The militia of former Congo vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba raped young girls at a school in the Central African Republic, and also robbed and beat civilians, a witness told the International Criminal Court on Tuesday.

Bemba, 48, went on trial at the ICC on Monday charged with letting his troops rape and kill civilians in the Central African Republic in a five-month intervention in the country to help put down coup attempts against its then president.

He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes.
The first prosecution witness, a witness whose face and voice were disguised, said he started resisting Bemba's rebels after being confronted by rapes, shootings and pillaging.

"I remember one day ... when a woman brought me her daughter of eight or nine years old who had been raped. It was very difficult ... I saw that this girl was bleeding, but what could I do when faced with such a situation?" the witness said.

"The school became a place where orgies were held," the witness added, citing other witness comments. "It was horrible to explain to another person, but to experience such things..."

He said people were stopped on the street and robbed of everything, including their clothing, and repeatedly beaten if they did not have anything of value to steal.

At one point, the witness lost composure, prompting presiding judge Sylvia Steiner to ask whether he was feeling comfortable enough to continue. "I believe so," he replied.

Bemba is accused of sending his forces into CAR at the request of Ange-Felix Patasse, the republic's president at the time, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to put down coup attempts led by the country's current president Francois Bozize.

The witness said Bemba's troops moved into PK12, a trading centre on roads from Chad and Cameroon slightly north of the CAR capital Bangui, early one evening in October 2002 after Bozize's rebels had retreated from the area.

"They arrived in the evening and around 5 o'clock the next day the population woke up to hearing gunshots and houses were being broken into," the witness said, adding later that Bemba's rebels "were the only ones doing these acts of violence".

He estimated 800 to 1,000 troops were in the area, having moved in by foot the first night and later by vehicles as they carried AK47 machine guns and rocket launchers.

"I was along the road that night, I saw them," said the witness, who added he lived in the village of Begoua near PK12.

Asked how he knew the troops were Bemba's MLC, the witness said the berets and uniform insignia they wore were different from those of Bozize's forces and they had different physical features, adding that they wore distinctly different knee-length rubber boots.

TEARS IN BANGUI

Meanwhile, silent tears flowed at a conference hall in the Central African Republic capital as hundreds of people gathered to watch Jean-Pierre Bemba in the ICC courtroom.

"I asked if it was really Bemba who was before the judges," said one woman, her voice cracking.

It was a moment of extreme emotions for around 200 people who were watching a retransmission of the opening day of the trial Monday, their happiness at seeing Bemba in court tempered by the painful reawakening of bitter memories.

Nine-year-old Asta Keita was too young to remember the mayhem but told AFP what happened to her family.

"Bemba's men killed papa when he returned from a trip in 2002," she said, with her mother standing next to her unable to speak.

"We never saw his body, it was a neighbour who recognised him and helped with the burial which we saw two days later," the little girl said, reciting her family's sad story she has heard many times.

"We saw moments of indescribable terror at PK12 when MLC fighters went to work," said 53-year-old Jean-Pierre Ndema, referring to an area outside Bangui where some of the worst atrocities are alleged to have taken place.

"Today, when I see Bemba before ICC judges, I say that God is great... Jean-Pierra Bemba should be tried for his crimes," he said.

In a Christian youth centre near the ICC's field office in Bangui, groups of activists, journalists and members of the public sat on a row of stone benches watching the trial.

"In addition to the cases of rape, there were murders, cases of mutilations, because Bemba's men cut off the ears of hundreds of people," said Mathias-Barthelemy Morouba, a lawyer representing the victims.

"Even though the victims have waited many years for the opening of this trial, it's better late than never," he said, calling on the ICC to deliver "an irrefutable verdict".

Joseph Bindoumi, a judge and human rights leader, said the trial would prove "the force of law over law of force".  "This trial shows that those among us, who for one reason or another commit the most serious crimes against humanity, will never be free from prosecution and will be hunted down to their final hiding place," he said.

Source: Reuters/AFP