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DRC: DRC: ICC Unseals 4th Arrest Warrant in DRC Situation; ICC, CICC and

29 Apr 2008

Dear all,

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

On 28 April 2008, the ICC unsealed a fourth arrest warrant in the DRC for Bosco
Ntaganda, alleged current chief of staff for the National Congress for the
Defense of the People (CNDP), a group alleged to have committed numerous human
rights abuses. Pre-Trial Chamber 1 concluded that there were reasonable grounds
to believe that from July 2002 to end of December 2003, this rebel leader played
a central role in the enlistment, conscription and use of child soldiers. Bosco
Ntaganda is a former associate of Thomas Lubango Dyilo, who will be the first
person to stand trial at the ICC on 23 June 2008.



This news digest includes a press release from the Office of the Prosecutor and
the ICC announcing the unsealed warrant of arrest; the CICC and member
statements from Human Rights Watch and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Coalition for the ICC (CN-CPI); and related news coverage.

Please 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 and
current situations before the Court or situations under analysis. The Coalition,
however, will continue to
provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

With regards,
Sasha Tenenbaum
CICC Communications
[email protected]





I. ICC WARRANT OF ARREST UNSEALED IN DRC SITUATION



i. "DRC: ICC Warrant of Arrest unsealed against Bosco NTAGANDA," ICC Office of
the Prosecutor Press Release (Full-text), 29 April 2008,
www.icc-cpi.int/press/pressreleases/363.html

"...On 28 April 2008, upon request of the Prosecutor, Pre-Trial Chamber I
unsealed the warrant of arrest against Mr. Bosco NTAGANDA, former Deputy Chief
of the General Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo
(FPLC), and current alleged Chief of Staff of the Congrès national pour la
défense du people (CNDP) armed group, active in North Kivu in the DRC.

'Bosco NTAGANDA is a former associate of Thomas LUBANGA DYILO. Today, he is
active in the Kivus. We count on all concerned States authorities and actors to
contribute to his arrest and surrender him to the Court' said the Prosecutor.

The sealed warrant was first issued on 22 August 2006 by Pre-Trial Chamber I.
The Chamber concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that from
July 2002 to end of December 2003, Mr. NTAGANDA had played an essential role in
enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen years into the FPLC
and using them to participate actively in hostilities.

Mr. NTAGANDA is the second person charged in connection with the OTP
investigation into crimes allegedly committed by leaders of the FPLC armed group
in the District of Ituri. The first suspect in this investigation, Mr. Thomas
LUBANGA DYILO, President of the UPC ('Union des Patriotes Congolais') and former
Commander-in-chief of its military wing, the FPLC, was surrendered to the Court
on 17 March 2006. He will be the first person to stand trial at the ICC, which
is scheduled to start on 23 June 2008.

Bosco NTAGANDA is at large and allegedly continues to be implicated in the
commission of crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is reported to
have moved from the District of Ituri to the Province of North Kivu, into the
Masisi area, where he has reportedly taken the position of Chief of Staff within
the political-military group CNDP. The CNDP is a group under the command of
Laurent NKUNDA.

The CNDP is one of the groups against which there are credible reports of
serious crimes committed in the two Kivu provinces- including sexual crimes of
unspeakable cruelty - as well as the FDLR forces, local armed groups and
individual members of the regular army.

The Office of the Prosecutor is in the process of moving on to its third case in
the DRC, with other applications for arrest warrants to follow in the coming
months and years. In particular, we are collecting information about crimes
committed in the North and South Kivu. We are also considering the role of those
who organized and financed the militia.

'Bosco NTAGANDA committed crimes in Ituri; he is today in the Kivus. He must be
arrested. Like all the other indicted criminals in Uganda and in the Sudan, he
must be stopped if we want to break the system of violence. For such criminals,
there must be no escape. Then peace will have a chance. Then victims will have
hope' said the Prosecutor.

Today, it is for the relevant authorities in the DRC, and other countries as
appropriate, with the support of the international community, to arrest him and
facilitate his surrender to the ICC."


ii. "Warrant of arrest against Bosco NTAGANDA unsealed," ICC Press Release, 29
April 2008, http://www.icc-cpi.int/press/pressreleases/362.html


« ...On 28 April 2008, Pre-Trial Chamber I decided to unseal the warrant of
arrest against Bosco Ntaganda, 35 years old, also known as 'the Terminator'.
Still at large, he is alleged to have committed war crimes of enlistment and
conscription of children under the age of 15 and of using them to participate
actively in hostilities in Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from
July 2002 until December 2003. The warrant of arrest was delivered on 22 August
2006 under seal.


