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Latest Developments on Lubanga Trial; Updates on Bosco Ntaganda Case and Arrest of Callixte Mbarushimana

30 Nov 2010

Dear All,

Please find below latest information related to the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This message includes the latest developments on the Lubanga trial (I), updates on the Bosco Ntaganda case (II) and on the arrest of Callixte Mbarushimana (III).

Note that unless otherwise indicated, all translations are informal translations provided by the CICC Secretariat.

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 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.

For additional information you may refer to the Coalition's website at http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=drc

Best regards,

CICC Secretariat
www.coalitionfortheicc.org

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I. UPDATES ON THE LUBANGA TRIAL

A. UPDATES

Note: Daily reports on the Lubanga trial are available on www.lubangatrial.org, an Open Society Justice Initiative project and on Lubanga Chronicles (http://lubanga.aegistrust.org/), an Aegis Trust project.

1. "Lubanga Trial Marred By Unavailability Of Witnesses", By Wairagala Wakabi,
26 October 2010,
http://www.lubangatrial.org/2010/10/26/lubanga-trial-marred-by-unavailability-of
-witnesses/

"Thomas Lubanga's war crimes trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) today stalled as none of the witnesses who had been expected to give evidence this week were ready to take the witness stand.

Although hearings had been scheduled for Monday to Friday this week, during today's proceedings Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford announced that because no witness was ready to give evidence, the trial would resume on Monday next week.
...

Trial judges last July halted the trial when prosecutors failed to implement an order to disclose the identity of an individual who had helped to contact former child soldiers that testified against Mr. Lubanga. Appeals judges on October 8 ordered a resumption of the trial, and since then, one witness has given evidence. This witness, who testified yesterday, is a field liaison officer for the Office of The Prosecutor (OTP) in the Congo.
He initially testified last June but was called back at the bidding of Mr.
Lubanga's defense.

Judge Fulford stated today that the chamber had been informed that 'witness 38', who was among those expected to testify this week, had been unable to travel to The Hague-based court because his passport was not ready. He was now expected to testify in the week of November 8. [...

Prosecution lawyer Manoj Sachdeva stated that 'witness 555' would not testify next week. 'We have not been in contact with the witness since last Thursday. We hope to be able to speak to him today to essentially ascertain whether he is going to testify,' Mr. Sachdeva said.

Mr. Sachdeva also told the court that it would not be possible for an OTP investigator, who goes by the pseudonym 'witness 582', to testify next week. The plan is for this witness to testify via video link. ...

Finally, court heard that 'intermediary 321' who was supposed to give evidence this week via video link from Congo had instead travelled to The Hague due to miscommunication. This witness, whose time on the witness stand was interrupted by the imposition of the stay of proceedings last July, will need five days of orientation before he commences his testimony.

The trial is expected to resume on Monday next week with the evidence of 'intermediary 321'."

2. "Prosecution: Witnesses are not available", Aegis Trust, 26 October 2010, http://www.aegistrust.org/Lubanga-Chronicles/lubanga-chronicle-98-prosecution-wi
tnesses-are-not-available.html

3. "Witness Questioned Again About Payments To Intermediaries", By Wairagala Wakabi, 25 October 2010, http://www.lubangatrial.org/2010/10/25/witness-questioned-again-about-payments-t
o-intermediaries/

4. "Court Admits Lubanga's CV Into Evidence", By Wairagala Wakabi, 22 October 2010, http://www.lubangatrial.org/2010/10/22/court-admits-lubanga’s-cv-into-ev
idence/

5. "Lubanga Trial At ICC Resumes Next Week", By Wairagala Wakabi, 19 October 2010 http://www.lubangatrial.org/2010/10/19/lubanga-trial-at-icc-resumes-next-week/

B. MEDIA COVERAGE

1. "Lessons learnt from the ICC case against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo", by Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, ISS Pretoria blog, 25 October 2010,
http://www.the-african.org/blog/?p=357

