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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/08/drc-rebel-commander-bosco-ntaganda-the-terminator-convicted-over-war-crimes
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| DRC rebel chief 'the Terminator' convicted of war crimes | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| International criminal court judges have convicted a Congolese rebel chief known as “the Terminator” of war crimes, including directing massacres of civilians and rape, in a significant victory for prosecutors in The Hague. | |
| Bosco Ntaganda, 45, was a key leader who gave orders to target and kill civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s volatile, mineral-rich Ituri region in 2002 and 2003, the head judge, Robert Fremr, said. | |
| The atrocities included a mass killing at a village where people, including children and babies, were “disembowelled or had their heads smashed in”, the judge said. Ntaganda was also responsible for the rape and sexual slavery of underage girls, and for recruiting troops under the age of 15. He was also guilty ofpersonally killing a Roman Catholic priest, the court said. | |
| Ntaganda fulfilled a very important military function and he was one of the key leaders of the rebel group, judges said, adding that his skills were held in high regard. “In relation to these direct orders to target and kill civilians, Mr Ntaganda endorsed criminal conduct by his own orders,” they said. | |
| He will be sentenced at a later date after judges hear submissions from victims. Judges can give a life sentence. | |
| The softly-spoken Ntaganda – known for his pencil moustache and a penchant for fine dining – told judges during his trial that he was a “soldier not a criminal” and that the Terminator nickname did not apply to him. | |
| Rwandan-born Ntaganda was found guilty of 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity for his role in the brutal conflict that wracked the north-eastern region. | |
| Prosecutors portrayed him as the ruthless leader of ethnic Tutsi revolts amid the wars that wracked DRC after the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in neighbouring Rwanda. | |
| More than 60,000 people have been killed since the violence erupted in the region in 1999, according to rights groups, as militias battle each other for control of scarce mineral resources. | |
| Prosecutors said Ntaganda was central to the planning and operations for the Union of Congolese Patriots rebels and its military wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC). | |
| The FPLC killed at least 800 people as it fought rival militias in Ituri, prosecutors said. | |
| In one attack directed by Ntaganda, judges said soldiers had killed at least 49 captured people in a banana field behind a village using “sticks and batons as well as knives and machetes”. | |
| “Men, women and children and babies were found in the field. Some bodies were found naked. Some had hands tied up. Some had their heads crushed. Several bodies were disembowelled or otherwise mutilated,” Fremr said. | |
| Formerly a Congolese army general, Ntaganda then became a founding member of the M23 rebel group, which was eventually defeated by Congolese government forces in 2013. | |
| The first suspect ever to voluntarily surrender to the ICC, he walked into the US embassy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in 2013 and asked to be sent to the court, based in the Netherlands. | |
| Ntaganda is one of five Congolese warlords brought before the ICC, which was set up in 2002 as an independent international body to prosecute those accused of the world’s worst crimes. | |
| It has suffered a string of setbacks over recent years with some of its most high-profile suspects walking free, including the Ivorian former leader Laurent Gbagbo earlier this year. It has also been criticised for mainly trying African suspects so far. | |
| The US administration of Donald Trump has also attacked the court after warning it against prosecuting US service members for war crimes in Afghanistan. | |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| International criminal court | International criminal court |
| War crimes | |
| Africa | Africa |
| International criminal justice | |
| news | news |
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