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DRC: Latest ICC Press Releases and Media Coverage on the opening of the confirmation hearing against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui

27 June 2008

Dear all,

Please find below the latest updates related to the opening of the
confirmation hearing against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.

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.

Best regards,

Sasha Tenenbaum
CICC Communications
[email protected]

I. ICC PRESS RELEASES

i. "Opening of the confirmation hearing against Germain Katanga and
Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui," ICC Press Release, 27 June 2008,
http://www.icc-cpi.int/press/pressreleases/393.html
[Available in French]

"...Today, Pre-Trial Chamber I opened the confirmation hearing against
Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, in the presence of the two
suspects and their Defence Counsels, the Prosecution and the Legal
Representatives of the Victims.
The Presiding Judge, Akua Kuenyehia, opened the session and provided a
quick summary to the background of the case and the principles
governing the proceedings. `Everyone is presumed innocent until their
guilt has been established before the Court', stated Ms Kuenyehia. She
reminded everyone present that the burden of proof lies on the
Prosecutor and that the confirmation hearing is one stage of the
criminal procedure before the Court which aims at ensuring that no
case goes to trial unless there is sufficient evidence to establish
substantial grounds to believe that the person committed the crime
with which he has been charged.
The court officer read out the charged as presented by the Prosecutor.
Then the Prosecution made its opening statement, summarising the
context of the conflict in Ituri and the crimes allegedly committed by
the suspects. The legal representatives of the victims made their
opening statements pointing out the importance of the participation of
the victims to the proceedings, and presented the views of the victims
they represent. On Monday 30 June, the two teams for the Defence will
also have the opportunity to present their opening statements.
The Prosecutor charges Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui for
deliberately planning and executing the attack against the village of
Bogoro, on or around 24 February 2003, and for being criminally
responsible for:
- four counts of crimes against humanity: murder – article 7(1)(a),
inhumane acts – article 7(1)(k), and sexual slavery – article
7(1)(g), rape – article 7(1)(g)
- nine counts of war crimes: murder or wilful killing – article
8(2)(a)(i) or 8(2)(c)(i), cruel or inhuman treatment – article
8(2)(a)(ii) or 8(2)(c)(i), using children under the age of fifteen
years to participate actively in hostilities – article 8(2)(b)(xxvi)
or article 8(2)(e)(vii), sexual slavery – article 8(2)(b)(xxii) or
article 8(2)(e)(vi), intentionally directing attacks against the
civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking
direct part in hostilities – article 8(2)(b)(i) or 8(2)(e)(i),
pillaging a town or place even when taken by assault – article
8(2)(b)(xvi) or article 8(2)(e)(v), rape – article 8(2)(e)(vi) or
8(2)(b)(xxii), outrage upon personal dignity - article 8(2)(c)(ii) or
8(2)(b)(xxi), destruction of property - article 8(2)(e)(xii) or
8(2)(b)(xiii).
The confirmation hearing will continue until 16 July 2008. A written
decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber I shall be delivered within 60 days
of the date the confirmation hearing ends."

ii. "ICC Cases an opportunity for communities in Ituri to come
together and move forward," OTP Press Release, 27 June 2008,
http://www.icc-cpi.int/press/pressreleases/392.html
[Available in French]

