Court told of DRC’s ‘Terminator’
• Rebels used machetes to slaughter civilians, international judges told as trial of dreaded Congolese warlord wraps up in the Hague
Former Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda was a dreaded commander whose troops slaughtered civilians with machetes and disembowelled pregnant women, the International Criminal Court (ICC) heard on Tuesday.
In their closing statements against the man nicknamed “The Terminator”, prosecutors described how his rebel army conducted a reign of terror in Ituri, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in 2002 and 2003.
“A lot of people were executed by hand, with machetes,” ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told a three-judge bench at the Hague-based tribunal.
“Some of them were disembowelled, pregnant women as well. They took the foetuses out of the women,” Bensouda said, quoting a witness’s testimony.
Ntaganda faces 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity for his role in the brutal conflict that devastated the DRC’s east more than 15 years ago.
“The evidence has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Bosco Ntaganda is indeed guilty of the crimes charged against him,” Bensouda said.
Ntaganda, dressed in a black suit, dark-blue shirt and striped black tie and with a pencil moustache, listened intently and occasionally took notes.
The Rwandan-born former rebel chief pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of his trial in September 2015.
Prosecutors said Ntaganda was central to planning operations for the Union of Congolese Patriots and its military wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC).
Known as a charismatic commander with a penchant for cowboy hats and fine dining, Ntaganda used child soldiers and coerced female soldiers into sexual slavery while attacking civilians on ethnic grounds, prosecutors said.
Ntaganda “personally committed crimes”, Bensouda said.
“He persecuted and attacked civilians, he murdered them, pillaged their goods, destroyed their churches and hospitals,” in a bid to rid Ituri of Lendu and other inhabitants who were not from the Hema ethnic group.
At least 800 people were killed by the FPLC as it battled rival militias for control of the mineral-rich area.
Prosecutors singled out Ntaganda for allegedly leading a November 2002 attack on the gold mining town of Mongbwalu that lasted six days and left 200 villagers dead.
Ntaganda balked at the “Terminator” nickname and told judges he was a “soldier, not a criminal”. He wants to present himself as a “human being”, his lawyer Stephane Bourgon said.
The first suspect to voluntarily surrender to the ICC, Ntaganda walked into the US embassy in Kigali in 2013 and asked to be sent to the court. He is a founding member of the M23 rebel group, which was defeated by Congolese government forces five years ago.
More than 60,000 people have been killed since violence erupted in the volatile Ituri region in 1999, according to rights groups.
This week’s hearings will run from Tuesday to Thursday. It could take months, even years, before the ICC’s judges hand down a verdict.
The hearing will be followed with interest after the surprise acquittal of another former Congolese leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba. Initially sentenced to 18 years for war crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic, Bemba was acquitted on appeal in June. He has since returned to Kinshasa.
Ntaganda’s former FPLC commander, Thomas Lubanga, was sentenced to 14 years’ jail in 2012.
That was the second conviction by the court since it was set up 16 years ago to try the world’s most horrific crimes.