2. "ICC Appellate Chamber Allows Trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo to Resume", International Law Prof Blog, 19 October 2010, http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/international_law/2010/10/icc-appellate-chamber
-allows-trial-of-thomas-lubanga-dyilo-to-resume.html

II. UPDATES ON THE NTAGANDA CASE

A. CICC MEMBER QUOTED

1. "DR Congo: ICC-Indicted War Criminal Implicated in Assassinations of Opponents", Human Rights Watch Press Release, 13 October 2010, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/10/12/dr-congo-icc-indicted-war-criminal-involved-assassinations-opponents

"The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo should immediately arrest Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese army general sought on an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said today. Since January 2010, Ntaganda has been implicated in the assassination of at least eight people, arbitrary arrests of another seven, and the abduction and disappearance of at least one more. Some of these incidents occurred in eastern Congo, others in neighboring Rwanda.

Ntaganda, who lives and moves about openly in Goma, in eastern Congo, has also directly or indirectly threatened more than two dozen people whom he perceives as opposing him. Despite well documented evidence of his abuses, the Congolese government has not acted to arrest Ntaganda, whom it regards as essential to the 'peace process' in eastern Congo.

'Ntaganda should be arrested and made to answer for his crimes, rather than being allowed to walk freely in Goma,' said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'He is a threat to the people of eastern Congo and is making a mockery of the Congolese government's policy of zero tolerance for human rights abuses.'

[...]

Ntaganda is sought on an arrest warrant from the ICC for the war crime of enlisting and conscripting children as soldiers and using them in hostilities in 2002 and 2003 in the Ituri district of eastern Congo. In addition to the war crimes that form the basis of the ICC arrest warrant, Ntaganda was also allegedly in command of combatants who arrested, tortured, or killed hundreds of civilians in Ituri between August 2002 and March 2003. United Nations peacekeepers have said that troops under Ntaganda's command were also responsible for killing a Kenyan UN peacekeeper in January 2004 and for kidnapping a Moroccan peacekeeper later that year.

More recently, in November 2008 in North Kivu, CNDP troops under Ntaganda's command killed an estimated 150 people in the town of Kiwanja, one of the worst massacres in North Kivu in the past two years. In 2009, after Ntaganda was made a general in the Congolese army, troops under his command deliberately killed at least 270 civilians in the area between Nyabiondo and Pinga, in western Masisi territory. In the first six months of 2010, Human Rights Watch documented 25 attacks on villages in the same area, resulting in the deaths of at least 105 civilians. The operations may in part have been motivated by an effort to gain control of the area's fertile farmland. Congolese army soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said Ntaganda played a command role in these attacks.

The ICC has jurisdiction over these additional grave international crimes. Human Rights Watch has called on the ICC prosecutor to investigate these incidents and charge Ntaganda if the evidence permits. [...]

'The failure to hold Ntaganda accountable for his past crimes has left him at liberty to continue to perpetrate atrocities,' said Van Woudenberg. 'Ending impunity for Ntaganda's crimes is essential for breaking the cycle of violence and ensuring that all sides to the conflict face justice for their brutal attacks on civilians.'

[...]

'The UN mission should provide support to the Congolese government to arrest Ntaganda, as they have done in others cases of human rights abusers, and suspend their support of Amani Leo operations until this has been done,' Van Woudenberg said. '
'Failure to do so places the UN peacekeepers in the untenable position of supporting a suspected war criminal wanted by the ICC.'"

B. MEDIA COVERAGE

1. "DR.Congo general's lawyer rejects accusations", AFP, 24 October 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hmR8m0_jknRNlnbVxWigtTKnwOWA?
docId=CNG.8d48d543d9fb68364697c0dac17a73ad.8c1

"The lawyer of a DR Congo general on Saturday rejected as 'libellous denunciations' allegations by US-based campaigners Human Rights Watch that he was implicated in killings and arbitrary arrests.