" `This case is about the criminal responsibility of Germain Katanga
and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui who deliberately planned, orchestrated and
ordered their troops to attack and "wipe out" the village of Bogoro on
24 February 2003,' Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda declared today to
the Pre-Trial Chamber judges, during the first day of the Confirmation
of Charges hearing on the case of The Prosecutor vs. Germain Katanga
and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui.
Prosecution evidence will show that Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui are
personally responsible for killing children, women, the elderly;
burning houses with occupants still inside, pillaging. The Prosecution
evidence will show that they committed massive sexual violence
against women including rape and sexual enslavement: women were forced
into military camps and given as `wives' to their captors, detained in
holes dug in the ground, where they were repeatedly raped by soldiers
and officers alike.
Since July 2002, approximately 8,000 civilians were killed as a result
of the armed conflict in Ituri. More than 600,000 civilians were
forced to flee their homes.
`Our mandate is justice, justice for the victims. The victims of
Bogoro; the victims of crimes in Ituri; the victims in the DRC. This
case, and each of our cases, is a message to victims of crimes
worldwide, that perpetrators will be held accountable,' said the
Prosecutor. `This case and our other cases in the DRC are an
opportunity for all the communities in this province torn by conflict,
to come together. Our cases are about the individual responsibility of
criminals. There can be no solidarity with people like Thomas Lubanga
Dyilo, Germain Katanga, or Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. The work of justice
can help Ituri move forward'...."

II. MEDIA COVERAGE OF CONFIRMATION HEARING

i. "ICC prosecutors detail grim DR Congo war crimes accusations," 27
June 2008, by Mariette le Roux (Agence France Presse),
http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=17677

"War crimes prosecutors detailed Friday a grim case of mass murder and
sexual enslavement against two Congolese militia leaders accused of
seeking to wipe out an entire village in 2003.

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui `deliberately planned,
orchestrated and ordered their respective troops to execute their plan
to attack, wipe out or erase the village of Bogoro,' deputy prosecutor
Fatou Bensouda told the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
`Over 200 children, women, elderly and civilian men were killed in the
attack, during which women were sexually enslaved in camps and
repeatedly raped.'

Bensouda's remarks came at the start of a three-week confirmation
hearing of charges against the pair for ordering their respective
militia forces to attack Bogoro, in the Democratic Republic of Congo's
northeastern Ituri district.

Bensouda told a panel of three judges that villagers awoke to gunfire
on the morning of February 24, 2003. `With calculated precision, over
1,000 soldiers ... under the command of Germain Katanga and Mathieu
Ngudjolo Chui entered the village with one communicated and agreed
goal: to erase the village of Bogoro.'

Bensouda said the soldiers burnt several houses, sometimes with the
inhabitants still inside...

After the attack, Katanga and Ngudjolo celebrated their victory with
other militia leaders in the deserted village centre, with civilian
bodies strewn around, Bensouda told the court. `Bogoro was razed to
the ground,' added Eric MacDonald, for the prosecution. `Even today
the population of Bogoro is half of what it used to be.'

...Lawyers for 56 victims represented at Friday's hearing urged the
court to confirm the charges and allow the men to be tried.

Jean-Louis Gilissen, representing former child soldiers, said his
clients had been physically and mentally destroyed by their
experiences. `These are young men who have remained children because
they are scarred forever in their bodies and in their minds,' he told
the judges. `We are representing young children who were forced to
follow adults, to go to training camps where they were treated like
animals ... and in the end were forced to commit acts they would never
have imagined,' he said.

...Defence lawyers will get an opportunity for statements on Monday."

ii. "International prosecutors press for war crimes trial for alleged
atrocities in Congo," by Toby Sterling (Associated Press), 27 June
2008, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25411190/

