13 04 12 HRW : Arrest Bosco Ntaganda for ICC Trial

(Goma) –President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo should immediately order the arrest of Gen. Bosco Ntaganda
and promptly transfer him to The Hague for a fair trial, Human Rights
Watch said today. Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court
(ICC) for war crimes. Human Rights Watch released a video with witness accounts of Ntaganda’s alleged crimes.

In a public statement in eastern Congo
on April 11, 2012, Kabila indicated he was considering Ntaganda’s
arrest. Kabila’s emergency visit to the region followed renewed
insecurity in North and South Kivu after army soldiers loyal to Ntaganda
attempted to mutiny. The statement signified an important change in the
Congolese government’s policy toward Ntaganda, who was previously
touted as needed for the country’s peace process.

“President Kabila has put Ntaganda’s arrest firmly on the agenda, which is a major step forward for justice in Congo,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg,
senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kabila’s words should
promptly result in a lawfully conducted arrest that will ensure Ntaganda
goes straight to The Hague and civilians aren’t harmed.”

The ICC
issued a sealed arrest warrant for Ntaganda in 2006 on charges of war
crimes for recruiting and using child soldiers in active combat in
2002-2003 in the northeastern district of Ituri. At the time he was
chief of military operations for the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a
Congolese militia group. The arrest warrant was unsealed in April 2008.

Despite the ICC warrant, Ntaganda was allowed to become part of the
Congolese army and promoted to the rank of general in 2009. He moved
about freely in eastern Congo in full view of Congolese government
officials, United Nations peacekeepers, and foreign diplomats. The
Congolese government stated that Ntaganda was an important partner for
peace and contended that arresting him would undermine the peace
process. Congolese civil society organizations repeatedly denounced the promotion and called for Ntaganda’s arrest.

Over the past decade, Human Rights Watch has frequently documented Ntaganda’s continuing role in horrific abuses including ethnic massacres, killings, rape, torture, and recruitment of child soldiers.
The government’s policy of rewarding commanders implicated in abuses,
such as Ntaganda, with high-ranking army positions shows cruel disregard
for the victims of their atrocities, Human Rights Watch said.

“Ntaganda has boldly walked around the restaurants and tennis courts of
Goma flaunting his impunity like a medal of honor while engaging in
ruthless human rights abuses,” Van Woudenberg said. “The UN and others
should offer help to ensure his long overdue and lawful arrest and bring
some relief to his many victims.”

In March, the ICC found Ntaganda’s co-accused, Thomas Lubanga, guilty
of the war crime of recruiting and using child soldiers in the court’s
first case. Following the verdict, the ICC prosecutor announced that he
will pursue additional charges of rape and murder against Ntaganda in
connection with his activities in Ituri.

The ICC verdict against Lubanga highlighted Ntaganda’s continued
impunity and increased pressure for his arrest, Human Rights Watch said.
Fearful that action against him was imminent, Ntaganda encouraged his
troops to defect from the ranks of the Congolese army. The move
backfired when only a few hundred troops rallied to his support, many of
whom rejoined the army’s ranks or were arrested days later.

In his speech in Goma, Kabila denounced the defections and the
indiscipline in the army, and stated that, “it gives us reason to arrest
any officer, beginning with Bosco Ntaganda.”

Kabila also suggested that Ntaganda could stand trial in Congo, rather
than being transferred to the ICC after arrest.“We don’t need to arrest
Bosco and to bring him to the ICC,” Kabila said. “We ourselves can
arrest him and we have more than a hundred reasons to do so and to try
him here, and if that’s not possible, elsewhere, possibly in Kinshasa
[the capital], or elsewhere. It is not reasons that we lack.”

The government referred the situation in Congo to the ICC in 2004,
however. As a state party to the ICC treaty, Congo is legally required
to cooperate with the court and follow its procedures, including
enforcing the ICC arrest warrant for Ntaganda.

Should the Congolese government want to try Ntaganda in Congo, it would
need to file a legal submission to the ICC judges challenging the
admissibility of the case and demonstrating that the Congolese justice
system is genuinely willing and able to prosecute Ntaganda in fair and
credible proceedings for the same crimes. The final decision rests with
the ICC judges whether a national trial in Congo could trump its own
proceedings.

