The International Criminal Court has convicted the former vice president of Democratic Republic of Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba of war crimes including rape and murder of civilians because he had command and control over troops who committed the atrocities and did nothing to stop them.
Bemba is the highest ranking official ever to be convicted by the ICC, and the first person to be found guilty by the court of rape, which is a war crime.
The verdict was the first by the ICC to find a military commander to blame for atrocities carried out by his forces even though he did not order the atrocities, AFP reported.
According to the verdict, Bemba had “effective command and control” for troops of the MLC armed group who murdered and raped people in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003, Reuters reported.
Bemba was in charge of MLC troops sent to CAR to put down a coup.
The ICC’s presiding Judge Sylvia Steiner said that although Bemba remained in Congo during much of the atrocities, he was in contact with his troops through radio and satellite phone, reported NBC News.
The judges determined that Bemba knew that MLC soldiers were committing crimes but he “failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures” to stop them, and was thus responsible.
“Bemba both could and did issue operational orders” to the troops who committed the atrocities, the judge said, according to NBC. “Bemba knew that the MLC forces were committing or were about to commit the crimes.”
The ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said: “What this decision affirms is that commanders are responsible for the acts of the forces under their control,” the BBC reported.
“Usually military commanders would think that they will not have any responsibility for the crimes that happen in the field,” Bensouda told AFP news agency. But as a military commander “he has effectively command and control of his troops” and could have stopped or punished them.
According to Judge Steiner, civilians were primary targets of Bemba’s troops, and were not caught in crossfire or by accident.
The court heard testimony that the MLC carried out rape of young girls as well as gang rape. One victim was raped by 12 soldiers. In November 2002, soldiers held a man at gunpoint while four soldiers raped his wife. When the man protested, he was was also raped, according to testimony.
Bemba fled Congo for Europe after losing an election in 2006. In 2008 he was arrested in Brussels, and his trial at the ICC began in 2010, eight years after the atrocities began.
Photo: Jean-Pierre Bemba at the ICC in the Hague (Reuters)
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