Their victims have little faith in the outcome of a trial against former Congolese rebel leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui which starts on Tuesday at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The two are on trial for the massacre of the people of the village of Bogoro in Ituri province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This will be only the second trial at the ICC since its creation in 2002.
  

Ituri is one of the hardest-hit regions in the DRC. Since 1999, more than 60,000 people there have been killed in a conflict between the Lendu and Hema tribes. Large numbers of child soldiers were forcibly recruited and deployed to fight in the war for control over the region’s mineral wealth which consists primarily of coltan, a mineral essential to the production of mobile phones and lap-tops, but also of gold and diamonds. Many of the child soldiers are routinely abused, raped, tortured and even killed.

 
Lubanga
The first suspect to be indicted at the ICC was Hema rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. His Union of Congolese Patriots is accused of recruiting and deploying hundreds of child soldiers. His former enemies of the Lendu militias are now also on trial in The Hague.

However, the initial enthusiasm in Ituri for the ICC appears to be eroding. At the time of Thomas Lubanga’s arrest and his arrival in The Hague, expectations were still high. The lack of impartial justice and good governance in Ituri contributed to an increase in the level of violence. The ICC was perceived as an opportunity to restore peace and calm to the region.

Oppression
However, in the International Justice Tribune, Congolese student Ngadjole says the Hema tribesmen soon came to regard the ICC as an instrument for the oppression of their people: “After Artémis [a UN-led military operation], now they [understood to be the international community] are using the ICC to bully the Hema."
 
 
The limited amount of progress in the Lubanga trial is increasingly undermining faith in the effectiveness of the ICC. The arrests of Lendu leaders Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui and Germain Katanga have made no discernable difference. They are accused of crimes allegedly committed in the Hema village of Bogoro, but many Lendu are labelling the arrests of the two rebel leaders as ‘an action targeting the sons of Ituri’.

'A court for the weak'
As the first suspects to be indicted by the ICC all came from Ituri, many people had high hopes the situation would improve. Among them was Dheda Tikpa, a prominent Lendu in the region: “I expected impartial justice would be served, and that those responsible for crimes – whether they be from Ituri or not – would receive the punishment they deserved. Only if these conditions are met will the ICC no longer be seen as a court for the weak.
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The Hema have also grown wary of the ICC. Professor Pilo Kamaragi says it was high time a thorough investigation of the violence in Ituri was launched, “But unfortunately, I see no evidence of a systematic investigation into this tragedy”. 

While little progress is being made in the Lubanga trial at the ICC in The Hague, the military tribunal in Ituri has already convicted two former UPC leaders. Two killers of UN peacekeepers in Mungwalu were also put on trial.

War criminal turned general
These developments have made many Ituris lose their faith in the ICC. The fact that another ICC suspect, Bosco Ntaganda, is still at large has only served to make matters worse. Bosco Ntaganda is a former ally of Thomas Lubanga, but the DRC government says he cannot be arrested, at least not for the time being, because he played a major role in ending a conflict in eastern Congo. As a reward, he was appointed a general in the Congolese army.