22 03 13 HRW – Bosco Ntaganda’s Trail of Atrocities Ends at the ICC
“Bosco Ntaganda’s arrival in the Hague will be a
major victory for victims of atrocities in eastern Congo and the local activists
who have worked at great risk for his arrest,” said Géraldine
Mattioli-Zeltner, international justice advocacy director at Human Rights
Watch. “Ntaganda’s expected trial will underscore the importance of the ICC in
providing accountability for the world’s worst crimes when national courts are
unable or unwilling to deliver justice.”
In a surprising turn of events,
Ntaganda surrendered voluntarily to the United States embassy in Kigali, Rwanda,
on March 18, 2013, and asked to be transferred to the ICC. A number of
governments, most prominently the United States, had called for Ntaganda to face
justice over the years.
In 2006 and 2012, the ICC issued two arrest
warrants against Ntaganda for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including
murder, rape and sexual slavery, recruitment and use of child soldiers, and
pillaging during the Ituri conflict in north-eastern Congo in 2002-2003.
Ntaganda's arrival at the court will bring to a close
over a decade of involvement in human rights abuses across eastern Congo. Human
Rights Watch has documented a consistent pattern of grave international crimes
by troops under Ntaganda's command over the years and has repeatedly called for
him to be arrested and
brought to justice.
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Bosco
Ntaganda, please visit:
· DR
Congo: Congolese Warlord Should Face Justice
https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/
· Human
Rights Watch Video “Bosco Ntaganda – Wanted for War Crimes”: http://hrwnews.org/distribute/
For more information, please contact:
In Stuttgart,
Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner (English, French): +49-711-722-300-90; or
+49-151-4650-8928 (mobile); or mattiog@hrw.org
In Washington, DC, Ida
Sawyer (English, French): +1-917-213-0939; or +243-99-86-75-565; or sawyeri@hrw.org
In New York, Param-Preet
Singh (English): +1-212-216-1281; or +1-917-586-1140 (mobile); or singhp@hrw.org
In Paris, Jean-Marie Fardeau
(French, English, Portuguese): +33-1-43-59-55-31; or +33-6-45-85-24-87 (mobile);
or fardeaj@hrw.org
Ida
Sawyer
DR
Congo Researcher and Advocate
Human
Rights Watch