| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Congo ex-warlord detained at Hague court |
| 2008-02-08 |
| A former Congo warlord was arrested and taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Thursday to face war crimes charges including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers, the court said. Mathieu Ngudjolo was arrested by Congolese authorities on Wednesday and handed over to ICC custody. He was the head of the Front of Nationalists and Integrationists (FPI) militia during conflict in northeast Ituri Province that grew out Congo's 1998-2003 war. "With this arrest again, we are showing that there can be no impunity for massive crimes," Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said at a hearing in The Hague after Ngudjolo was taken into custody there. The third Ituri warlord to be transferred to the ICC, Ngudjolo is charged on three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 11, the court said in a statement. "(Ngudjolo) attacked primarily the Hema ethnic group with the participation of children under the age of 15," Paul Madidi, a spokesman for the court in Kinshasa said. "He is responsible for the murders of 200 civilians, looting, and reducing women and girls to sexual slavery." Another Congolese militia chief, Thomas Lubanga, was taken into custody by the court in 2006 and his trial is due to start on March 31. He is accused of recruiting children under the age of 15 to kill members of another ethnic group. The ICC is also in the process of prosecuting Germain Katanga, another Ituri ex-militia leader who is accused of murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers. Ngudjolo's arrest comes as the government of President Joseph Kabila is trying to end a decade of violence in Congo that experts estimate has killed 5.4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease. Last month, the government signed peace deals with 25 armed groups, including renegade General Laurent Nkunda's Tutsi insurgency, in a bid to finally stabilise the east, where fighting has continued despite the end to the broader war. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The ICC is also in the process of prosecuting Germain Katanga, another Ituri ex-militia leader who is accused of ....... Another good reason, albeit totally unncessary, to forego military involvement in the Congo or Africa. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-02-08 04:51 |