First Read:
Are we seeing the end of M23 and the creation of another militia in DRC by the USA in conjunction with Rwanda?? Wanted Ntaganda surrenders, asks to be taken to ICC: M23 rebels run out of ammunition, flee to Rwanda
The Untold Stories: Will the Termination of the Terminator, Terminate the conflict and misery in the DR Congo without terminating their sponsors and financiers?
Tale of two hypocrites: US implies Rwanda hasn't assured warlord's passage: Rwanda has indicated that it would not interfere with the transfer of Ntaganda to the ICC.
War crimes suspect Ntaganda protests innocence at ICC
The man known as "The Terminator" appeared with a shaven head, thin moustache and wearing a black suit and dark blue tie after arriving in The Hague on Friday following his surprise surrender in Rwanda.
The first ever suspect to voluntarily give himself up to the ICC, Ntaganda is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed a decade ago when he was a warlord in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
He initially seemed slightly bewildered but after a court orderly pointed to a set of headphones he sat down, listened intently and occasionally made notes.
"My name is Bosco Ntaganda, I only have the two names, the names given to me by my parents," he said when presiding judge Ekaterina Trendafilova asked him to identify himself.
Ntaganda said although he understood limited French, he preferred to be tried in central African language Kinyarwanda, which he speaks fluently.
"As you know, I was a soldier in the Congo," the towering Ntaganda said through an interpreter. "I was born in Rwanda but I grew up in the Congo. I am Congolese."
"I was informed of these crimes but I plead not guilty," Ntaganda said before Trendafilova cut him short.
The judge set September 23 as the date for a hearing to confirm the charges against Ntaganda, who was allegedly involved in the murder a decade ago of at least 800 people in villages in the mineral-rich region of Ituri in northeastern DR Congo.
At that hearing, prosecutors must persuade the judges they have enough evidence to take him to trial.
Ntaganda reportedly walked into the US embassy in Kigali and asked to be sent to the ICC, possibly fearing for his life as a fugitive from former comrades.
Tuesday's brief hearing was to verify Ntaganda's identity, read the alleged crimes and his rights under the court's founding document, the Rome Statute.
Hassane Bel Lakhdar, his Paris-based lawyer who was appointed by the court, said Ntaganda "intended to file an application for temporary release, but it will not be today".
Set up just over a decade ago, the ICC is the world's only permanent criminal court to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ntaganda faces seven war crimes counts and three counts of crimes against humanity: they include murder, rape and using child soldiers in his rebel army as well as keeping women as sex-slaves between September 2002 and September 2003.
Victims, as well as Congolese citizens attending Tuesday's hearing, welcomed Ntaganda's appearance.
"Now he cannot come back to where I live and try to abduct me from school and send me off to war," Human Rights Watch quoted an unidentified 16-year-old Congolese boy as saying who was allegedly taken by rebel troops loyal to Ntaganda last year.
"The Congolese people are very happy with Ntaganda's detention," 36-year-old Congolese citizen Dede Mukadi told AFP.
"It's a great day for the Congolese people, a victory," said Mukadi.
Ntaganda was taken into custody in Kigali and flown to the Netherlands Friday, since when he has been held at the ICC detention unit in The Hague's seaside suburb of Scheveningen.
Born in 1973, Ntaganda is the fifth African in ICC custody and the court first issued an arrest warrant against him in 2006.
Until his unexpected appearance in Kigali last week, he had been "flaunting his impunity like a medal of honour while engaging in ruthless human rights abuses," said HRW senior Africa researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg.
Once a top commander of the DR Congo's M23 rebels, the charismatic Ntaganda is believed to have crossed into Rwanda along with several hundred fighters after they suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a rival rebel faction.
Ntaganda is believed to have been instrumental in the M23 mutiny in April last year after the collapse of a peace deal under which rebels were to be integrated into the regular army.
Congolese Rebel Commander Tells War Crimes Court He Was Just ‘a Soldier’
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/world/africa/war-crimes-suspect-bosco-ntaganda-tells-court-he-was-just-a-soldier.html?_r=0
By MARLISE SIMONS
Wearing a court-issued dark suit, Mr. Ntaganda seemed timid and anxious, cutting a slight figure next to one of the burly guards the court had chosen for the occasion. Although Mr. Ntaganda, long a wanted man, was not asked to enter a plea, he quickly told the judge and a room full of black-gowned lawyers, “I was informed of these crimes, but I plead not guilty.”
