Locals Want Patasse to Face Justice

A woman, clearly agitated, stands apart as we talk to a group of people in the streets of Bangui about justice for the country’s ex-president who they say embroiled ordinary people in a bloody battle as he lost his grip on power.



Our translator Bernard tells us that Elisabeth lives in PK12, an area just outside the capital of the Central African Republic, CAR, which was devastated during “les evenements (events)” of 2002 to 2003, when ex-army chief and current head of state Francois Bozize wrested the presidency from Ange-Felix Patasse after months of fighting.



As Elisabeth mutters to herself, we notice she has no front teeth. Suddenly, she raises her voice above the group and spits angrily, “Patasse… should [face] justice to answer for what [he] did to us.



“The Banyamulengue burned our houses. Women were raped and their husbands killed. Now the women have no husbands, but have HIV, and their children have HIV.”



Elisabeth told us that her front teeth were knocked out with the butt of a gun during les evenements.



Banyamulengue is the name locals here give to the Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo, MLC, a Congolese militia led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, which was allegedly drafted in by Patasse in 2002 to help him fight off rebels.



Patasse, now living in exile in Togo, is also said to have recruited other militias from neighbouring countries, including one led by Libya-based Chadian rebel and politician Abdoulaye Miskine.



International Criminal Court, ICC, prosecutors say that between October 2002 and March 2003, civilians were raped, murdered, tortured and had their possessions stolen by the MLC and Patasse’s own troops, apparently as punishment for their perceived support for Bozize.



Since beginning their investigation in CAR in 2007, prosecutors have stressed that civilians were raped in numbers that cannot be ignored under international law, and that accounts of sexual violence often feature “aggravating aspects of cruelty”, such as multiple perpetrators, and the forced participation of family members.



Following those investigations, Bemba was indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes, and is in custody awaiting trial. Prosecutors say he and the former president entered into a common plan, and had a reciprocal arrangement whereby Bemba gave Patasse military assistance in return for strategic and logistical support.



Bemba allegedly sought Patasse's help to shore up the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, and CAR after former DRC president Laurent Kabila entered through CAR to attack Bemba’s MLC in 1998. He is also thought to have allied himself to Patasse to prevent links being forged between the then CAR president and Kabila.



But although prosecutors say Patasse had a hand in atrocities, they have issued no arrest warrant against him.



Elisabeth says it is not enough for a foreign militia leader to stand trial for what happened in the CAR. She says the man who invited the Banyamulengue into the country must also be held to account.



Her sentiments are echoed across Bangui and outlying areas.



In PK12, a 12-kilometre bus ride away from the city, we sit down and talk to Jeudi, a community leader from one of the quartiers or neighbourhoods.



“My quartier is cursed by God,” he said.



“[During the coup, forces] raped women, [those who were] wives [as well as those who were not] wives, 10 or 15 men on one woman. Most women were affected, the Banyamulengue contaminated them,” Jeudi said.



Sitting in a clearing between huts off the main trading road through PK12, Jeudi tells us his community was devastated during les evenements.



He takes us to see women who speak of multiple gang rapes which many of them endured.



They also show us their rudimentary houses, pointing at the windows whose wooden frames, they say, had been ripped apart and burned by soldiers during fighting.



There is patchy understanding of the ICC and its work amongst people we speak to. While some have never heard of it, others know that a court in The Hague is looking into crimes committed against them.



Jeudi, however, is aware of its work, and like others here is calling for Patasse to face trial in The Hague. “[He] should be taken to the ICC,” he said.



Marie Edith Douzima Lawson, a CAR lawyer who represents victims at the ICC, noted that “during Bemba’s confirmation of charges hearing the name of Patasse came up as co-author of crimes”.



She says that it was difficult to explain to victims why the ICC hasn’t issued an arrest warrant for Patasse even though the court has said he was involved in violence in official documents and open court sessions.



There has been much speculation as to why Patasse hasn’t been indicted.



Deputy prosecutor at the ICC Fatou Bensouda says that prosecutors haven’t acted because they lack evidence of his individual criminal responsibility.



“We are happy and satisfied with the evidence for individual criminal responsibility of Bemba. This is why we have proceeded against Bemba. We do not have this yet for Patasse. This is why we have not asked for an arrest warrant for him, even though he is a co-perpetrator of Bemba,” she said.



Bensouda said Patasse was no doubt a very important player in the CAR conflict between 2002 and 2003, and added that he was the one who invited MLC troops into the country.



