Beyond Those ICC Trials

The commencement of the trial of the Congolese militiamen, Germain Katanya and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chu by the International Criminal Court, ICC, for war crimes certainly has the prospects of revealing the truth about wars and war crimes.

The war-lords are facing a ten-count charge of war crimes against humanity which include using child-soldiers to commit murder, maim and pillage. Both men were alleged to have had two militia groups, Katanga’s Patriotic Resistance Force, FRPI, and Nationalist’ and Integrationist Front, FNI, which invaded Bogoro village in 2003 with more than 1,000 soldiers and committed several atrocities including acts of genocide.

The village in question was strategically located on the road to the key city of Bunia, and was controlled by another militia group. Katanga, and Chui men, numbering more than a thousand, allegedly besieged the village and killed about 200 people, thus obliterating the entire population before pillaging it. In the process and as usual in invasions of this manner, some women were raped before being exterminated while others who I may term to be lucky, were seized and converted to sex slaves.

Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in one conflict or the other for a long time. But this particular discord in that part of the country was over mining of gold by the ethnic groups that have formed themselves into militia groups. More than 60,000 people had been killed on account of this war. Women had been the easiest prey who had been targeted and used as sex slaves by the militia.  

Women are not the only victims of the carnage and brutality perpetrated by these militiamen, children are also affected. Some children are kidnapped right from their homes, schools and sports ground and conscripted into militia groups as weapons – caring fighters. The most disturbing trend is that these militia groups do not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants but often resort to scorched earth measures.  They have no regard for women, the aged and children. Every one on their part is a target. Even livestock’s are sometimes not spared.

It is an unfortunate development that most of these militiamen do not know anything about laws of war. They are ignorant of the fact that war has laws could be violatedlated. That is to say that the militias have probably not heard about Geneva convention on the conduct of war and certainly do not observe its statutes.  For them, the barbaric slogan of all being fair in war is apt.

The few militiamen who know about the rules of war as contained in the Geneva Convention usually adduce as defence that it is only the state and not the individual that can be guilty of war crimes. But is there a way a state can be punished for committing a criminal offence? Crime is committed by man either individually or collectively and it is only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of the international law be enforced.

That is why the attempt by ICC to bring the ‘savages’ to trial in order to compel them to conduct warfare in a humane manner is commendable. They will have their day in court but more importantly, they should have the justice they deserve. They must be made to know that actions carry consequences in order to set a precedent for future warlords.

Beyond the trials, however, is the bigger question of the cause of conflicts. War crimes are evitable symptoms of deeper infirmity. Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in one leadership crisis or the other and has gone through several phases of civil wars. As the biggest country in Africa, its land mass of 2.3 million square killometres is the largest in Africa and roughly equivalent to the combined areas of Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and Norway. Because of its vastness, the central government hardly has any presence outside the kinshasa and few other cities.

Most of the wars in Congo are fought as a result of the quest for territorial control by all sorts of adventures. Some of the warlords are sponsored by neighbouring countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Sudan with no end in sight to their activities.

The idea of an international criminal court to try those accused of war crimes is acceptable. Charles Taylor, the former Liberian warlord, is having his day in court. Several others are lined up to face justice for their inglorious actions during wars. But trials for war crimes will be ineffective if the conditions that lead to wars are not  addressed. This should be of utmost concern to the international community.

Arnold Alalibo