Congo’s justice system has proven weak at holding those responsible for
mass violence to account, Human Rights Watch said. Very few top-ranking
officers or armed group leaders have been held to account for war
crimes or crimes against humanity despite the numerous serious crimes
committed during Congo’s recent armed conflicts. Military courts have
been starved of resources, often plagued with political interference and
many procedures fall short of respecting international standards for a
fair trial. A number of those who have been convicted have been able to
escape from prison.

“Ntaganda has a lot to answer for, but now is not the time to backpedal
on Congo’s legal commitments to the ICC,” Van Woudenberg said. “Without
substantial investment and legal reforms, Congo’s justice system will
be unable to fairly try the international crimes for which Ntaganda has
been charged. When arrested he should be transferred to The Hague
without delay so his victims can have their day in court.”

Bosco Ntaganda: A History of Human Rights Abuses

Bosco Ntaganda is a notorious general in the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is wanted on an arrest warrant
from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. Ntaganda,
known as “the Terminator,” and troops under his command have committed
heinous abuses since at least 2002 in the Ituri district of northeastern
Congo and in North and South Kivu provinces of eastern Congo, including
ethnic massacres, killings, sexual violence, torture, and the
recruitment of child soldiers.

Ntaganda is known among his troops as a “warrior” who leads from the
front, commanding and directly participating in military operations. In
the words of a child soldier who fought with Ntaganda and later
testified against him at the ICC in The Hague, he is also known as a man
who “kills people easily.”

Background

Ntaganda was born in 1973 in Kinigi, Rwanda. He fled to Ngungu,
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, when he was a young teenager
following attacks on ethnic Tutsi in Rwanda. He began his military
career in 1990 with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a Rwandan rebel
group based in Uganda led by Paul Kagame, the current president of
Rwanda. After the RPF ended the genocide against Tutsi and moderate Hutu
in July 1994 and formed the new Rwandan government, Ntaganda joined the
Rwandan army. While in the Rwandan army, he participated in the
invasion of Congo in 1996, during what has become known as Congo’s first
war. In 1998, during Congo’s second war, he joined a Congolese rebel
group, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (the RCD). In subsequent years
he moved among various Congolese rebel groups, before joining the Union
of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in the Ituri district in 2002. 

From 2002 to 2005 he served under the UPC’s leader, Thomas Lubanga, who was convicted in March 2012
by the ICC for recruiting and using child soldiers in Ituri. Ntaganda
was chief of military operations under Lubanga and was implicated in
many serious human rights abuses, including ethnic massacres, torture,
rape, and the massive recruitment of children, some as young as 7. He
was the co-accused in the Lubanga case.

In 2006, after leaving the UPC following internal conflicts, Ntaganda
became military chief of staff for the National Congress for the
Defense of the People (CNDP), a Tutsi-led rebel group under the
leadership of Laurent Nkunda. Backed by Rwanda, the rebel group
controlled huge swathes of North Kivu and repeatedly routed the
Congolese army in battles. In January 2009, following a secret deal
between Congolese and Rwandan officials and with support from Rwandan
army officers, Ntaganda ousted Nkunda, took over the leadership of the
rebel group and agreed to integrate it into the Congolese army. In
exchange for ending the group’s rebellion, Ntaganda was made a general
in the Congolese army and deputy commander of military operations in
eastern Congo.

Dismayed by Ntaganda’s appointment, a coalition of 51 Congolese civil society organizations in early 2009 appealed to President Joseph Kabila to arrest, rather than promote, Ntaganda:

We cannot forget the terror that Bosco
[Ntaganda] unleashed on us for many years, brutally slaughtering the
people of Ituri in their thousands without pity, without humanity. We
still bear scars that cannot be erased. We must honour the memory of
those we lost by saying “never again” to such killings, and sending a
strong message that those responsible for such crimes will be held to
account. Future generations must know not only that we suffered, but
also that we acted to end the suffering by fighting for justice.

