THE HAGUE – A former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo went on trial at the International Criminal Court yesterday accused of letting his troops rape and kill in the Central African Republic.
Jean-Pierre Bemba (48) is the most senior political leader to be detained so far by the ICC. He is charged with two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes.
Mr Bemba is accused of leading troops into the Central African Republic between late 2002 and early 2003 at the invitation of Ange-Félix Patassé, the republic’s president at the time, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to put down coup attempts.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Mr Bemba sent about 1,500 troops into the country where they committed hundreds of rapes and pillaged property to spread terror and devastate communities, and that Mr Bemba failed to control his forces.
“Bemba’s troops stole the possessions of the poorest people in one of the poorest countries in the world,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said. “Women were raped systematically to assert dominance and to shatter resistance. Men were raped in public to destroy their authority and their capacity to lead.” Mr Bemba pleaded not guilty to all five charges through defence lawyer Nkwebe Liriss.
“I have the regret to tell you that you will be viewing for the first time, and let us hope the last time, the most unfair trial that international justice has ever seen,” Mr Liriss said outside the court. He raised concerns about the detention of Mr Bemba, the freezing of his assets and a lack of sufficient financing provided by the court for his defence.
Outside the court, Margot Wallström, UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, said the trial signalled no leader was above the law and that respecting women’s rights in warfare was an “obligation not an aspiration”.
“This trial represents a milestone in the history of international criminal justice and this is against the backdrop of wartime sexual violence having been one of history’s greatest silences and the world’s least condemned war crime,” she said.
Brigid Inder, of Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice, which documented the rapes, said many women were “rejected by their families, ostracised by the communities, contracted HIV and gave birth to children as a result of rape”. They still suffered trauma and medical problems, she said. – (Reuters)