those who closely follow the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also outside the region due to his reputation as a notorious person whose behaviour has raised alarm far beyond the Great lakes region.

Bosco Ntaganda is accused of a total of eighteen charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Based on the evidence, during the bloody year-long conflict in Ituri which raged between 2002 and 2003, Bosco Ntaganda along with others, allegedly planned and carried out a ruthless campaign of criminal violence. We believe he ordered his troops to attack, pillage, rape, persecute and kill civilians belonging to Lendu, Ngiti and other ethnic groups. And we believe he recruited hundreds of children into the UPC and used them to kill and to die in the fighting; and girl soldiers to be routinely raped.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

An important goal of dispensing justice is uncovering the truth. I know that to many, the process of justice can seem slow. But our investigations, all our activities must be impartial and independent, and thoroughly and conscientiously done; everything we do must be strictly in accordance with the law.

Bosco Ntaganda, as an accused, has rights under the law, including due process guarantees, which must be respected. His guilt or innocence will be decided by the Judges of the Court at the end of the trial process.

As with any trial dealing with such serious matters, his trial will no doubt take time, but the truth will be uncovered and the thousands of victims affected by these crimes will finally see justice done.

Before we turn to questions from the floor, I would like to directly address the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the wider Great Lakes Region of Africa, and more specifically the people of Ituri. I want to answer some of you who have asked questions about our focus on Ituri, when there are also victims of terrible crimes committed in other parts of the country, and beyond.

When my Office started investigating in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004, we prioritised, based on our analysis of information collected, the area where the gravest crimes had been or were still being committed, which at the time were against local populations in the district (now the Province) of Ituri. This Court has already tried three other leaders, from several sides of the bloody conflict of 2002-3, namely Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga, and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. You might not remember now, but these people made the headlines at the time, and their trials were widely reported around the world.

I want to make it clear though that the trial which is about to start is not a trial of one or the other community. It is not a trial about ethnicity or an ethnic group. It is about an individual, Bosco Ntaganda and how he took advantage of the ethnic tensions in Ituri for his own purposes, to gain power and wealth, and in that process committed atrocity crimes. It is my job as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to make sure that those most responsible for such crimes are held accountable and prosecuted, no matter how powerful, and no matter which side of a conflict they may be on.

Our investigations now extend far beyond Ituri. Tomorrow, we try Bosco Ntaganda, but Sylvestre Mudacumura must also be arrested and brought to justice, for crimes we allege he committed in the Kivus.

Sooner or later his victims too, will have justice.

I want to be clear on this. We continue to investigate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We will not abandon the victims of atrocity crimes, not in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and not in any of the 123 countries around the world which are members of the ICC, or anywhere else we may have jurisdictsion under the Rome Statute. Thank you and I welcome your questions.

Kidnapped imams escape as FDLR abductors clash with Congolese army

NEWS STORY

Source: International Business Times

By Ludovica Iaccino

2 September 2015 - Between six and eight Tanzanian imams previously kidnapped by Rwandan militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo have managed to escape, Congolese officials have said. The religious leaders were abducted between the North Kivu's villages of Katwiguru and Rutshuru by suspected members of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda in July of this year. There are conflicting reports regarding the number of the imams kidnapped, which varies from six to eight.

The abductors had previously contacted the Islamic community of Goma, eastern Congo, and asked for $40,000 (£256090) ransom in order for the hostages to be released. However, the imams managed to escape shortly after fighting broke out between FDLR and the ethnic Congolese army, provincial governor Julien Paluku told AFP. Paluku added that he is confident the kidnappers were FDLR members because "as soon as the fighting broke out, they fled". It is not yet clear where the imams are. IBTimes UK contacted Paluku and is waiting for a response.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in the North Kivu. In April 2014, members of the FDLR kidnapped three UN private agents who worked for UN anti-mine service Unmas.

FDLR

Members of the FDLR militant group, mainly composed by Hutu, include some Interahamwe, which translates from Kinyarwanda as "those who stand together".

