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Bosco Ntaganda, ‘The Terminator,’ Is Convicted of Congo War Crimes by I.C.C. Congo Warlord Called ‘the Terminator’ Is Convicted of War Crimes by I.C.C.
(about 11 hours later)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The International Criminal Court on Monday convicted a notorious rebel commander known as “The Terminator” of 18 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape and sexual slavery for his role in atrocities in an ethnic conflict in a mineral-rich region of Congo in 2002-2003. DAKAR, Senegal — His army conscripted children and outfitted them with ill-fitting uniforms and AK-47s. Female fighters, some underaged, were made sex slaves.
Bosco Ntaganda, the former commander, maintained his innocence during his trial but now faces a maximum life sentence after the verdict. He showed no emotion as the presiding judge, Robert Fremr, delivered the judgment. He personally shot and killed an elderly Catholic priest, and was responsible for the massacre of a village, not sparing women or babies.
A separate hearing will be scheduled to determine Mr. Ntaganda’s sentence. He has 30 days to appeal. A Congolese warlord known as “the Terminator” carried out those and other atrocities in a reign of terror against civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which convicted him on Monday of 13 counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity, committed in the 2002-2003 ethnic conflict between Lendu and Hema in Congo’s Ituri region.
Mr. Ntaganda, who was first indicted in 2006, became a symbol of impunity in Africa, even serving as a general in the Congolese Army before turning himself in 2013 as his power base crumbled. The warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, 45, was convicted by a three-judge panel of charges including murder, rape, sexual slavery, intentionally directing attacks against civilians, ordering the displacement of the civilian population, and conscripting children into an armed group.
In March of that year, Mr. Ntaganda unexpectedly showed up at the United States Embassy in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, where he was taken into custody, after a reward was established for his arrest. He has not yet been sentenced, and has 30 days to appeal. He could face life in prison.
At the time, Mr. Ntaganda had few options: He was coming under attack by fighters in his own rebel group, known as the M23. “The Rwandans would have killed him — he knew too much,” said Barnabé Kikaya bin Karubi, Congo’s ambassador to Britain in 2013. “His only chance to stay alive was to turn himself in to the Americans or whomever.” But the verdict, against a man whose power had made him seem invulnerable, sends a strong warning to other abusive commanders, analysts said.
Judge Fremr said that Mr. Ntaganda was guilty as a direct perpetrator or a co-perpetrator of murders, rapes of men and women, a massacre in a banana field behind a building called The Paradiso and of enlisting and using child soldiers. “When warlords see these convictions, they know they can be prosecuted,” said Kathryn Sikkink, a professor of human rights policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“The bodies of those killed — men, women and children and babies — were found in the banana field over the next days,” Judge Fremr said. “Some bodies were found naked, some had their hands tied up and some had their heads crushed. Several bodies were disemboweled or otherwise mutilated.” She said the conviction of Mr. Ntaganda was important, partly because it showed what the court can do if the court’s own members — the 122 states that are party to the treaty that created the court — fail to act on their own.
During his trial, Mr. Ntaganda testified for weeks in his own defense, saying that he wanted to put the record straight about his reputation as a ruthless military leader. At a hearing in 2013, when asked by a judge to state his profession, he responded, “I was a soldier in the Congo.” And rights experts said the verdict represented an important victory for the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who was appointed seven years ago and has faced repeated frustrations and setbacks in several high-profile cases. In light of those failures, critics of the court have increasingly raised basic questions about the court’s effectiveness.
He was the deputy chief of staff and commander of operations for rebel group the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo. The force’s leader, Thomas Lubanga, was convicted by the International Criminal Court in 2012 of using child soldiers. He is serving a 14-year prison sentence. In 2014, amid accusations that the Kenyan government had harassed potential witnesses, Ms. Bensouda dropped charges of crimes against humanity against President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, saying she lacked enough evidence to proceed.
Maria Elena Vignoli, the international justice counsel for Human Rights Watch, welcomed Mr. Ntaganda’s conviction. Last year, appeals judges at the court overturned a war-crimes conviction for Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. And this year, a former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, and one of his aides, were acquitted of crimes against humanity.
