On 24 November 2009 the Prosecution opened its case against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The trial is the second before the ICC and, along with the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the second concerning the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On 17 October 2007, Germain Katanga, alleged commander of the Force de résistance patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), was arrested and transferred to the ICC pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued under seal on 2 July 2007. On 6 February 2008, Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, alleged leader of the Front des nationalistes et intégrationnistes (FNI), was arrested and transferred to the Court pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued under seal on 6 July 2007 at the request of the Prosecutor. On 11 March 2008, Pre-Trial Chamber I decided to join the two cases and, on 26 September 2008, it confirmed charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui.

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui stand accused of seven war crimes (using children under the age of 15 to take an active part in hostilities; deliberately directing an attack on a civilian population as such or against individual civilians or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; wilful killing; destruction of property; pillaging; sexual slavery and rape). They are also accused of three crimes against humanity (murder, sexual slavery and rape).

According to ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in a press conference held before the start of the trial, “the Office of the Prosecutor has revised 16, 544 documents related to the case. Six-hundred-and-seventy inculpatory documents and 272 exculpatory documents have been disclosed to the Defence, as well as 2, 423 documents considered as material for the Defence”. The Prosecution will present 26 witnesses, one of which will be an expert witness.

Hearings will take place until 11 December and are set to resume on 26 January 2010. The prosecution case is expected to last several months.

Situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Prosecution alleges that Katanga and Chui are responsible for crimes committed during  an attack on the village of Bogoro in DRC’s mineral-rich Ituri region. The Prosecution alleges that on 24 February 2003, the accused led an attack on the village, as part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of Ituri. The attack resulted in the large-scale killing of civilians from the Hema ethnic group, committed by the FNI and FRPI forces, largely composed of the Lendu and Ngiti groups. The attack also involved widespread sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery.

In his opening statement, the ICC Prosecutor stressed that the war in eastern DRC has its roots in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, where the international community failed to act to prevent genocide. He stated that the Bogoro attack is a consequence of the failure to prevent massive crimes, and that it is time to apply the Rome Statute in order to prevent genocide and another Congo war.