Factual allegations: The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to
believe that members of the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo
(FPLC) repeatedly carried out, from July 2002 to December 2003, acts of
enlistment, conscription and active participation in hostilities of children
under the age of fifteen, who were trained in the FPLC training camps of Bule,
Cantrale, Mandro, Rwampara, Irumu, Bogoro and Sota.


The Chamber found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Ntaganda,
as former Deputy Chief of General Staff for Military Operations of the FPLC, had
during the mentioned period of time, de jure and de facto authority over the
FPLC training camp commanders and used his authority to actively implement the
policy adopted at a higher level of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC)/FPLC
of enlisting, conscripting and using children under the age of 15 to participate
actively in hostilities. According to the judges, Ntaganda was subordinated to
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, alleged FPLC Commander-in-Chief, currently under the
custody of the ICC.

There are also reasonable grounds to believe that Ntaganda, 'often visited the
FPLC training camps where children under the age of fifteen were
trained to become FPLC soldiers and that he took part directly in
attacks in which FPLC soldiers under the age of fifteen actively
participated'.


Reasons for the unsealing


The warrant of arrest, issued in 2006 by Pre-Trial Chamber I, remained under
seal amongst other reasons, because 'public knowledge of the proceedings in this
case might result in Bosco Ntaganda hiding, fleeing, and/or obstructing or
endangering the investigations or the proceedings of the Court'.

According to the judges the circumstances that led to the sealing have changed.
Both the Prosecution and the Registry, which is the competent organ of the Court
to execute the Court's warrants of arrest and is in charge of the Court's
Witness Protection Programme, agreed that 'the unsealing of the warrant of
arrest for Bosco Ntaganda will not endanger the witnesses of the DRC cases' and
that this was the 'right moment' to make it public...."




II.CICC STATEMENT





"ICC Unseals Fourth Arrest Warrant in DRC Situation: Rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda
cited for enlistment, conscription and use of child soldiers," CICC Media
Advisory (excerpts), 29 April 2008,
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/CICC_Ntaganda4thDRCarrest_eng2.pdf




...WHO: Bosco Ntaganda, also known as Bosco Tanganda, Bosco Ntanganda, Bosco
Ntangana, Bosco Ntagenda, Bosco Baganda, Bosco Taganda or "the Terminator,"is
believed to be a national of Rwanda and is around thirty five years old. He is
alleged to have been the former Chief of Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour
la Libération du Congo (FPLC) and is allegedly one of the current commanders of
the Mouvement Révolutionnaire du Congo (MRC).



COMMENT AND BACKGROUND: "We call on the Congolese government to cooperate
immediately with the Court to ensure the execution of this fourth arrest
warrant," said CICC Regional Director Brigitte Suhr. "This Court is doing much
to address one of the most brutal conflicts of our time, but without its own
police force, it cannot effectively operate in isolation."



Reacting to the decision, Bukeni W. Beck, currently of WITNESS and instrumental
in pushing the Court to investigate Thomas Lubanga-a case that will result in
the Court's first trial this June-said "This is a very, very hopeful
development. By fingering an active rebel, the ICC is now poised to be a true
catalyst for justice in the country."



III. CICC MEMBER STATEMENTS







i. « DRC Coalition for the ICC Reacts to the Unsealing of the Arrest Warrant
Against Bosco Ntaganda, » Press Release (CN- CPI N°003/2008) by Christian
Hemedi, National Coordinator and Gilbert Angwandia, Ituri Focal Point, 29 April
2008, http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/CN-CPI_press_release_Ntaganda_04292008_fr.pdf
<http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/CN-CPI_press_release_Ntaganda_04292008_fr.pdf> (in
French)





'' The announcement of the international arrest warrant by the ICC against
Bosco Ntaganda is welcome news and confirms the willingness of the ICC
Prosecutor to open investigations in the Kivus."


The unsealing of the arrest warrant issued against Mr. Bosco Ntaganda, former
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération
du Congo (FPLC) is good news for the victims and all those involved in the fight
against the impunity of grave crimes that continue to be committed.

