By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Witnesses testifying against two Congolese warlords at the International Criminal Court have been threatened and the court does not have the resources to fully protect them, a senior investigator testified Wednesday.
The investigator spoke on the second day of the trial of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo, who are accused of planning and directing a February 2003 attack on the village of Bogoro in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) northeastern Ituri region. Hundreds of people were killed and many women forced into sexual slavery in that February 24th, 2003 attack.
Prosecutors plan to call 26 witnesses to testify and 21 of them will be given protective measures in court to shield their identity to try to prevent possible retaliation. The investigator testified Wednesday as the first witness to outline how her team built its case against Katanga and Ngudjolo. Her identity also was shielded.
Investigators and prosecutors at the tribunal give witnesses advice on how to protect themselves but the unidentified investigator and first witness said sometimes “these quite simply have been not enough.” She did not elaborate on whether any witnesses had suffered physical harm, but her comments showed the difficulties of building cases in conflict zones.
Katanga, the alleged commander of the group known as the Force de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), faces three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes for a deadly assault on the village of Bogoro, in the province of Ituri. Ngudjolo, the alleged former commander of the rebel National Integrationalist Front (FNI), faces three counts of crimes against humanity and six of war crimes, and is alleged to have played a key role in designing and carrying out the Bogoro attack.
Among those crimes, the two men are accused of using children under the age of 15 in active hostilities, including as bodyguards and combatants, during the deadly assault on Bogoro. Ten child soldiers will be among the 345 people authorized to take part in the trial.
Katanga and Ngudjolo both have pleaded not guilty to three counts of crimes against humanity and seven war crimes including murder, rape, pillage, sexual slavery and using child soldiers in the slaughter. Defense attorneys have denied the two men were involved in the attack on Bogoro and instead blamed Ugandan forces that had been occupying Congo’s mineral-rich Ituri region where the village was located.
The prosecution says more than 1,000 fighters of Katanga’s Patriotic Resistance Force (FRPI) and Ngudjolo’s Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) entered Bogoro on February 24th six years ago “with one communicated and agreed goal: to erase the village”.
The ICC is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern – namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. This particular trial is expected to take several months.
For more information, please see:
Associated Press – Congo massacre witnesses were threatened – 25 November 2009
AFP- ICC Trial of Congolese Militiamen to Reveal ‘The Truth’ – 24 November 2009
PressTV – Congo Warlords Stand Trial – 24 November 2009
Reuters- Congo Warlords in the Dock At Hague Court – 23 November 2009
AllAfrica – International Criminal Court Trial of Two Former Leaders Opens Tomorrow – 23 November 2009
