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Jean Pierre Bemba refuses to talk about the ICC in interview

25 July 2007

Dear All,

Please find below information on recent developments related to the International Criminal Court's investigations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

All translations from the French are unofficial and have been prepared by CICC
Secretariat staff. Please also take note of the Coalition's policy on situations
before the ICC (below), which explicitly states that the CICC will NOT take a
position on potential or pending situations before the Court. The Coalition,
however, will continue to provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Regards,

Sasha Tenenbaum
Information Services Coordinator
Coalition for the International Criminal Court

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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

I. JEAN PIERRE BEMBA REFUSES TO TALK ABOUT THE ICC IN JEUNE AFRIQUE INTERVIEW

i. "The victim is me," Le Potentiel, 23 July 2007,
http://www.lepotentiel.com/afficher_article.php?id_article=49401&id_edition=4082
[In French only]

During his interview with the popular magazine Jeune Afrique (Jeune Afrique
issue 2428 from 22-28 July 2007), Jean Pierre Bemba refused to comment on the
opening of the Court's DRC investigation:

[Interviewer speaking]: "Following a complaint by the FIDH against Central
African Republic's ex-President Ange-Félix Patassé and you yourself, the ICC
decided to launch an investigation into past actions that would have been
committed by your militias on the Bangui populations, in 2002 and 2003... "

[Bemba interrupts]: "I will stop you there right away. I have nothing to say on
this topic. These accusations are totally unfounded. I do not concern myself
with such matters. It's the Congo that interests me."

ii. "ICC Investigation in DRC," L'Avenir, 25 July 2007,
http://www.digitalcongo.net/article/45284 [In French only]

The Congolese newspaper L'Avenir (pro-Government) comments on the interview JP
Bemba gave to Jeune Afrique: "For some time the ICC, which handled referrals
relating to CAR victims at the hands of JP Bemba, has shown its teeth and helped
to mount pressure. Despite his cool composure and his assurances, the ex Vice-
President, Jean Pierre Bemba, started to show signs of vulnerability. In the
course of his interview with 'Jeune Afrique', the man flat out refused to
respond to questions on issues of large-scale massacres and rape perpetrated by
his men in CAR. He was content speaking though he himself doesn't believe he
knew nothing and that he did not give orders to the troops. We ought to question
this politically manipulated defense."

II. ICC FORSEES ISSUING SECOND ARREST WARRANT FOR UNNAMED SUSPECT

"Court Looks Set to Issue Second DRC Indictment ," by Lisa Clifford (IWPR), 24
July 2007,
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=337372&apc_state=henh

"More than a year has passed since militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo first
appeared before International Criminal Court (ICC) judges. In the Democratic
Republic of Congo, DRC, where he is alleged to have commanded an armed group
responsible for wide-ranging war crimes in the northeastern district of Ituri,
observers say the mood on the ground is impatient and frustration is growing at
the slow pace of ICC justice.

But that looks set to change. There are suggestions that Lubanga's trial could
soon start and that he might be getting some company in the Scheveningen
detention unit in The Hague where he has been held since March 2006.

....Word in the international justice community, and from the ICC itself, is
that a new arrest warrant could be coming soon. A spokesperson for the Office of
the Prosecutor, OTP, told IWPR this week it has conducted a second DRC
investigation into crimes allegedly committed by another armed group in Ituri.

'We expect to present the case before the judges in the near future,' said the
spokesperson. 'And we are selecting a third case to investigate in the DRC,
which we'll do before the end of 2007.'
What's less clear, however, is whose name will be on any arrest warrants. Some
observers say the second case will target a member of the Lendu ethnic group -
the Hema's opponents in Ituri in a war that claimed thousands of lives and
displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

That could be UPC rivals the Nationalist Integrationist Front, FNI. The FNI was
led by Floribert Ndjabu Ngabu and Etienne Lona until their arrest in 2005 over
alleged FNI involvement in the killing of Bangladeshi peacekeepers in Ituri.
Peter Karim took over but is now a colonel in the Congolese army under an
ongoing plan to disarm and demobilise militias."

III. SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS ON ARMED GROUPS IN EAST CONGO TO DEPOSE ARMS

"Security Council urges political solution to crisis in eastern DR Congo," UN
News Centre, 24 July 2007,

http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID=14507&Cr=RDC&Cr1=Conseil#

"The United Nations Security Council today urged key players to seek a political
solution to the ongoing crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC), where insecurity has led to the displacement of some 700,000
people.

....Today's statement called on the Government to develop, in coordination with
the UN Organization Mission in the DRC, a plan to ensure security in the eastern
part of the vast nation, including by promoting disarmament, demobilization and
reintegration of Congolese and foreign combatants, as well as reconciliation,
recovery and development.

...Last week, the Council was briefed on the DRC by Under-Secretary-General for
Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno, who said the concentration of
Government forces and rebels led by General Nkunda in a 'very volatile area
where there are a number of unresolved issues' has resulted in a 'very dangerous
situation.'"

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ANALYSIS AND OPINION: PROSECUTING CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN

i."Forced marriage appeal may influence ICC," by Katy Glassborow (IWPR), 24 July
2007, http://iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=337374&apc_state=henh

"Appeal against forced marriage acquittals at Special Court for Sierra Leone
might have bearing on ICC prosecutions. The chief prosecutor for war crimes in
Sierra Leone is preparing to appeal the acquittals of three military leaders
accused of forcing women into marriage, in a move that he hopes could help bring
convictions on similar charges at the International Criminal Court.

On June 20, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, SCSL, found Alex Tamba Brima,
Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu guilty of war crimes and crimes
against humanity including murder, rape, sexual slavery and conscripting child
soldiers. On July 19, Brima and Kanu were sentenced to 50 years in prison, while
Kamara received 45 years.

But the trial judges said they saw no need to treat forced marriage as a crime
separate to sexual slavery, and threw out the charges. Such charges had never
before been tried at an international tribunal.

Chief Prosecutor Stephen Rapp will appeal this decision, which he called
'formulistic', on August 2. He told IWPR that the charge of forced marriage
accurately described the experience of women who were kidnapped by the Armed
Forces Revolutionary Council....

Rapp identified a 'reluctance to convict this crime which has never been pleaded
before at an international level.' Just as the charge indicates, forced marriage
occurs by force and without the consent of the women concerned, their parents or
the community, and Rapp had intended to prosecute it as a crime against
humanity. He will appeal the judges' logic that despite evidence of sexual
slavery, the indictments - which include counts of both sexual slavery and other
forms of sexual violence - were overlapping.

Trial judges said the prosecutor's evidence was 'completely subsumed by the
crime of sexual slavery and that there is no lacuna in the law which would
necessitate a separate crime of forced marriage as another inhumane act.' They
said that the count of 'sexual slavery and any other form of sexual violence' is
'bad for duplicity,' so in the interests of justice elected to consider evidence
of sexual slavery under the count of 'outrages upon personal dignity.'

Despite the legal loopholes and technicalities, the sad fact is that sex crimes
and crimes of sexual violence are often pervasive in conflict and examples of
rape and sexual slavery as a weapon of war or a tool of ethnic cleansing have a
long history.

Rape and sexual slavery feature in cases at the ICC, including the insurgency in
Uganda, the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, the failed military coup in
the Central African Republic and the inter-ethnic fighting in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.

Indeed, the founding statute of the ICC formally criminalises a whole tranche of
sex crimes used as a tool in conflict, such as enforced prostitution, forced
pregnancy, enforced sterilisation, or any other form of sexual violence of
comparable gravity, for the first time in international law.

Despite this leap forward in the recognition of sexual war crimes, international
prosecutions of such acts have only occurred in the recent past at the UN backed
International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

But Rapp says they were invariably prosecuted as rape, and argues that the
experience of women in conflict is often a lot more complex. He argues that
forced marriage should not be viewed unequivocally as a sex offence.

....The chief prosecutor also argues that being conscripted into a marital
relationship causes psychological damage, and that the particular ways in which
the rights of women are violated goes beyond pure sexual violence.

