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| DRC 'warlords' ICC trial to open | DRC 'warlords' ICC trial to open |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| The trial of two alleged Congolese militia leaders charged with war crimes is due to begin at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. | The trial of two alleged Congolese militia leaders charged with war crimes is due to begin at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. |
| Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are accused of directing an attack on a village in 2003 in which more than 200 people were killed. | Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are accused of directing an attack on a village in 2003 in which more than 200 people were killed. |
| They face charges of ordering attacks on civilians, sexual slavery, rape, and enlisting child soldiers. | They face charges of ordering attacks on civilians, sexual slavery, rape, and enlisting child soldiers. |
| Both deny the charges and have expressed sympathy for the victims. | Both deny the charges and have expressed sympathy for the victims. |
| It is only the second trial at the ICC in The Hague. The first case - of rival Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga - began in 2008 but has been delayed by legal argument. | |
| ICC TRIAL Germain Katanga: Born 28 April 1978 in Mambassa, Ituri District. Alleged commander of Patriotic Resistance Force of Ituri (FRPI)Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui: Born 8 October 1970 in Bunia, Ituri District. Alleged leader of National Integrationist Front (FNI)ICC charges: Seven war crimes, including wilful killing, sexual slavery, attacking civilians, pillaging and using child soldiersThree crimes against humanity | |
| Prosecutors say Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui led two groups of ethnic Lendu and Ngiti child soldiers and militiamen with the goal of "erasing" Bogoro village, in the mineral-rich Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). | |
| Many victims, mostly from the rival Hema community, were hacked to death with machetes, while women were raped and killed or taken as sexual slaves by their attackers, according to the charges. | |
| Until the attack, the town had been controlled by Mr Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia, mostly Hema fighters. | |
| Prosecutors plan to call 26 witnesses, although 21 of them will testify hidden from public view for fear of reprisals. | |
| The trial is expected to take several months. | The trial is expected to take several months. |
| The conflict in Ituri was part of a war that raged in DR Congo following the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda and involved troops and fighters from several neighbouring countries. | |
| Militia leaders from all sides have been accused of using the conflict to profit from the region's mineral reserves, especially gold. | |
| Campaign group Human Rights Watch has called on the ICC to also investigate officials from DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, accusing them of arming rival militias in Ituri. | |
| The Ituri conflict ended after the intervention of European Union peacekeepers. | |
| The wider DR Congo conflict officially ended in 2003 but much of the east remains unstable. |