Bemba faces war crimes charges for rape and murder, pleads not guilty

Bemba faces war crimes charges for rape and murder, pleads not guilty

2010-11-22 22:12:03 GMT+7 (ICT)

THE HAGUE (BNO NEWS) -- A war crimes trial on Monday opened against former vice-President of the Democratic Republic of Congo and leader of a former Congolese rebel group, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Bemba, 48, who pleaded not guilty, has been charged as military commander of two crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three war crimes (murder, rape and pillaging). On Monday, he pleaded not guilty.

"Mr. Bemba has certainly understood this charge and pleads through me not guilty," Bemba's lead defense lawyer Nkwebe Liriss said.

Bemba is being accused after members of his group, the Congolese Liberation Movement (CLM), crossed into the Central African Republic in late 2002 and early 2003 after the CAR's then president, Ange-Félix Patassé, asked him to help block a coup attempt against him.

However, the coup, led by François Bozizé, succeeded, and Bozizé, now the country's president, asked the ICC in 2004 to investigate the actions of the militia.

"After Bemba's troops conquered the area where the rebels were, they organized small groups to move from house to house, raping and pillaging, killing those who opposed them," said chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

"Normally the difficulty in such a case is to prove that the commander has real authority and control," Moreno-Ocampo said, adding he had clear evidence in the case. "Jean-Pierre Bemba himself created the army to gain money and power," the prosecutor added.

According to Bemba's defense team, the CLM were not under his control once they crossed the border and that the prosecution had failed to show he ordered his men to commit any actions. Instead, they said, the blame lay mainly with Patassé, who lives in exile in Togo.

Formal investigations by the ICC began more than two years after the situation was referred to the court. On May 23, 2008, the ICC issued a warrant for the arrest of Bemba, who was detained in Brussels the following day. In July 2008, Bemba was transferred to the custody of the ICC.

Bemba took control of a large part of north-eastern Congo during the country's 1998-2002 war after a peace agreement positioned him as one of four vice-presidents in a transition government that paved the way for elections in 2006.

In 2006, Bemba campaigned for the presidency, but lost a run-off against current President, Joseph Kabila. Bemba then fled to Portugal in 2007 and was arrested in Belgium in May, where he had previously studied his MBA.

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