ICC lifts lid on Terminator’s ‘reign of terror’
Former Democratic Republic of the Congo warlord Bosco Ntaganda was a dreaded commander whose troops slaughtered civilians with machetes and disembowelled pregnant women, the International Criminal Court 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 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, even pregnant woman as well. They took the foetuses out of the women,” Bensouda said, quoting a witness’s testimony during the trial.
Prosecutors showed gruesome pictures they said depicted the aftermath of one such attack allegedly carried out by Ntaganda’s troops.
One of the frames showed a heap of bodies, with the corpse of a man on top, his hands tied behind his back and his throat slit.
“No-one was ever punished for the crimes committed by Ntaganda’s troops,” prosecutor Marion Rabanit told the court.
Ntaganda faces 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity for his role in the brutal conflict that devastated the DR Congo’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, occasionally taking notes.
The Rwandan-born former rebel chief pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of his trial in September 2015.
On Tuesday, 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, prosecutors said Ntaganda used child soldiers aged below 15, coerced women soldiers into sexual slavery and attacked civilians on ethnic grounds.
Ntaganda also 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, she said.
At least 800 people were killed by the FPLC as it battled rival militias for control of the mineral-rich area.
The soft-spoken Ntaganda during his trial balked at the “Terminator” nickname, however, and told judges he was a soldier, not a criminal.
Ntaganda wants to present himself as a “human being”, his lawyer Stephane Bourgon said.
The very first suspect to surrender voluntarily to the ICC, Ntaganda walked into the US embassy in Kigali in 2013 and asked to be sent to the court.
Ntaganda is also a founding member of the M23 rebel group, which was eventually 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.
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 three-day hearing was followed with interest after the surprise acquittal of another former Congolese leader, JeanPierre 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.
Back in Kinshasa, Bemba has lodged an appeal with the DRC’s top court after he was banned from running in upcoming presidential elections.
Bemba and five other candidates, including three former prime ministers, were barred by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) late on Friday.
The move sent shock waves through the country’s volatile politics ahead of the twice-delayed elections, triggering angry accusations of a fix.
But by Monday night four of the six banned candidates had taken their case to the Constitutional Court, the highest in the land.
The other two were expected to follow.
Although acquitted of war crimes charges, Bemba remains convicted by the ICC for bribing witnesses.
It was this conviction that CENI invoked as a reason to bar him from the December 23 vote. –