Abuses When Commanding Rebel Groups in Ituri and North Kivu

Ntaganda is implicated in some of the most horrific abuses in eastern
Congo over the past decade. In Ituri, in addition to the ICC’s charges
relating to the use of child soldiers, Ntaganda has been accused of
commanding UPC troops who killed at least 800 civilians on an ethnic
basis in Mongbwalu and in neighboring villages in November and December
2002.

The military operation to take control of the strategic gold mining
town of Mongbwalu lasted six days, during which the group slaughtered
civilians on an ethnic basis, chasing down those who fled to the forest,
and catching and killing others at roadblocks. Witnesses told Human
Rights Watch they saw ethnic Lendu civilians attacked by UPC combatants,
who slit their throats or smashed in their heads with hammers,
shouting, “We are going to exterminate you – the government won’t help
you now.” Child soldiers who testified about their experience before the
ICC described how Ntaganda led some of the attacks.

Ntaganda was also implicated in a campaign of arbitrary arrests,
execution and enforced disappearance of dozens of civilians on an ethnic
basis in Mongbwalu, Bunia and in other locations in Ituri district
during his time with the UPC. Witnesses described the campaign as a
“manhunt” and in research conducted between 2002 and 2005, Human Rights
Watch collected information about more than 100 people victimized by
this campaign, though the numbers were probably much higher.

Ntaganda’s alleged involvement in atrocities continued when he joined
the rebel group CNDP. In November 2008 in North Kivu, its troops under
Ntaganda's command killed an estimated 150 people in the town of Kiwanja,
one of the worst massacres by that group in North Kivu. Combatants went
house to house, searching for young men and teenage boys whom they
suspected of being enemy fighters. The combatants forced doors open,
demanded money and cell phones and then shot or otherwise killed the men
or boys, slaughtering them in their homes, often in front of their
families, or in the street nearby. Some women were also killed,
including those who tried to protect family members.

Ntaganda was present during the Kiwanja massacre. Video footage shot
by international journalists showed him commanding and ordering his
troops in Kiwanja on November 5,2008, the day of the massacre. UN human
rights investigators later concluded many of the killings were
“retaliatory in nature and ordered and condoned by the command of the
CNDP.”

Following the Kiwanja massacre, Ntaganda allegedly abducted two girls
from Kiwanja, ages 15 and 16, and took them to a nearby CNDP military
position in Rutshuru to be his “wives.” Ntaganda raped the girls
repeatedly and forced them to cook for him. One of the girls escaped
after five days. In an interview with Human Rights Watch she described
how she was forced to live in hiding because Ntaganda’s soldiers had
come looking for her at her home after her escape. Others close to
Ntaganda interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Ntaganda regularly
forced young women and girls to be his “wives” when he arrived at a new
military position.

Abuses While a General in the Congolese Army

Ntaganda continued to commit human rights abuses after he was made a
general in the Congolese army and deputy commander of military
operations in eastern Congo in early 2009.
He used his new position to create a parallel command structure, giving
orders to former CNDP soldiers who remained loyal to him rather than to
the official military hierarchy and also to other militias not
integrated in the army. Ntaganda forced out numerous local chiefs in
parts of North Kivu province, replacing them with chiefs loyal to him.
Some of the chiefs who objected were assassinated, others were forced
out through intimidation and threats. Through this parallel structure,
Ntaganda ordered or was implicated in serious abuses.

Deliberate Attacks on Civilians

Troops loyal to Ntaganda carried out numerous attacks on civilians,
sometimes during military operations sanctioned by the Congolese army
chain of command, but more often in operations that Ntaganda ordered of
his own accord. Many of these operations were motivated by efforts to
gain control of fertile farmland – forcing ethnic Hunde and Hutu farmers
off the land to make way for Tutsi cattle herders. In 2009 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.
Congolese army soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said Ntaganda
played a command role in these attacks.

Attacks linked to control over land in parts of North Kivu continued
in 2011 and early 2012, with small groups of soldiers and militia loyal
to Ntaganda committing serious human rights abuses – such as killings,
rape and burning homes – in efforts to resolve individual land disputes
by force.

