Witness Questions Prosecution View of Bogoro Attack
Court told first encounter between armed groups allegedly led by Katanga and Ngudjolo was after the assault.
Witness Questions Prosecution View of Bogoro Attack
Court told first encounter between armed groups allegedly led by Katanga and Ngudjolo was after the assault.
A witness last week told the trial of alleged Congolese warlords Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo that their respective militia groups only met a month after a military operation which prosecutors claim was a coordinated assault.
Katanga and Ngudjolo are jointly charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes during the Ituri conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, between August 2002 and May 2003.
Katanga was the alleged commander-in-chief of the Patriotic Forces of Resistance of Ituri, FRPI, while Ngudjolo is said to have led the Nationalist and Integrationist Front, FNI.
Under their leadership, combatants are reported to have engaged in the ethnic cleansing of the Hema civilian population through the use of child soldiers, murder, pillaging, sexual slavery and rape.
Particular attention is being given to an attack on Bogoro village on February 24, 2003, which prosecutors claim was a coordinated effort by the two militia groups.
It has previously been claimed during the trial that Katanga met a delegation from the FNI in Bunia, headquarters of the FRPI, in January 2003.
But giving evidence last week, the witness, a former commander in the Ugandan armed forces who claimed to have served with the FRPI, said that the two groups had encountered each other for the first time in March.
“I believe the FRPI did not know the FNI [beforehand],” said the prosecution witness, who testified with face and voice distortion. “They only came in contact during the Ituri pacifications meeting around the end of March 2003.”
The witness told the court that an alliance between the two rebel leaders took place shortly after the establishment of the Ituri Pacification Commission, IPC, which aimed to bring calm to the contested region and lead to the withdrawal of Ugandan forces from the region.
The commission agreement was signed on March 18 and inaugurated a few weeks later, on April 4.
The witness explained that an alliance between the two militias was formed to ensure the protection of the different ethnic groups in an otherwise insecure region, with the FRPI later becoming the Lendu military organisation within the larger FNI.
The witness also said that child soldiers were used in both the FRPI and FNI.
“Everybody had to provide children who would then join the armed group,” he said. “It was done to protect families.”
The witness added that some of the child soldiers were demobilised but would later rejoin the militias because of rampant unemployment.
The trial is scheduled to resume on October 6, with cross-examination of the witness by the defence counsel.
Anjana Sundaram is an IWPR contributor.