Human Rights Watch called on the Kinshasa government last week to arrest Bosco Ntaganda, a former rebel who is wanted under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

'Since January 2010, Ntaganda has been implicated in the assassination of at least eight people, arbitrary arrests of another seven, and the abduction and disappearance of at least one more,' HRW said.

'Ntaganda is a threat to the people of eastern Congo and is making a mockery of the Congolese government's policy of zero tolerance for human rights abuses,'
said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher with the group. ...

Ntaganda's lawyer, Antoine Mahamba, said in a statement his client was targeted by 'libellous denunciations'. ...

Mahamba said Ntaganda was not in charge of the forced conscription of child soldiers, rejecting war crimes accusations by the International Criminal Court which he allegedly committed in DR Congo's northeaster Ituri region in 2002-03.

At that time Ntaganda was a senior member of the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo and was also known as 'The Terminator', says the ICC warrant. ..."

2. "Congo's Bosco Exposes UN War Crimes Double Talk, Gambari's Planned Darfur Turn Over Confirms It", by Matthew Russell Lee (Inner City Press), 23 October 2010, http://innercitypress.blogspot.com/2010/10/congos-bosco-exposes-un-war-crimes.ht
ml

III. CALLIXTE MBARUSHIMANA'S ARREST

A. ICC - OTP PRESS WEEKLY UPDATE

Note: This document has been produced by the ICC. The CICC Secretariat distributes it as part of its mandate to keep member organizations and individuals informed about developments related to the ICC. The document does not reflect the views of the CICC as a whole or its individual members.

1. " Mbarushimana's surrender process - impact on demobilization of armed groups committing massive crimes in the Kivus", ICC OTP Weekly update, 20 October 2010, http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/111A878E-C79C-4197-B260-24ABDC186C3C/282595/
WBENG.pdf

"Mr. Mbarushimana appeared before the French jurisdiction on Wednesday 20 October. The decision on his release was postponed to Wednesday 27 October. The French Court will then give its decision on Mr. Mbarushimana's request for release and will hear arguments from his Defense on why he should not be surrendered to the ICC.

The Rwandan National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) welcomed the arrest: "It is a positive development. We hope justice will be delivered. It is high time the international community took its responsibility."

At the Council of Europe, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated: '... Without strong interventions from justice, we will never stop the human rights violations that are being committed in the East of the DRC, and in particular the use of rape as a weapon of war ... If the national courts cannot take care of these crimes, then the international community needs to intervene, eventually by the intermediary of the ICC'.

The Office hopes that the arrest of Mbarushimana, its continuing investigations into massive violence in the Kivus together with the arrests of Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni by Germany in November 2009 and the arrest of Mai Mai Chef Mayele in the DRC for his alleged participation with the FDLR in the Walikale gang rapes is sending a signal to potential perpetrators. According to ICG report: 'In the past, leaders of armed groups were led to believe that they could operate safely from comfortable Western capitals. The ICC and the governments of Germany and France demonstrated clearly that it is not possible any more.' ..."

B. MEDIA COVERAGE

1. "French court refuses to release ICC suspect", Radio Netherlands Worldwide,
28 October 2010,
http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/french-court-refuses-release-icc
-suspect

2. "Arrested Rwandan war crimes leader may face rape charges", by Polly Johnson, Impunity Watch, 20 October 2010, http://impunitywatch.com/?p=14728

3. "End of the FDLR in Europe?", by Koert Lindijer, RNW, 20 October 2010, http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/end-fdlr-europe

4. "Rwandan war crimes suspect may face Congo rape counts", AFP, 19 October 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jm-Y_CYJthWlPVLhIWY5v3ji1YLA?
docId=CNG.ecf3b9ba4f1b34e86a551c3a8aefc644.7f1

5. "Calls for FDLR Crackdown After Leader's Arrest", by Melanie Gouby, IWPR, 19 October 2010, http://iwpr.net/report-news/calls-fdlr-crackdown-after-leader’s-arrest

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