Targeted Killings, Enforced Disappearances, and Arbitrary Arrests

From January 2010, possibly earlier, Ntaganda began a brutal campaign
to target individuals he perceived to be against him, including civil
society activists who denounced his abuses or called for his arrest.
Human Rights Watch has documented at least 20 targeted killings, two
attempted killings, four enforced disappearances, and 18 abductions and
arbitrary arrests since January 2010 that were either directly ordered
by Ntaganda or in which he was implicated. Dozens of other people have
allegedly been threatened or intimidated by Ntaganda or those close to
him. Many fled Goma and live in hiding. Most of the incidents occurred
in North Kivu, but others took place in neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Sylvestre Bwira Kyahi, the civil society president of Masisi
territory, was one of those targeted. He was abducted in Goma on August
24, 2010, and held for a week in an underground prison. Bwira had been
in hiding since late July following a threatening phone call from
Ntaganda’s “secretary” about a public letter Bwira had written to
President Kabila, denouncing, among other things, abuses by troops under
Ntaganda’s command and calling for Ntaganda’s arrest on the basis of
the ICC arrest warrant.

In detention, Bwira was blindfolded, tied to a pillar, and repeatedly
beaten. He was questioned by former CNDP soldiers about why he opposed
them. Following pressure from civil society and human rights groups,
Bwira was “provisionally released” and spent months undergoing medical
treatment for the injuries he suffered.  

One of the most high-profile assassinations was that of Lt. Col.
Antoine Balibuno, a well-known former member of Nkunda’s inner circle
who was against Ntaganda’s leadership. Balibuno was shot dead in the
center of Goma on September 14, 2010, after being called to a meeting at
a bar with two close supporters of Ntaganda. Several Congolese army
officers, including former CNDP members, have told Human Rights Watch
that Ntaganda gave the order for Balibuno’s assassination.

Some of the people Ntaganda perceived as a threat were not as
high-profile. Martine Ndayabaje, a 23-year-old woman responsible for
delivering milk to Ntaganda’s home in Goma, was deliberately killed in
late December 2010. People close to Ndayabaje told Human Rights Watch
that she overheard a confidential conversation at Ntaganda’s home and
was killed to silence her. Three days after Christmas 2010, shortly
after Ndayabaje was last seen, her body was found on the shores of Lake
Kivu. Ntaganda’s soldiers quickly came to collect it, telling her
grieving relatives and curious onlookers that they were taking it for
“an investigation.” The body was never returned to the family. Two army
officers loyal to Ntaganda later came to Ndayabaje’s home and threatened
her family, saying they would be killed if they reported what had
happened.

Recruitment of Children

Although wanted on an ICC arrest warrant for the crime of recruiting
and using child soldiers, Ntaganda and officers loyal to him have
continued the forced recruitment of children. One of the worst waves of
recruitment was in late 2010, when hundreds of young men and boys were
recruited in North and South Kivu provinces, including at least 121
children under age 18. Reports received by Human Rights Watch indicated
that there were probably many more.

In the Kitchanga area in mid-November 2010, officers loyal to
Ntaganda visited schools and made lists of male students ages 15 to 20.
In subsequent weeks, Ntaganda’s soldiers took the youths from schools,
homes, fields, or as they walked to and from school and forcibly
recruited them into the army. In the village of Charamba on November 15,
2010, seven young men were taken from a football field before a match.
Those who resisted risked severe punishment or even death. Many youth in
the affected regions hid in the forests or tried to flee to larger
towns to escape the forced recruitment, witnesses told Human Rights
Watch.

Interference with Justice, Elections and Involvement in Mineral Smuggling

Ntaganda’s reach extended to interfering in the Congolese judicial
system and in national elections. In at least nine cases documented by
Human Rights Watch, Ntaganda prevented those loyal to him from being
brought to justice or shielded them from arrest. In one of the most
egregious cases, Lt. Col. Ndayambaje Kipanga, a former CNDP officer
close to Ntaganda, was arrested on May 7, 2009, for allegedly raping and
imprisoning five girls at his army base in Rutshuru. He escaped from
custody two days after his arrest and was later tried and convicted in absentia
by a Congolese military court for crimes against humanity for rape and
imprisonment. Congolese military officers interviewed by Human Rights
Watch said Ntaganda helped facilitate Kipanga’s escape and has continued
to protect him from being rearrested.