“The long-awaited judgment provides an important measure of justice for Bosco Ntaganda’s victims and puts others responsible for grave crimes on notice,” she said. “But renewed violence in eastern Congo highlights the need to address the impunity for other abusive leaders.” Burundi and the Philippines, outraged over Ms. Bensouda’s investigations of their leaders, have quit the court. And the United States, which is not a member of the court, revoked Ms. Bensouda’s visa a few months ago over her effort to investigate allegations of war crimes committed in Afghanistan — including any that may have been perpetrated by American forces.
Kenneth Roth, the rights group’s executive director, called the conviction “a big win for the survivors.” “The past few months, and even last year, have been filled with disappointments and setbacks for the I.C.C.,” said Amal Nassar, The Hague representative for the International Federation for Human Rights, a Paris-based advocacy group.
The convictions on Monday were a victory for the court’s prosecutors after some recent high-profile defeats. In January, judges acquitted Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of the Ivory Coast, and a former government minister of involvement in crimes after disputed 2010 elections. Still, Ms. Nassar expressed hope that the guilty verdict in Mr. Ntaganda’s case, should it stand up on appeal, “somehow restores hope and confidence in the court.”
Last year, a former Congolese vice president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, was acquitted on appeal in connection with crimes that prosecutors said were committed by his militia in the neighboring Central African Republic. Known for his pencil mustache and luxury lifestyle, Mr. Ntaganda was the chief of military operations for the Union of Congolese Patriots, a rebel group, and its armed faction, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, in a conflict over control of land, trading routes and gold mines. Civilians were caught in the middle.
Set up in 2002, the court has convicted only four people of war crimes. Five others have been found guilty of interfering with witnesses. Mr. Ntaganda was first indicted in 2006 but only stood trial years later, after turning himself in at the United States Embassy in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in March 2013. Experts suspect that he surrendered because he feared for his life: There had been a split in the latest rebel group he had formed, M23, and it appeared that he had lost the support of his Rwandan backers.
Judge Fremr said 102 witnesses had testified at Mr. Ntaganda’s trial, including a woman who survived having her throat slit by his forces. The judge said the former commander himself had shot and killed an elderly man serving as a Catholic priest. During the trial, Mr. Ntaganda told the court that he was “not a criminal” but a “trained officer” who always protected civilians.
Ms. Vignoli said thousands more victims in Congo still awaited justice. “The I.C.C. and Congolese authorities should work together to bring to trial many more of those responsible for grave crimes, including senior officials,” she said. “I ask you to make a distinction between a revolutionary rebel and a criminal,” Mr. Ntaganda said at his trial, which lasted from September 2015 until last August.
After the international court issued the warrant in 2006, Mr. Ntaganda evaded justice for seven years, going from one armed group to another and even serving as a general in the Congolese Army, said Ida Sawyer, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
The court said Mr. Ntaganda gave “direct orders to target and kill civilians.”
His forces drove a significant part of the civilian population into the bush. In the village of Kobu in 2003, the court said, at least 49 villagers were rounded up in a banana field and killed with batons, knives and machetes. Some were disemboweled or had their heads crushed in.
The court said Mr. Ntaganda was responsible for recruiting child soldiers, and for turning female soldiers into sex slaves.
For a time after the warrant for his arrest, he was based in Goma, the main city of eastern Congo, eating at expensive restaurants and playing tennis in plain view of diplomats and United Nations peacekeepers, “seemingly having no fear in the world,” Ms. Sawyer said.
“There really was a sense that he was too powerful and too protected by Congolese officials and his backers in Rwanda, and many people thought that he would never face justice,” she said.
The verdict was announced by the presiding judge, Robert Fremr, as well as Judges Kuniko Ozaki and Chang-ho Chung.
Mr. Ntaganda is the fourth person to be prosecuted for atrocities in the Ituri region. His boss, Thomas Lubanga, was convicted by the court in 2012.