However, she says this is not enough to mount a prosecution case against him, “We are driven by the evidence and the evidence alone. Our investigations are continuing, [but] we will only prosecute Patasse if we are satisfied his individual criminal responsibility is established.”



She also stresses that no-one is immune from ICC justice, pointing out that a sitting head of state – Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir – is an indictee of the court.



While CAR citizens are concerned that no one from their own country has been charged in relation to atrocities committed in 2002 and 2003, Bensouda said there was nothing strange about this.



“It is no surprise a foreign militia leader has been charged for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the CAR. During this time, Jean-Pierre Bemba was the undisputed leader of the MLC, and of the very same Banyamulengue who raped, looted and killed civilians in the CAR,” she said.



Bensouda says that many victims interviewed referred to those who committed crimes against them as “les hommes de Bemba (Bemba’s men)”.



“I think this says it all,” she said. “Victims of these crimes seem satisfied, relieved and grateful that Jean-Pierre Bemba has been arrested and will face trial.



“When we announced the arrest of Bemba and you saw at the market place many people with radios glued to their ears, listening. It is a dream that Bemba would ever be brought to account for what he did.”



Bemba's lawyers say that ICC prosecutors are pursuing the wrong man.



During Bemba's confirmation of charges hearing in The Hague in January, his defence argued that the MLC was deployed at the request of Patasse and obeyed his orders, so Bemba could not be held responsible for crimes allegedly committed by his troops in CAR. Once the MLC stepped over the border from Congo, they were no longer “Bemba’s men” but subordinate to Patasse, the lawyers say.



Jeudi says people in PK12 are confused about why they were subject to such violence by troops allegedly supported by the country’s then leader.



“[Forces] gave the pretext they were here to chase away rebels. Only they can explain why they raped the women. If they were regular soldiers, they would have just come to chase away enemies, not rape,” he said.



Back in Bangui, we stop to talk to Bonaventure, who sits resting under the shade of a tree, as girls selling bananas, mangoes and credit for mobile phones wander slowly past in the heat of the day.



“If the ICC is doing its work, Patasse needs to be tried too. If he isn’t arrested, it means there is no justice in the world for people like me,” Bonaventure said.



Pierre, from Bozize’s hometown of Bossangoa, joins in our conversation.



“Patasse should respond to what he did. The Banyamulengue did many things, they committed lots of crimes,” he said.



“They told husbands to strip and go outside and then they shot them. Patasse invited Bemba here, so he too needs to respond to the ICC.”



Speaking to IWPR from his home in Togo, Patasse said repeatedly that he was “aware of nothing” when it was put to him that CAR citizens blame him for inviting Bemba’s men into the country, and for not stopping the atrocities they allegedly committed.



Patasse says he didn’t know about Bemba’s trial at the ICC and when asked whether it would have been possible to halt violence against civilians between 2002-2003, he would only say, “We are not in 2002-2003, we are in 2009.”



When pressed on the latter question, he said, “Ask the question to the current president. I repeat, these issues do not concern me.



“Complaints brought by Bozize to the ICC are illegal. It is not up to Bozize the rebel to complain, it is up to me who was representing the legal government at the time.”



We go on a half hour bus ride to another suburb of Bangui called Combattant, and sit with a group of women from the neighbourhood. They speak slowly at first, and there are several long pauses in conversation.



Then they begin to tell us what they say happened to them when Bemba’s men came to Bangui, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.



“When the Banyamulengue came, we closed ourselves into our houses. We were very afraid. It was difficult to find food. They stayed here for a long time, until Bozize came to power. They treated people badly. They killed people and threw them into the bush,” claimed one woman.



“They raped many women, even grandmothers. Five men raped one woman. This sickness, the HIV, has spread here now. Patasse brought them [the Banyamulengue] here for his security but we don’t know why they raped us.



“The arrival was sudden. If a man reacted, they would cut his throat. Then they slept with all the women and killed some too. If they entered the house and didn’t find a woman, they would rape the men.



“Some women were raped with guns and badly damaged inside. Many women became pregnant, but many children died and women died shortly after giving birth.



“People [turned against] Patasse because of the behaviour of the Banyamulengue.



“Rape is the worst thing. Rape is a way of humiliating the population. Victims said they wanted to take a petition to The Hague to get Patasse brought there. We hope this will stop people raping, knowing they may face justice.”



Katy Glassborow is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. Dr Jan Coebergh, a Hague-based doctor specialising in mortality rates in conflict situations, and Melanie Gouby, a London-based reporter, contributed to this report.



Some of the names in this report have been changed for security reasons.