We congratulate the ICC who through this arrest warrant demonstrates its
determination to turn the tide against the downward spiral of crimes that blaze
across the Eastern part of the DRC by bringing accusations against one of the
major actors, Bosco Ntaganda, who is and currently the alleged Chief of Staff of
the Congrès national pour la défense du people (CNDP) armed group, active in
North Kivu in the DRC.

We believe the ICC has in fact made a clear link between the procedures in
progress in Ituri and the investigations to come in the Kivus which will
certainly lead to the pursuit of more persons within the CNDP ranks who are also
implicated in grave crimes within the Court's jurisdiction.

We therefore make an urgent call to all the states in the Great Lakes region (in
this case DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi as well as MONUC [UN Mission in the
DRC] to lend your might to the Court in order to arrest and transfer to The
Hague Mr. Bosco Ntaganda so that we put an end to criminal transgressions in
East DRC."

(Unofficial Translation Provided by the CICC Secretariat)








ii."International Warrant of Arrest against Bosco Ntaganda" by Eugène Bakama
Bope,


Président du Club des Amis du droit du Congo, 29 April 2008,
http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/CAD_press_release_Ntaganda_04292008_fr.pdf (in
French)



"A new international warrant of arrest has been unsealed by the International
Criminal Court against Bosco Ntanganda, former associate of Thomas Lubango Dyilo
and member of the FPLC (forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo), former
head of military operations of the des FPLC accused of war crimes with regard to
the enlisting, conscripting and using children under the age of 15 to
participate actively in hostilities in Ituri (DRC) between July 2002 and
December 2003.



The arrest warrant against Bosco Ntanganda is the fourth in the DRC situation
after Lubanga, Katanga and Ngudjolo.



This most recent warrant indicates that the ICC has not yet finished its work in
Ituri. We are pleased with this decision of the Court to prosecute the main
rebel leaders in Ituri still at large in the absence of any action from the
Congolese judicial authorities.



Nonetheless, the difficulty lies in the execution of this warrant arrest for
Bosco Ntaganda whom we know is still at large and presently committing other
crimes with Laurent Nkunda. As with Bosco Ntanganda, other war criminals such as
Cobra Matata should be subject to ICC arrest warrants or brought before national
courts."



(Unofficial Translation Provided by the CICC Secretariat)



iii. "DR Congo: Suspected War Criminal Wanted: International Court Unseals
Arrest Warrant Against Bosco Ntaganda," Human Rights Watch London/Brussels, 29
April 2008,
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/ASAZ-7E6G82?OpenDocument



"Congolese officials and UN peacekeepers should take swift action to enforce the
International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant against a rebel leader
accused of forcibly conscripting child soldiers and of other abuses, Human
Rights Watch said today.



The ICC on April 29 revealed the unsealing of the arrest warrant against Bosco
Ntaganda, charging him with the enlistment, conscription, and active use of
children in 2002-2003 during the conflict in the northeastern district of Ituri
when he was chief of military operations for the ethnic Hema militia group, the
Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC). Ntaganda is now the military chief of staff
of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) in the Congo, a
position he took after leaving the UPC following internal conflicts in 2006.



Led by Laurent Nkunda, the CNDP is considered responsible for serious abuses
against civilians in the North Kivu province of eastern Congo. But on January
23, 2008, the Congolese government signed a peace agreement in Goma, North Kivu,
with 22 armed groups, including the CNDP. Under its terms all parties agreed to
an immediate ceasefire and committed to respecting international human rights
law.



'If Laurent Nkunda is truly committed to the Goma peace agreement, then he
should immediately deliver Ntaganda to the international court,' said Anneke Van
Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch's Africa division. 'Now is
the time for Nkunda to put his professed commitment to human rights into
action.'



Ntaganda is the fourth Congolese rebel leader sought by the ICC for war crimes.
Three other Congolese defendants - Thomas Lubanga, Germain Katanga, and Mathieu
Ngudjolo - are already in ICC custody.



Special envoys from the African Union, the European Union, the United States,
the United Nations, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region
played a vital role in brokering the Goma peace agreement. A number of these
diplomats meet regularly with CNDP representatives as part of the peace process.
Human Rights Watch urged them to use their influence to pressure CNDP officials
to swiftly hand over Ntaganda to the ICC.



