The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened its second trial in The Hague this week. On the stand are the Congolese former militiamen Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui who are accused of orchestrating the massacre of about 200 civilians in the village of Bogoro, in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

By Thijs Bouwknegt

Ituri is one of the bloodiest areas of the DRC. Since 1999, more than 60,000 civilians have been slaughtered in a conflict rooted in ethnic rivalries, primarily between the Lendu and the Hema. In the battle for Ituri’s mineral riches, a myriad of armed groups - mostly composed of children - have been implicated in massacres, torture and rape.

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is already in the ICC dock charged with using child soldiers in his Hema militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots. Starting on Tuesday, two of his former rivals are facing the same court.

Katanga and Ngudjolo respectively led the Nationalist and Integrationist Front and the Patriotic Resistance Force, both fighting for the Lendu. They are now on trial for their alleged involvement in the Bogoro massacre.

Bogoro massacre
On the morning of February 24th 2003, their militia entered the village and attacked the mainly Hema population. Survivors were imprisoned in a room filled with corpses, while women and young girls were forced to become sex-slaves. Both men deny any involvement in the crimes.

Human rights organisations say Katanga was also involved in other atrocities. His militia attacked the Nyakunde hospital in September 2002, killing at least 1,200 Hema. He is also alleged to have led his group during attacks in Bunia and Komanda. Eyewitnesses say Katanga’s men carried severed hands through the streets and ate their victims’ livers and hearts. These incidents, however, are not included on the ICC charge sheet. By restricting the investigation to the atrocities committed in Bogoro, the prosecutors were able to investigate multiple charges instead of spreading resources thinly over various crime scenes. As a result, the two men face charges of, inter alia, murder, using child soldiers, pillage, rape and sexual slavery.

31-year-old Katanga was arrested by the DRC after an attack that killed nine United Nations peacekeepers in 2004. He was held on charges of war crimes but never saw the courtroom in Kinshasa. Instead, the ICC brought him to The Hague in 2007 where he unsuccessfully tried to have his case returned to the DRC.

Ngudjolo, meanwhile, was granted a general amnesty by the DRC in exchange for the demobilisation of his troops in 2006. Two years later, however, the ICC indicted him and he was extradited to stand trial in The Hague.

Last Ituri trial
This is the ICC’s first murder trial - since Lubanga only faces charges of using child soldiers - but it is the last Ituri trial. ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said in July that the court has no more investigations in the province and he is now focusing on atrocities committed in the Kivu region.

The DRC has so far been the ICC’s most productive hunting ground. The only prisoners at the court’s detention centre in the Netherlands are Congolese; and the court’s third trial, starting in April next year, involves the former vice president, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. But the DRC still refuses to arrest Bosco Ntaganda, one of the ICC’s most wanted.

In July the villagers of Bogoro finally buried the remains of those killed the 2003 massacre. Some 345 survivors, including ten child soldiers, will participate in the ICC trial in The Hague.

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