"Two former Congolese militia leaders should be tried on war crimes
charges for alleged rapes, pillaging and mass murder in a 2003 attack
that decimated a village in eastern Congo, international prosecutors
argued Friday. The case of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo is
only the second to be heard by the International Criminal Court,
created in 2002 as the world's permanent war crimes tribunal.
...The Hague-based court's three-judge panel will hear from
prosecutors, defense lawyers and victims representatives before
determining whether there is enough evidence to support the charges.
No date has been set for a ruling.
The two suspects will not enter pleas unless judges order a trial.
...Defense lawyers will respond with opening statements Monday.
Ngudjolo has asked for a dismissal, arguing that he already has been
tried and acquitted on similar charges by a Congolese court.
Katanga and Ngudjolo each led a militia group during the Second Congo
War and allegedly combined forces to destroy Bogoro, which was
controlled by a rival ethnic faction. Prosecutors said Bogoro had been
targeted to ensure the easy traffic of goods and supplies on a road
that passed through it.
Under the court's rules, victims' representatives also took part in
the hearings.
A victim identified only as A012 `lost also six of her children,
killed with machete blows, and of course all of her cows and
property,' representative Carine Bapita said.
She said the victims believe the massacre resulted not from tensions
between local rival Lendu and Hema ethnic groups, but from groups in
Uganda and Rwanda exacerbating those tensions to exploit the region's
natural resources. `The victims are convinced that Mr. Katanga and Mr.
Ngudjolo are only the tip of iceberg that caused the destiny of ship
of their loved ones to sink,' Bapita said.
As part of peace negotiations, Katanga later became a general in
Congo's regular army, and Ngudjolo a colonel. But each was detained
and sent to The Hague after the court issued arrest warrants — Katanga
in 2007 and Ngudjolo in 2008.
Prosecutors said they would give details of evidence next week
including dozens of witness accounts of the men's movement and
actions, as well as a written plan for the attack.
`This case is about the criminal responsibility of Germain Katanga and
Mathieu Ngudjolo, who deliberately planned, orchestrated and ordered
their respective troops to execute their plan to attack and wipe out
or erase the village,' Bensouda said."

iii. "Prosecutors launch second case at global court," by Emma
Thomasson (Reuters), 27 June 2008,
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL27733968.html

"Prosecutors accused two Congolese warlords on Friday of seeking to
`wipe out' an entire village and seize survivors as sex slaves and
child soldiers in their second case at the International Criminal Court.

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo are both accused of war crimes
and crimes against humanity including murder, sexual slavery, rape,
inhumane acts and recruiting child soldiers.

...The two allied militia leaders are accused of directing an attack
in 2003 on the village of Bogoro in the north eastern Congolese
district of Ituri, an area long riven by conflict over its rich
natural resources including gold, diamonds and oil.

The case has been overshadowed by a decision to halt the trial of the
court's first suspect, a Congolese warlord from the other side of the
Ituri conflict, over concerns he could be denied a fair trial as the
defence cannot view some evidence.

...Its first trial, that of Thomas Lubanga, had been due to start this
week but judges are considering releasing him because the prosecution
has withheld evidence they received on the condition of
confidentiality to protect sources on the ground.

Defence lawyers have also asked judges to suspend the case against
Katanga and Ngudjolo as the prosecution is using the same evidence,
but the court decided to go ahead with Friday's hearing as the
proceedings are not as advanced.

The prosecution will present evidence to support its charges so the
judges can decide whether to proceed to trial. The `confirmation of
charges' hearings will last several weeks and the court then has 60
days to decide to go to trial.

...Jean-Louis Gilissen, a lawyer representing two alleged child
soldier victims of the accused, said hundreds of thousands of children
were sent to fight in Congo. ...`On the ground there is a burning
thirst for justice ... The justice that they wish for is one of the
conditions for real peace on the ground.'

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he hoped the cases against
its three detainees would help heal Ituri. `Perpetrators will be held
accountable,' he said in a statement. `The work of justice can help
Ituri move forward.'"

iv. "Questions and Answers on the confirmation of charges hearing,"
Forum des As (Kinshasa), 27 June 2008,
http://www.digitalcongo.net/article/52196r (in French)

"What is a confirmation of charges hearing? Where are Germain Katanga
and Mathieu Ngudjolo being detained? The confirmation of charges
hearing is a public hearing during which the judges of the ICC will
decide whether or not the charges brought by the Prosecutor against
Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui can be confirmed and move to
trial....[heavily excerpted]"

Translation is unofficial and provided by CICC Secretariat.

See also:

"Two Congolese military leaders before the ICC," 26 June 2008, Journal
du Dimanche
http://www.lejdd.fr/cmc/scanner/international/200826/deux-chefs-de-guerre-congolais-devant-la-cpi_129033.html
(in French)

*****
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