The Interahamwe is a Hutu paramilitary organisation which was behind the Rwanda genocide, in which more than 800,000 people – mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutu – were killed by Hutu extremists in 1994. During the massacres, the Interahamwe received large support by the Congolese government of Joseph Kabila.

Following the end of the genocide, Hutu extremists fled to Congo where they formed the FDLR in 2000. The group was used by Kabila to fight the Rwandan Patriotic Army and other foreign troops in the country during the Second Congo War, erupted in 1998. Following the end of what has been dubbed the deadliest conflict in Africa in 2003, FDLR continued to carry out attacks against Tutsi in Congo and along the border with Rwanda. The group is allegedly responsible for several terror attacks that killed dozens of people in eastern Congo.

Ntaganda: DR Congo's ruthless wartime 'Terminator'

NEWS STORY

Source: AFP

By Habibou Bangre

Kinshasa, 2 September 2015 - War crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda is the feared former commander of a ruthless rebel group that pillaged and raped in DR Congo's mineral-rich east, earning him the nickname "The Terminator."

Tall, smug, and said to be trigger-happy too, the 41-year-old Ntaganda fought for different rebel groups as well as for the Democratic Republic of Congo's army from his late teens.

He faces 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the deaths of hundreds of villagers, rape, recruiting child soldiers, and keeping girls under 15 for himself as sex slaves.

The fifth former Congolese warlord in the dock before the International Criminal Court, he is the first to have given himself up as his M23 rebel army foundered and signed a peace deal with government troops in 2013.

His lawyer Stephane Bourgon describes him as a family man separated from his children "for over two years" who hasn't seen his wife in nine months which is "very hard on him."

Behind ICC bars he "keeps himself busy", says Bourgon, "regularly taking part in sports activities, reading a lot and going to English classes".

"He's also learning the piano," he added.

- 'Kills people easily' -

Born in 1973 in Rwanda but brought up in DR Congo, Ntaganda often criss-crossed the border, again leaving Rwanda in the 1980s for the eastern Congo as an adolescent following attacks on his fellow Tutsis.

In 1990, in his late teens, he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which was based in Uganda at the time and which put an end to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, under current President Paul Kagame's leadership.

Since then Ntaganda has alternated between fighting in the national army and rebellions, including in the second five-year DR Congo war from 1998 to 2003 that drew in the entire region.

In an anecdote showing Ntaganda's willingness to get his hands dirty, one woman from Birambizo in North Kivu told HRW that Ntaganda himself visited her village to recruit.

"He asked us to give our children, our students, to him to fight. He came to our village himself," the woman said.

In the words of a child soldier who testified against Ntaganda in The Hague, he is known as someone who "kills people easily".

- 'Flaunting his impunity' -

The war crimes and crimes against humanity charges he faces are over violence committed in 2002 and 2003 in the Ituri region.

The ICC issued a warrant in 2006 but Ntaganda managed to evade arrest after becoming a powerful military commander for the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), an ethnic Tutsi rebel group in DR Congo led by Laurent Nkunda.

Their insurgency was ended by a peace deal that integrated the ex-rebels into the army. Ntaganda was made a general and began building a parallel command in the military.

He activated that network to help form the M23 in 2012 which turned away from President Joseph Kabila.

Kabila signalled he was ready to comply with the ICC warrant and have him arrested and Ntaganda eventually fled to Rwanda in 2013 when splits emerged with the M23.

Until then Ntaganda had "boldly walked around the restaurants and tennis courts of Goma flaunting his impunity like a medal of honour while engaging in ruthless human rights abuses," said HRW senior Africa researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg.

According to UN investigators, he managed to amass considerable wealth by running a large empire in North Kivu, manning rogue checkpoints and taxing the area's many mines.

One report said he once earned $15,000 a week from just one border crossing.

Back to the Top

BURUNDI

Four killed in fresh Burundi unrest: poli