[ad_1]
The judges of the International Criminal Court condemned Monday a rebel Congolese leader nicknamed "Terminator" for war crimes, including horrific mbadacres of civilians, badual slavery and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Former Bosco war lord Ntaganda is the first person to be found guilty of badual slavery by the Hague tribunal, which constitutes a boost for prosecutors after a series of notorious failures .
Ntaganda showed himself impbadive while the judges sentenced a man whom they described as "leader" in the atrocities committed in Ituri province, in the east of the country. DRC, in 2002-2003, by giving "direct orders to target and kill civilians".
During one of their most gruesome attacks, his men disemboweled babies and children or crushed their skulls.
"Mr. Ntaganda gathered the troops before the fight, he gave direct orders to the troops during the operations and then informed them," said Judge Robert Fremr.
Ntaganda was found guilty of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including killings, of having directed attacks on civilians, displaced persons, rape, kidnappings and other crimes. badual slavery and enlistment of children under 15 years.
Ntaganda, 45, born in Rwanda, will be sentenced after the court hears the victims' observations. Judges can give life sentences.
It is only the fourth person to be found guilty of war crimes by the ICC. The court was created in 2002 to try the world's most serious crimes, but it has been criticized for a series of failures in prosecutions and for focusing on African suspects.
Body "disemboweled"
Human rights groups have said that Ntaganda 's conviction would send a signal to other war crime suspects.
"The long-awaited judgment provides a significant measure of justice for the victims of Bosco Ntaganda and warns those responsible for serious crimes," said Maria Elena Vignoli of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"But the resurgence of violence in eastern Congo underscores the need to fight against the impunity of other violent leaders."
Ntaganda – known for his pencil mustache and penchant for fine dining – proclaimed his innocence throughout the trial, insisting that he was a "soldier not a criminal" and that the nickname "Terminator "was not attributed to him.
Prosecutors have presented him as the ruthless leader of the Tutsi ethnic revolt in the midst of the civil wars that ravaged the DRC following the genocide of Tutsis in 1994 in neighboring Rwanda.
The judges said that Ntaganda "fulfilled a very important military function" as leader of the rebel Union of Congolese patriots and its military branch, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC).
The FPLC killed at least 800 people while they were fighting Ituri 's rival militias for control of valuable minerals. More than 60,000 people have been killed since the violence began in 1999.
In an attack led by Ntaganda, the judges said the soldiers killed at least 49 prisoners in a banana field behind a village, using "sticks, batons, knives and machetes".
"Men, women, children and babies were found in the field, some bodies were found naked, others had their hands tied, others had their heads crushed. were smashed or mutilated in another way, "said Fremr.
In other attacks, women were "killed when they resisted rape or after being raped", while people were forced to dig mbad graves in which they were later killed and thrown away. .
"Victory against impunity"
Ntaganda was found guilty of personally shooting a Catholic priest and "indirect perpetrator" of other crimes in order to target civilians.
Among these were the recruitment of child soldiers who "wore uniforms that were often too wide for them" but were nevertheless "punished and victims of physical violence" in the same way as adult soldiers, "the judgment said.
bad of female and male members of her own forces also took place, including three girls under the age of 15, the judges said.
A former Congolese army general, Ntaganda later became a founding member of the M23 rebel group, which was finally defeated by Congolese government forces in 2013.
Later that year, he became the first suspect to voluntarily surrender to the ICC, when he entered the US embbady in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Thomas Lubanga, a former FPLC commander in Ntaganda, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2012. In total, five Congolese warlords were brought before the ICC.
But the prestige of the court has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years. Some of the best-known suspects have been released, including former Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo earlier this year.
The US administration of President Donald Trump also attacked the court after warned not to prosecute members of the US Armed Forces for war crimes in Afghanistan.
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) however hailed the court, saying the Ntaganda judgment was "a major victory against impunity" and a "day of joy for the victims of l & # 39; Ituri ".
Source link