Ntaganda also sought to interfere in Congo’s presidential and
parliamentary elections in November 2011 in support of President Kabila
and members of the CNDP political party running for elected office. On
Ntaganda’s orders, some candidates and their supporters were threatened,
tortured, arrested, and blocked from campaigning.

In one case in August 2011, a local chief, Kapenda Muhima, was shot
dead near Kitchanga, allegedly on Ntaganda’s orders, because he had
switched his alliance away from the CNDP political party. Before his
death, CNDP members warned Kapenda that he had two months to come back
to the party or they would kill him, said people close to Kapenda
interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

In parts of Masisi territory, North Kivu, former CNDP rebels loyal to
Ntaganda were at polling places in civilian clothes, acting as
political party witnesses or even providing security, numerous witnesses
told Human Rights Watch. Some voters told Human Rights Watch that they
felt intimidated by their presence. Others said they witnessed former
CNDP soldiers filling out ballots themselves and directly threatening
opposition party witnesses.

Ntaganda has also repeatedly been accused of involvement in illegal
mineral smuggling by a UN Group of Experts investigating illegal arms
trafficking and natural resource exploitation and he has been on a UN
sanctions list since 2005. The wealth amassed through these illegal
activities has permitted him to cement his power and buy loyalty from
other army officers and facilitates his continued human rights abuses.

Bosco Ntaganda: A Chronology

1973                Born in Kinigi, Rwanda.

Mid 1980s       Moves to Ngungu, eastern Congo. Attends secondary school but does not graduate.

1990                Joins Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels in southern Uganda.

1994                Fights with RPF to end the Rwandan genocide.

1994                Joins the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA).

1996                First Congo war – participates on the side of the RPA/AFDL. 

1997                Joins the Congolese army.

1998                Second Congo war – joins the Rwandan backed RCD rebels in Goma.

1999                RCD splits. Joins the RCD-K-ML splinter faction in Kisangani.

1999/2000      Moves to Bunia, Ituri district, with the RCD-K-ML rebels.

2002                RCD-K-ML splinters. Joins the UPC rebels. 

2004                UPC splinters. Joins the UPC/Lubanga rebel faction.

Dec 2004        Promoted to general in the Congolese army, but refuses to take up the post.

2005               Joins MRC rebels, but the militia group is short-lived.

Nov 2005        Placed on UN sanctions list for violating arms embargo.

2005/2006       Joins the CNDP rebels and moves to Masisi, North Kivu.

Aug 2006        ICC issues sealed arrest warrant for Ntaganda for war crimes committed in Ituri.

April 2008       ICC arrest warrant for Ntaganda is made public.

Jan 2009         Overthrows Laurent Nkunda with the backing of Rwanda and takes over the leadership of the CNDP.

2009               
Promoted to general in the Congolese army and takes up his post of
deputy commander of military operations in eastern Congo.

2011               
Takes on the role of acting commander of military operations when his
commanding officer suffers injuries in a plane crash.

March 2012    Ntaganda’s
co-accused, Thomas Lubanga, found guilty of war crimes at the ICC.
Prosecutor announces he will add charges of murder and rape to
Ntaganda’s crimes.

April 2012      Ntaganda urges his loyalists to mutiny and desert the Congolese army; the plan backfires.

 

RPF– Rwandan Patriotic Front; RPA − Rwandan Patriotic Army; AFDL − Alliance of Democratic Forces for Liberation of Congo-Zaire; RCD − Congolese Rally for Democracy; RCD-K-ML – Congolese Rally for Democracy – Liberation Movement-Kisangani; UPC − Union of Congolese Patriots; MRC − Congolese Revolutionary Movement; CNDP – National Congress for the Defense of the People; ICC – International Criminal Court.