DR Congo warlord Katanga complicit in war crimes–ICC

Defence counsel David Hooper awaits the start of a verdict in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday March 7, 2014. The ICC has convicted rebel leader Germain Katanga of charges including murder and pillage during a deadly attack on a village in eastern Congo, but acquitted him of rape, sexual slavery and using child soldiers. Katanga showed no emotion as judges convicted him as an accessory in the attack on the strategic village of Bogoro on Feb. 24, 2003, in which some 200 civilians were hacked or shot to death. AP

THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court on Friday convicted Congolese ex-militia boss Germain Katanga of being an accessory to war crimes and crimes against humanity for a 2003 village massacre.

“The chamber by majority finds Germain Katanga guilty… of complicity in the crimes committed on February 24, 2003,” said judge Bruno Cotte.

Katanga was convicted of murder and pillaging but cleared of rape, sexual slavery and using child soldiers in the attack.

The court will sentence Katanga, the one-time commander of the ethnic-based Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI) operating in the DR Congo’s mineral-rich northeast, at another hearing.

The verdict was only the ICC’s third since opening its doors more than a decade ago, and the first involving sexual violence charges.

Katanga, 35, went on trial more than four years ago facing seven counts of war crimes and three of crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual slavery and rape for his alleged role in the attack on the small village of Bogoro in 2003.