NETHERLANDS:Prosecutors accused two Congolese warlords yesterday of seeking to "wipe out" an entire village and seize survivors as sex slaves and child soldiers in their second case at the International Criminal Court.
Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo are both accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, sexual slavery, rape, inhumane acts and recruiting child soldiers.
The two allied militia leaders are accused of directing an attack in 2003 on the village of Bogoro in the northeastern Congolese district of Ituri, an area long riven by conflict over its rich natural resources, including gold, diamonds and oil.
"The prosecution's evidence . . . will reveal that over 200 children, women, elderly and civilian men were killed in an attack during which women were sexually enslaved in camps and repeatedly raped," said deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
The case has been overshadowed by a decision to halt the trial of the court's first suspect, a Congolese warlord from the other side of the Ituri conflict, over concerns he could be denied a fair trial as the defence cannot view some evidence.
The Ituri conflict, which raged long after a wider peace accord officially ended Congo's 1998-2003 war, pitted foreign-backed militias from the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups against one another.
Katanga, also known as "Simba" (lion), led the Patriotic Forces of Resistance of Ituri, while Ngudjolo headed the allied Front of Nationalists and Integrationists militia.
The prosecution accuses their troops of shooting and hacking to death dozens of Hema civilians sheltering in a school and setting fire to houses with people still inside.
It says they committed "massive sexual violence" against women, who were given as "wives" to their captors, detained in holes in the ground and repeatedly raped.
The defence will respond to the charges next week.
Jean-Louis Gilissen, a lawyer representing two alleged child soldier victims of the accused, said hundreds of thousands of children were sent to fight in Congo.
"The damage is huge. It is more than a generation that has been sacrificed," he said. "On the ground there is a burning thirst for justice . . . The justice that they wish for is one of the conditions for real peace on the ground."
Experts estimate that a decade of violence in Congo has killed 5.4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease.
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he hoped the cases against its three detainees would help heal Ituri.
"Perpetrators will be held accountable," he said in a statement. "The work of justice can help Ituri move forward."