Coverage of Bemba Arrest

The ICC project’s coverage of the arrest of DRC’s former vice-president and opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba on war crimes charges was widely republished and circulated among victims groups in the country.

“The information that you send us is of great importance”
Justine Masika, coordinator of Synergie, a group that helps women who have been raped

Some said Bemba’s arrest in Belgium in May was an important step in the fight against impunity, while others said the court was siding with Congo’s president Joseph Kabila by wiping out the political opposition.

Bemba, who had been living in Brussels, has been indicted by the ICC for crimes committed in the Central African Republic, CAR, which neighbours DRC.

The opposition leader’s Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC, was an armed group in the 2002 to 2003 conflict in CAR, before later becoming a political party in DRC. Bemba came second in the 2006 DRC presidential election, which Kabila won in a run-off.

According to ICC prosecutors, Bemba’s forces terrorised innocent civilians and carried out a campaign of rape and looting in CAR.

The IWPR story Bemba Arrest Sets Key Precedent, from May 28, was widely republished, including in Kinshasa daily Le Phare.

“The opinions of all the players were included [in the piece],” said the newpaper’s international justice reporter Desire-Israel Kazadi.

In Goma – where sexual violence crimes are rife – the head of a group that helps women who have been raped said she shared IWPR articles with other members of her coalition, as well as victims.

“The information that you send us is of great importance,” said Justine Masika, coordinator of Synergie, a group that helps women who have been raped.