Bemba's CAR Visit Allegedly Led to Drop in Crimes

Two prosecution witnesses this week testified that the number of atrocities carried out by troops in the Central African Republic, CAR, decreased after a visit by former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Bemba is on trial at the International Criminal Court, ICC, over his alleged failure to control his troops which prosecutors say carried out massive rape, killings and plunder during 2002 and 2003. He has denied all five charges against him.

The two witnesses who testified this week both spoke of how Bemba visited Bangui, the capital of CAR, in November 2002 and addressed both his soldiers and local residents. They stated that residents informed Bemba of alleged atrocities by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC, troops.

The MLC troops were in CAR at the invitation of the country’s then president Ange-Félix Patassé, who sought their assistance to put down an attempted coup. At the time, the MLC was a rebel group fighting the Congolese government.

Both witnesses also recounted how, before Bemba’s visit, they were raped by soldiers who they said belonged to the MLC, the group which the accused founded and commanded.

Witness 23 said he was sodomised by three soldiers in front of his wives and children. The soldiers then raped his wives and children, he said. For her part, Witness 81 stated that she was raped by four soldiers one week after she gave birth.

Witness 81 recalled that Bemba addressed a rally at a school in a suburb of Bangui. She said Bemba had told the people to defend themselves if they were attacked by MLC soldiers.

“After Bemba’s visit, did the abuse and crimes committed by the Banyamulenge [Congolese soldiers] stop?” asked Marie-Edith Douzima-Lawson, one of the legal representatives of victims participating in the trial.

The witness replied, “It stopped.”

When Douzima-Lawson asked if the crimes had stopped completely, Witness 81 answered, “In our neighbourhood, it stopped. Because the people, when they tried to do anything, the people would come out with machetes and other weapons so they no longer bothered them.”

Earlier, Witness 23 had stated that crimes committed by MLC soldiers against CAR civilians also diminished after Bemba’s visit.

He said Bemba flew by helicopter to a school yard, then used a CAR presidential car to travel to the military headquarters of his troops. The witness added that Bemba then addressed his soldiers at a maternity clinic.

The witness said that at the gathering, which was also attended by the local civilian population, Bemba - who was dressed in military fatigues – spoke to his troops in the Congolese language Lingala. He then addressed the local population in French, the witness added.

“Do you know what Bemba told his troops?” prosecution lawyer Thomas Bifwoli asked.

“No, I don’t understand Lingala. If he spoke to them in French, I could have understood [something],” the witness answered.

“But I do know that after speaking to his troops, the abuse and violence diminished. I can tell you that, but as for the contents of his speech, I have nothing to tell you.”

According to this witness, offences committed by the Congolese soldiers did not completely cease after the MLC leader’s visit. He said the crimes that continued to be committed included snatching valuables from civilians who ventured outside their houses in the evenings, as well as some other incidences of violence and abuse.

Witness 23 also explained how people in his neighbourhood selected a representative to present their complaints to Bemba.

“On that day, we selected a person to act as a delegate and he was from the same neighbourhood. He was to represent us and went to the meeting to mention our complaints to him… We selected this person to speak about cases of theft, of rape, about the killings that had taken place, the numerous acts of abuse that had taken place, beatings too.”

Asked if Bemba said anything after the neighbourhood delegate presented the complaints, the witness replied, “He said that he would take care of the matter. He was going to assemble his men and speak to them to resolve the situation. That is what he told us to reassure us.”

Giving testimony the following day, the witness described how a commander in Bemba’s militia said that Patassé ordered soldiers to kill young boys. He said the killings were to be carried out in areas where Patassé believed the population supported General Francois Bozizé, who was attempting to overthrow his government. It was Patassé who invited Bemba’s MLC troops into the country to help him beat back the coup attempt.

The witness said an MLC corporal, who was one of the commanders of the militia, was the one who talked of Patassé’s alleged order to kill young boys.

“He said that the president had given the order to come to kill the boys of two years and up because it was there that the rebels were installed and from there, they were carrying out incursions,” he said, adding that the MLC corporal went on to say that, because they had not found rebels in the area, troops became angry and started committing atrocities against civilians.

Bozizé is the current president of the CAR, having deposed Patassé in 2003.

Defence lawyer Nkwebe Liriss then claimed that at the time Bemba’s troops entered CAR, there were several groups fighting on Patassé’s side. He said among these were the presidential guard, the regular army, and the United Presidential Security, USP. There were also Libyans who fought on Patassé’s side, he said.

Liriss added that a Patassé aide, Abdoulaye Miskine, ran another militia group outside the army, while the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People, MLPC - the political party led by Patassé - also included a number of men who were not part of the regular army. The defence argues that any of these groups could have committed the crimes attributed to Bemba’s soldiers.

Witness 23 had told the trial, presided over by Judge Sylvia Steiner, that the MLC fighters arrived in the Bangui suburb of PK12 on November 7, 2002, just after Bozizé’s troops had withdrawn from the area.

However, Liriss countered that a military source who was personally involved in the conflict had told him that the MLC could not have captured the neighbourhood of PK12 on November 13, less than two weeks after their entry into the country.

The trial continues this week when the prosecution calls its eighth witness.

Wairagala Wakabi is an IWPR reporter.