The ICC issued the arrest warrant against Ntaganda on August 22 2006, but only
made it public on April 28, 2008. Congolese authorities and officials in the
United Nations Mission in the Congo (MONUC) have known of its existence and
contents since it was first issued, but since Ntaganda remains active in a rebel
group, have found it difficult to take action to arrest him.

"An alleged war criminal wanted by the world's top court should not be allowed
to walk free in the Congo," said Van Woudenberg. 'If Nkunda does not hand him
over to the ICC, UN peacekeepers should take action to arrest Ntaganda as soon
as possible.'



The crimes which Ntaganda is alleged to have committed occurred when he was the
chief of military operations of the UPC. He was a close associate of Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo, the former head of the UPC, whom the ICC has also charged with
the enlistment, conscription, and active use of children during the same period.
Lubanga's trial is due to begin in The Hague later this year....





'Ntaganda has a track record of inflicting unbearable suffering on civilians in
Eastern Congo,'said Van Woudenberg. 'The ICC should charge him with the full
range of the crimes for which he is responsible, allowing his victims the
justice they desperately seek.'



Human Rights Watch research also indicates that there was support from senior
political and military officials in Kinshasa as well as in Uganda and Rwanda to
the UPC and other militias operating in Ituri. Human Right Watch also has
consistently urged the prosecutor to investigate these senior officials for
their role in the crimes committed in Ituri.



'Ending the culture of impunity requires the ICC's prosecutor to go after those
senior individuals in Kinshasa, Kigali, and Kampala who armed and supported the
armed groups in Ituri," said Van Woudenberg. "Only then will justice be done.'




Background




Bosco Ntaganda is a Congolese Tutsi who fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army
in the early 1990s and assisted in the overthrow of the Rwandan government at
the time of the genocide in 1994. Ntaganda eventually became the chief of
military operations of the Forces Patriotiques pour la libération du Congo
(FPLC), the military wing of the UPC in Ituri. In this capacity, he was involved
in numerous massacres and other serious human rights abuses. In the town of
Songolo in August 2002, UPC combatants under Ntaganda's command surrounded the
town and went house-to-house killing Lendu and Ngiti civilians with firearms,
machetes, or spears. From August 2002 to March 2003, Ntaganda participated in
hunting down, arresting, and torturing at least 100 members of the Lendu ethnic
group and other opponents in Bunia in what many described as a brutal 'man
hunt.'



In November 2002, Ntaganda also led UPC troops in attacks on the gold mining
town of Mongbwalu where at least 800 civilians were slaughtered on ethnic basis.
One witness who fled the town told Human Rights Watch, 'If you were Lendu, you
would be exterminated.' According to UN peacekeepers, Bosco's UPC was
responsible for killing a Kenyan UN peacekeeper in January 2004 and for
kidnapping a Moroccan peacekeeper later that year.



In October 2003, the UPC president Lubanga went to Kinshasa where he was kept
under nominal house arrest by the Congolese authorities; Ntaganda took over as
acting head of the UPC in Bunia and was in regular phone contact with Lubanga.
In January 2005, in a failed attempt to end the conflict in Ituri, Congolese
authorities appointed Ntaganda to the position of general in the newly
established Congolese army, though Ntaganda refused to take up the post. He was
placed on the UN sanctions list in November 2005 for breaching a UN arms
embargo. In March 2006, Lubanga was taken into ICC custody and transferred to
The Hague, where he is currently awaiting trial.



Sometime in 2006, following alleged differences within the UPC, Ntaganda left
Ituri for his home region of North Kivu and joined Laurent Nkunda's rebel group,
the CNDP. Today, he is the military chief of staff of the CNDP, a group alleged
to have committed numerous human rights abuses, including recruitment of child
soldiers, killing of civilians, and sexual violence. "



IV. MEDIA COVERAGE



i. "Court unseals warrant for Congo militia leader wanted for using child
soldiers," by Mike Corder (The Associated Press), 29 April 2008,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012900139.
html



"The International Criminal Court published an arrest warrant Tuesday for
Congolese militia leader Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for the alleged forced
conscription of child soldiers. Ntaganda recruited children to fight in the
Ituri region of eastern Congo from July 2002 until December 2003, the court said
in a statement.



Ntaganda is still at large in Congo and reportedly is now chief of staff of the
National Council for the Defense of the People. The group, known by its French
abbreviation, is the political wing of rebel warlord Laurent Nkunda's militia in
the North and South Kivu provinces of Congo.



