The trial of Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda nicknamed “The Terminator” has commenced at the International Criminal Court, ICC, sitting at The Hague, Netherlands.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told a three-judge bench that Ntaganda gave orders “to attacks and kill” hundreds of hapless victims in armed conflicts that ravaged parts of Ituri, a north eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and 2003.
Ntaganda, who is being tried on an 18-count charge, has denied all allegations levelled against him.
The 41-year-old willingly and unexpectedly surrendered to the US Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda in 2013 and asked to be trasferred to the ICC, though observers claim he most likely feared for his life as a fugitive from a rival faction within M23, but his motives for surrendering to the ICC remain unclear.
Despite his claims of innocence, prosecutors say that militias of the dreaded Ntaganda-commanded M23 rebel group ravaged villages and raped countless number of women.
According to senior trial lawyer Nicole Samson, “Rape occurred on such a large scale that the [rebels] distributed antibiotics to troops against venereal diseases.”
When he was in charge of the Union of Congolese Patriots, UPC, an ethnic militia group in Ituri, Ntaganda was alleged to have told child soldiers: “When you’re a soldier, you get a woman for free. Everything is free.”
He was reportedly one of the most-feared rebel commanders to have emerged from the numerous ethnic-based conflicts that decimated vast areas of the DRC.
He is being charged on 13 counts of war crimes and 5 counts of crimes against humanity.
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