afrol News, 18 October - Another Congolese war suspect has been transferred to the International Criminal Court(ICC) in The Hague.

Germain Katanga, the commander of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Iturbi (FPRI), the Democratic Republic of Congo, was handed over to the ICC by his country’s authorities yesterday.

Katanga became the second Congolese to be transferred to the ICC, the first being Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the leader and founder of Union of Congolese Patriots.

The man nicknamed Simba, Katanga has been accused of committing six war crimes and three crimes against humanity in Ituri. His case arises from the situation in the DRC which has been under investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC since 1 July 2002.

The transfer was consequent upon the issuance of a seal warrant for his arrest after the ICC examined the request and evidence submitted by the prosecutor.

“The warrant was unsealed on 18 October 2007,” the ICC said in a press communiqué, noting that as the highest ranking FRPI commander, Katanga “played an essential role in the planning and implementation of an indiscriminate attack against the village of Bogoro in Ituri on or around 24 February 2003.”

The ICC pre-trial chamber also found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that during and after the attack on the village of Bogoro, Katanga’s rebel group murdered about 200 civilians, harmed them bodily, arrested and threatened them with weapons. They also imprisoned civilians in a room filled with corpses, sexually abused several women and girls and turned children under 15 into rebels.

The ICC officials believed that “there were reasonable grounds to believe that a common plan to carry out an attack on the village of Bogoro was agreed upon by Mr Katanga and other commanders of the FRPI and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front] (FNI).”

The systematic or widespread armed attack that particularly targeted Ituri’s Hema ethnicity happened between January and March 2003.

Katanga was accused of nine counts, including crimes against humanity, inhumane acts, sexual slavery, wilful killing, inhuman and cruel treatment.

The ICC Registrar, Bruno Cathala praised the Congolese authorities for cooperating with the court in the spirit of the statute by surrendering Katanga.

The court is also currently investigating situations in Uganda, Darfur, Sudan and Central African Republic.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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