Witnesses tell of rape, torture

2009-01-13 22:00

The Hague - Prosecutors submitted chilling witness accounts of atrocities to the International Criminal Court on Tuesday in a bid to have former Democratic Republic of Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba tried for war crimes.

Bemba sat stony-faced in the dock as prosecutors produced evidence of gang rapes of men, women and children, of torture, and of murders allegedly committed by militia under his command in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Many of the killings attributed to the ex-rebel leader's Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) were committed in the CAR in 2002 and 2003 in the execution of other crimes like rape and looting, prosecutors alleged.

"MLC troops had a licence to kill without repercussions. Murder was a tool available to MLC troops," prosecutor Horejah Bala-Gaye argued on the second day of hearings to determine whether Bemba will be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"They killed men, women and children indiscriminately, they killed girls and boys as young as seven months old and grandmothers and grandfathers."

Another member of the prosecuting team, Petra Kneuer, gave the panel of three judges gruesome accounts of rape - in one case that of a girl of 10 - allegedly by two MLC soldiers, while her father was held to the ground.

"They raped people in their homes, in compounds, on the street and in the open," she said. "Several are still living with the scars, including HIV."

The hearing in The Hague is aimed at determining whether there are sufficient grounds to put 46-year-old Bemba on trial.

Prosecutors say his MLC had entered the neighbouring country in October 2002 at the behest of then president Ange Felixe Patasse, to help put down a coup by general Francois Bozize.

Political conspiracy

Bozize took power in 2003 and asked the ICC to probe Bemba.

Bemba's lawyers say the case is part of a political conspiracy against him, that his militiamen were bona fide troops deployed in the CAR to protect a democratically elected neighbouring government, and that they were under Patasse's command.

But Bala-Gaye argued: "There are substantial grounds to believe that Jean-Pierre Bemba had control over the MLC troops and the crimes they committed in the Central African Republic".

Bemba was arrested on an ICC warrant in Brussels last May. He faces five charges of war crimes and three of crimes against humanity for rape, torture, looting and murder committed by his MLC movement.

After a years-long civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bemba became one of four vice-presidents in a transitional government ahead of landmark 2006 elections.

Bemba, the Belgian-educated son of a rich businessman, ran for the presidency, but was defeated by Joseph Kabila.

He led the opposition to Kabila, which turned violent when government forces tried to disarm his private militia in clashes that killed 300 in March 2007, and forced Bemba into exile.

The court will rule within 60 days whether there will be a trial.

- AFP