Former business tycoon, warlord, vice-President and senator Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo will go on trial for instigating a campaign of terror in the Central African Republic (CAR) . The International Criminal Court ruled Monday that he will stand trial on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A pre-trial panel of judges at the ICC "found that there is sufficient evidence to believe that Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is criminally responsible" for a widespread campaign of rape, murder and pillaging in the CAR between 2002 and 2003.

Prosecutors had sought to try the former vice-President on five counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity. But the judges ruled that there was insufficient evidence to try him on charges of torture or outrages upon personal dignity.

Highest-profile suspect

Bemba is the highest-profile suspect to come before the world's first permanent war crimes court in The Hague. He is also the first person to be arrested over crimes in the CAR. However he was not charged with any crimes that his troops allegedly committed in the Congo.

Bemba was arrested in Brussels in May 2008. Although Belgian judges had sentenced him in absentia in 2003 to one year in prison for human trafficking, Belgium decided to transfer the former warlord to The Hague.

Reign of terror

In 2002 President Ange-Felix Patassé of the Central African Republic asked Bemba to suppress a rebellion by François Bozizé. A reign of terror shook the country when Bemba's MLC-militia took part in a campaign of looting, attacking civilians and widespread rape. The troops left the CAR in March 2003 when Bozizé took power after a coup.

Unable to conduct its own war crimes prosecutions, in 2004 the CAR government asked the ICC Prosecutor to investigate the ongoing atrocities.

Congo

Bemba's MLC-militia has also been accused of numerous crimes in northern Congo during the country's five-year war. During a 2002 military operation called "effacer le tableau" ("wipe the slate") in Ituri, MLC forces allegedly committed atrocities against civilians, including rape, summary executions, and looting.

Bemba tried 27 MLC leaders in 2003 in an ad hoc military court over allegations of killings, rapes and even cannibalism upon Pygmies and others. No one was convicted in the trials which were widely dismissed as a 'whitewash' by Bemba to wipe out traces of his forces' human rights abuses.

Bemba laid down his weapons in 2003 and was elected one of four vice-presidents of the Congolese transitional government. He put himself forward for the presidential election in 2006. Although he lost the run-off against Joseph Kabila, he was elected senator in January 2007. After his militia and the army clashed in Kinshasa Bemba fled to Portugal.

Humanitarian crisis

The Central African Republic has suffered decades of armed revolts, coups and rebellions since it gained independence from France in 1960. The peak of violence from 2002-2003 was marked by a pattern of rape and other acts of sexual violence committed against hundreds of elderly women, young girls and men. The social impact is devastating, with many victims stigmatised and infected with HIV/AIDS.

The CAR has seen more than 300,000 people forced from their homes over the past three years, due to civil war and attacks by armed bandits. Violence is endemic with various rebel groups and government soldiers killing and raping in the villages they attack.

Also see the research file on the Bemba case by The Hague Justice Portal