....The trouble is that rape and sexual slavery are crimes clearly set out in
the statutes of both the SCSL and the ICC, while forced marriage is not
explicitly listed as a crime under either statute but can be charged as an
inhumane act.

International law relating to war crimes provides that if other acts occur in
connection to a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, which
constitute a crime against humanity and are of equal gravity to other offences
under the statute, they can be charged.

...Sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence are crimes under the ICC's
statute, so Rapp says the prosecution and appeal at the AFRC will guide
investigators and prosecutors at the ICC in how to pursue these charges. ....If
SCSL judges hold that on appeal, the crime of forced marriage can be prosecuted,
Rapp feels this may have a bearing on the ICC."

ii."Central Africa: We Want Our Dignity Back," by Dieu-Donné Wedi Djamba
(Fahamu), 12 July 2007, http://allafrica.com/stories/200707121174.html

"Horrific acts of violence were committed against women and children during and
after the wars in the Great Lakes region...

...[I]n the Great Lakes region, while the perpetrators and bystanders are living
peacefully and comfortably, the victims, particularly women and girls, continue
to experience the same nightmares. They have paid a heavy price for the deadly
wars, which have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, refugees and
displacements, mass human rights violations such as rape, torture, and other
atrocities, burning of houses and the looting of national resources by the
different armed groups. An aftermath does not seem to exist for them. Indeed,
the post-conflict period is the equivalent of the period of the actual conflict.

This paper highlights the pain and other injustices experienced by women and
girls during and after the wars in the Great Lakes region. The aim is to
sensitise the Great Lakes region community as a whole and the region's
authorities in particular to be involved in the healing process of the thousands
of women and girl victims of wars in the region; so that the words 'never again'
can have a meaning.

... Accountability for human rights violations is an important instrument in
breaking the cycle of violence and impunity. It is an indispensable component of
the process of healing the wounds. In this regard, Alex Boraine argues that
legal prosecutions have at least three additional advantages: firstly,
prosecutions in most cases prevent high-ranking perpetrators from returning to
positions of authority; secondly, tribunals and special courts aim to punish
those who bear the greatest responsibility for human rights violations and thus
assist in breaking the cycle of collective reprisals; and thirdly, due process
avoids summary justice.

In the post-conflict era, accountability for mass human rights abuses can be
held through a judicial and a non-judicial process. Indeed, mass human rights
violation occurred with the involvement of numerous of individuals. Thus it
becomes almost impossible to set a trial for all those who were involved. Only
those who bear heavy responsibility can stand trial. But still, it is possible
to hold all perpetrators accountable by pressing them to recognise their
wrongdoing and to show remorse. This can be done through a non-judicial forum,
such as a truth and reconciliation commission.

Through a legacy of conflicts and repressive regimes, the Great Lakes region
countries are characterised by a judicial system which is in a state of
disarray, or which does not guarantee a fair trial. Meanwhile in many of the
countries where truth and reconciliation has not already completely failed, as
it has in the DRC, truth commission forums are still debatable.

However, the presence of a special tribune such as the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the last decision taken by Rwandan government to
abolish the death penalty are strong signs of the fight against impunity.
Indeed, the abolition of the death penalty from its judiciary arsenal will
enable Rwanda to capitalise on the fight against impunity. Countries that reject
the death penalty will be able to extradite to Rwanda exiles responsible for
genocide and also to carry on with the trial after the ICTR ends in 2010.

But if a step is made in the fight against impunity through the Rwandan case,
the Great Lakes region still has a long way to go to end impunity. Indeed, in
the DRC, despite the mass human rights violations committed during and after the
wars, only some isolated cases of trials are mentioned, while many accused of
mass human right abuse are awarded in name of peace. In Uganda, the population
is waiting for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate abuses in
the government army , which is accused of having committed many atrocities in
northern Uganda. While in Burundi, an agreement about creating a special
criminal tribunal for mass human rights violations was reached, though more
still has to be done to establish it...."

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