'The CNDP is one of the groups against which there are credible reports of
serious crimes committed in the two Kivu provinces including sexual crimes of
unspeakable cruelty,' the statement said.



Nkunda has waged an insurgency in the provinces since 2004. Fighting intensified
late last year but eased after a Jan. 23 peace deal that committed both sides to
an immediate cease-fire.



Tuesday's statement alleges that Ntaganda is a former ally of Thomas Lubanga,
who was the first suspect taken into custody by the Hague-based court. He is due
to go on trial in late June for allegedly using child soldiers.



The arrest warrant was issued Aug. 22, 2006, but kept secret until Tuesday. It
alleges that Ntaganda conscripted and enlisted child soldiers and sent them to
fight in the rebel conflicts of eastern Congo when he was the deputy chief of
staff of Lubanga's militia, the FPLC....



...The court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, said it is
investigating atrocities in North and South Kivu and the role of leaders who
organized and financed militias in the region. Prosecutors expect to issue
arrest warrants in coming months and years.



The court has no police force of its own and must rely on national authorities
to arrest suspects and send them to its detention block in a Dutch jail. So far
it has three suspects in custody, all of them from Congo.



Last weekend marked one year since the court issued arrest warrants for a
Sudanese government minister and an alleged militia leader accused of war crimes
and crimes against humanity in the country's Darfur region. Authorities in
Khartoum have refused to turn the men over to the court..."



ii. "Global court seeks arrest of Congo's 'Terminator' "by Emma Thomasson
(Reuters), 29 April 2008, http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL29210838.html



"The International Criminal Court is seeking the arrest of a Congolese rebel
commander known as 'the Terminator', who is wanted for conscripting child
soldiers, the court said on Tuesday. Bosco Ntaganda, 35, is the military chief
of renegade General Laurent Nkunda's Tutsi insurgency, which said the arrest
warrant could undermine prospects for peace in Congo's lawless eastern border
province of North Kivu.



...Ntaganda is a former associate of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga whose
trial at the ICC -- the new court's first -- is due to start on June 23. Lubanga
is also accused of recruiting child soldiers and sending them to fight.



The warrant against Ntaganda was issued under seal in 2006 and relates to his
role as deputy chief of the military wing of Lubanga's Union of Congolese
Patriots (UPC), which is accused of sending child soldiers to fight in Ituri
district in 2002-2003.



The court said it had decided to unseal the warrant because it no longer
believed it might endanger witnesses. Ntaganda, who fought on the side of
Rwandan-backed rebels when war broke out in Congo in 1998, returned to his
native province of North Kivu in 2006, where he joined Nkunda's National
Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).



Moreno Ocampo's office said there were credible reports that the CNDP was
involved in 'sexual crimes of unspeakable cruelty'.



'If Laurent Nkunda is truly committed to the Goma peace agreement, then he
should immediately deliver Ntaganda to the international court,' Anneke Van
Woudenberg, a senior researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in
a statement.



CNDP spokesman Rene Abandi said the ICC's decision to indict the rebel commander
was 'counter-productive'. 'Justice exists for the betterment and construction of
society, not its destruction,' Abandi said.



Along with Lubanga, two other rival Congolese militia leaders are in detention
at the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court set up in 2002. The
court is also investigating war crimes in Uganda, Sudan and the Central African
Republic.The prosecution said it expected more applications for arrest warrants
relating to its investigation into crimes committed in the Kivu region and into
the militias' paymasters.



Three months after Democratic Republic of Congo's government signed a peace deal
with rebel and militia groups in the east, humanitarian workers report a lack of
security is still badly hampering their efforts to help thousands of displaced
people..."



See also:



"International court issues warrant for DR Congo militia chief," AFP, 29 April
2008, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdPwUWcb0tJMUMSR73ssT3CBV3Kw



"ICC issues warrant for Congo militia leader known as 'the Terminator'" CBC
News, 29 April 2008

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/29/icc-congo.html



"ICC unseals arrest warrant for Congo militia leader suspected of enlisting
child soldiers," by Jeannie Shawl, (Jurist), 29 April 2008

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/04/icc-unseals-arrest-warrant-for-con
go.php



"ICC Seeks Arrest of Congolese Militia Leader," by VOA News, 29 April 2008,
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-29-voa15.cfm



"ICC seeks DR Congo's 'Terminator'" BBC, 29 April 2008,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7372940.stm



*********



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