Congolese officials attend a hearing at the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes committed by an ex-militia chief.

Four officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were present in the tribunal chamber on Monday for a hearing in the case of war crimes suspect Germain Katanga.

Katanga, also known as ‘Simba’ is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using child soldiers, murder, rape and sexual slavery.

He filed a motion in February asking the ICC to rule the case inadmissible arguing that the court can only intervene if national courts are unwilling or unable to investigate and try war crimes suspects.

Katanga was arrested and transferred to The Hague in October 2007 but says Congolese authorities had already brought legal proceedings against him – partly for the same crimes – before the courts in the DRC.

But the Congolese officials said "this affair is not the subject of an open investigation in the DRC and falls under the ICC's jurisdiction."

Katanga and co-accused Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are accused of orchestrating a 2003 militia offensive on Bogoro, a village in the DRC's mineral-rich Ituri region. undreds of people were killed and many women forced into sexual slavery during the course of the attack.

Colonel Muntazini Mukimapa, who accompanied the officials said that "the DRC did not have the capacity to conduct a thorough inquiry into the crimes committed in Bogoro." The ICC judges are expected to decide on the issue before Katanga's pre-trial hearing, the court said. Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui are scheduled to go on trial on 24 September of this year.

In 2004, DRC President Joseph Kabila asked the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to determine if war crimes were committed in his country.

The ICC has since issued four arrest warrants for war crimes committed in the DRC.

The other two accused are ex-militia chief Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, on trial in The Hague, and another warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, who is still at large.

Fomer DRC Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba is also in the court’s custody. However, he is being accused of war crimes committed by his militia in the Central African Republic.