By: Iva Vukusic,
International Judicial Monitor Correspondent in The Hague
Another
trial has been ongoing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague
since early September 2015, with the accused Bosco Ntaganda in the dock. He is
the former Deputy Chief of Staff and commander of operations of the Forces
Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (Patriotic Forces for the
Liberation of Congo, FPLC), the military wing of the Union des Patriotes
Congolais (The Union of Congolese Patriots, UPC). Ntaganda
is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2002 and 2003 in the
Ituri Province, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC). The first
warrant for his arrest was issued back in 2006, but he voluntarily surrendered
only in March 2013, when he walked into the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda to turn
himself in.
The
significance of this case, according to a statement by Women’s Initiatives for
Gender Justice, a non-governmental organization monitoring proceedings at the
ICC, lies in the fact that ‘for the first time in international law, the ICC is
prosecuting a senior military figure for acts of rape and sexual slavery
committed against child soldiers within his own militia group’. The indictment
deals with only a fragment of the alleged violations committed by Ntaganda and
his troops, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented for over a decade.
According to HRW, the significance of this trial is in, among other things, the
message it sends to other militia leaders in the region still active today:
‘Seeing Ntaganda in the dock at the ICC should be a powerful reminder to other
leaders of abusive armed groups that they too could face prosecution.’
Ntaganda
is a Rwanda-born 43-year old who has been involved in the conflicts in the area
since the time of the Rwandan genocide, when he fought alongside the current Rwandan
president Paul Kagame, in the Rwandan Patriotic Army. Since then, he led units
in the resources rich Ituri Province of the DRC, where his forces allegedly
unleashed violence on the civilian populations. The violence (for which he is on trial at the ICC) was mainly
against civilians perceived as not being members of the Hema ethnic group, mainly
the Lendu, but also Bira and Nande groups. Ntaganda has a long history of
commanding and fighting in militias and he was, along with his fighters, even
integrated into the Congolese army back in 2009, but three years later he led a
mutiny and allegedly became a leader of a new rebel group, the M23. That group
has been accused of summary executions, rapes and the forced recruitment of
children. What has likely led to his surrender was the increased infighting of
M23 factions and possible threats to his life. What he left behind is,
according to media reports, significant wealth in the form of ownership over
businesses, hotels and land. He is said to have also controlled important
smuggling routes in and out of the resources-rich region.
In June
2014, the charges were unanimously confirmed consisting of thirteen counts of
war crimes (murder and attempted murder, attacks on civilians, rape, sexual
slavery, pillaging, displacement of civilians, attacks on protected objects,
destruction of property, enlistment and conscription of child soldiers under
the age of fifteen) and five counts of crimes against humanity (murder and
attempted murder, rape, sexual slavery, persecution, forcible transfer of
population). According to the indictment, Ntaganda bears individual criminal
responsibility pursuant to different modes of liability (direct perpetration,
indirect co-perpetration, ordering and inducing or as a military commander for
crimes committed by his subordinates). The accused has pleaded not guilty to
all the charges.