When the judge, Ekaterina Trendafilova, asked him to
state his profession, Mr. Ntaganda, 39, said simply, “I was a soldier in the Congo.”
It was an understated summary of Mr. Ntaganda’s career,
which spanned almost 20 years of fighting, first in Rwanda, then in an array of
rebel groups vying for control over a mineral-rich part of eastern Congo, and
even a stint as a general in the Congolese Army. According to the prosecution,
Mr. Ntaganda was one of the most ruthless and cruel of Congo’s rebel leaders.
His warfare of choice during operations he led in the
early 2000s, according to the prosecution, was not military confrontation but a
sweeping campaign that involved terrorizing villagers, pillaging, raping,
killing and using drugged children as his foot soldiers and henchmen.
The international court first issued an arrest warrant
for him in 2006 and another in 2012, but Mr. Ntaganda lived openly, seemingly
untouchable, until he unexpectedly arrived at the American Embassy in Kigali in Rwanda
last week and asked surprised diplomats to turn him over to the International
Criminal Court.
Questions about what prompted the warlord to turn
himself in remained unanswered on Tuesday, as the issue was not addressed
during the hourlong arraignment hearing in court.
But there was a moment of bemused surprise among
observers when Mr. Ntaganda’s court-appointed lawyer said that his client would
ask to be released until the start of the trial. Such a request is unlikely to
be granted to a man who has been on the run for years.
One theory suggests that by entering the American
Embassy in Rwanda,
Mr. Ntaganda looked to save his life after feeling threatened by members of his
own rebel group, known as M23. The group had recently split, leading him and about
700 of his men to flee across the border into Rwanda.
He was on a list of wanted men whose capture the United States
government would pay a hefty reward for, exposing him to additional risk.
Some experts who focus on the region said that the
Rwandan government, which had long backed Mr. Ntaganda and his rebels, had
urged him to give himself up because it wanted to rid itself of an ally who had
become too much of a liability.
They said Mr. Ntaganda had gained a reputation not only
as a brutal commander, but also as a rich crime boss in the region around Goma,
one of Congo’s
biggest cities, where he smuggled minerals, sold fake gold and extorted local
businessmen, according to a United Nations report. Rwanda plainly told him that it
could no longer protect him, one expert said.
Stephen
J. Rapp, the American ambassador for war crimes, who knows the region well,
said: “I don’t know how or why Ntaganda came to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda.
For him, this route may have offered the least disadvantages.”
Although neither the United
States nor Rwanda
is a member of the international court, the two agreed to cooperate to deliver
the rebel leader to The Hague,
where he arrived in a private plane late Friday.
The removal of Mr. Ntaganda from the conflict zone may
be seen as a relief, but it is not expected to bring stability to the region.
Rwanda
has been seen as an important destabilizing factor in eastern Congo, with United Nations
investigators drawing up detailed reports that the Rwandan government had been
covertly supporting Mr. Ntaganda’s men and other rebel groups to profit from
the lucrative mineral trade across the border. Several Western nations,
including the United States,
have cut aid to Rwanda
and pressured the government to cut their ties to the Congolese rebel groups.
“We want there to be peace in the region,” said Mr.
Rapp, a former international prosecutor, who said that in his present job he
had been to Congo
eight times and had “seen the horrors inflicted on the people.” At one point,
in the town of Kiwanja,
he said, “I met a woman who had seen the throats of her eight children slashed
before her eyes, allegedly by men under Bosco’s command.”
“There were local prosecutions, but Bosco and his men
were above the law,” he added. “When one was arrested he was broken out of
jail.”
The judge, in reading the charges against him, said Mr.
Ntaganda was accused of the war crime of enlisting and using children under the
age of 15 as soldiers, and of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape,
sexual slavery and pillaging.
Last year, the court sentenced Thomas Lubanga, a former
associate of Mr. Ntaganda, to 14 years in prison for enlisting child soldiers.
The prosecution charges that Mr. Ntaganda was the main person in charge of
conscription.
During much of the hearing, Mr. Ntaganda was clearly
uncomfortable in the sleek modern courtroom, often looking down or hunching
over as if wanting to disappear. He told the court he was born in Rwanda but had grown up in Congo and was a
Congolese citizen. When the judge asked if he spoke English or French, the
languages of the court, Mr. Ntaganda said, “I understand French somewhat, but I
speak Kinyarwanda,” the language of Rwanda.
The next hearing in the case was set for April 15.
