(RTTNews) - The trial of two Congolese warlords accused of war crimes began at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Tuesday, with both accused pleading not guilty to the charges pressed against them.

The two Congolese militia leaders, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, are accused of directing an attack on the village of Bogoro in Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern Ituri region in February 2003. At least 200 people, including women and children, were killed in that attack.

The duo faces charges of ordering attacks on civilians, sexual slavery, rape, and enlisting child soldiers. They have pleaded not guilty to the seven counts of war crimes and three charges of crimes against humanity pressed against them.

In his opening statement, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the court that the two militia leaders were "responsible for some of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community." He said that the attack was intended to wipe out the village of Bogoro, which was controlled at that time by rival Thomas Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC).

"They used children as soldiers, they killed more than 200 civilians in a few hours, they raped women; girls and the elderly, they looted the entire village and they transformed women into sex slaves," he added.
At the time of the attack, Katanga, an ethnic Ngiti, was allegedly the commander of the Patriotic Resistance Force (FRPI). He was handed over to the ICC by the Democratic Republic of Congo government in October 2007.

Ngudjolo, an ethnic Lendu accused of being the former leader of the National Integrationist Front (FNI) during the time of the attack on Bogoro, was arrested and transferred to The Hague in February 2008.

Their trial is only the second of its kind at the ICC in The Hague. The trial of their rival, Thomas Lubanga, a ethnic Hema, is currently progressing at the ICC, but has been delayed by legal arguments since it began in 2008.

Lubanga's trial was scheduled to be first one of its kind to be heard by the ICC, which was set up in The Hague in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court. He has been in custody for two years, and is accused of recruiting children to fight in the country's devastating 5-year civil war that ended in 2003. He has denied the allegations.

by RTT Staff Writer

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