War crimes court hears of rape, slavery at trial of Congo’s Ntaganda

“I am a soldier… not a criminal”, the 41-year-old former rebel commander insisted, denying 18 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity brought against him for his role in a deadly 2002-2003 conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ntaganda, 41, a former militia leader whose trial for a multitude of war crimes charges opened on Wednesday, presented himself unannounced at the US Embassy in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in March 2013, knowing there was a reward for his arrest on a range of atrocities.

They include: murder and attempted murder, attacks against civilians, rape and sexual slavery, the recruitment and use of child soldiers, pillaging and persecution in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) north-eastern Ituri district.

Ntaganda, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, is also due to make a statement.

“The reality of what happened in the field between 2002-03 is completely different”, Bourgon said, adding numerous accusations against Ntaganda arose from legitimate military activities in the region.

Ntaganda will Thursday address the court, for the first time publicly speaking at length since he walked into the U.S. embassy in Kigali out of the blue two years ago and turned himself in.

‘I am not the Bosco Ntaganda depicted by the prosecution, ‘ Ntaganda said. On the first day of the trial, prosecutors accused Ntaganda of running a campaign of terror in the Ituri region and ordering the deaths of hundreds in brutal ethnic attacks.

Prosecutor Nicole Samson showed judges graphic images of bodies dumped in the banana plantation after being brutally slaughtered.

Eastern DR Congo has been mired for two decades in ethnically-charged wars, as rebels battle for control of its rich mineral resources.

Lawyer Sarah Pellet described the pain girls suffered as forced “wives” to senior officers and said that girls as young as 12 were abducted into Ntaganda’s Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and forced to be sexually available to soldiers.

Born in 1973, Ntaganda is among a dozen Africans in the custody of the ICC, a court criticised for apparently only targeting leaders from the continent.

A rebel leader known as “The Terminator” told judges trying him at the global Criminal Court on Thursday that he was a professional soldier who never attacked civilians and tried to restore peace during a brutal conflict in eastern Congo.

“They are victims of rape and sexual violence and some of them gave birth to other victims: Children who will never know their fathers and who are a constant reminder of the reprehensible acts inflicted on their mothers”, she told the court, AP reports.