19.11.10 Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC): Trial Opens for Ex-Vice President

The ICC has charged Bemba with three counts of war crimes and two
counts of crimes against humanity for murder, rape, and pillage
allegedly committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC)
rebel forces in the Central African Republic (CAR). Bemba and his MLC
troops were invited to intervene in 2002 by the then president,
Ange-Félix Patassé, to help put down a coup. The coup was successful and
the rebel leader, François Bozizé, became president. In December 2004,
he asked the ICC to investigate the crimes committed during the
rebellion.

The Bemba trial will be the ICC’s first stemming from its
investigation of serious crimes in the CAR. The trial is expected to
last several months.

“Bemba is the highest-profile suspect currently on trial at the ICC,
but he is not the only one responsible for the atrocities in the CAR,”
said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, the international justice advocacy
director at Human Rights Watch. “The ICC should consider other
prosecutions stemming from the coup, including, if the evidence warrants
it, against former President Patassé.”

The trial will start with opening statements by the prosecutor,
Bemba’s defense team, and the representatives of victims participating
in the proceedings. Victims in the CAR have repeatedly called for
justice for crimes committed during the coup, in 2002 and 2003. The
court has accepted 135 victims as participants in this trial. An
additional 1,200 applications from other victims are under consideration
by the judges.

There is considerable interest in this case in the CAR, as well as in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, because Bemba is such a
high-profile personality there. Expectations are high, and so are rumors
and speculation. The ICC should provide regular updates about the trial
as it progresses, and organize outreach meetings locally to air and
debate questions people want to raise, Human Rights Watch said.

Bemba is not being prosecuted in this trial in relation to crimes
committed by his MLC troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.