ICC confirms Bemba charges, is Museveni safe?
By Timothy Nsubuga
25th Oct 2010
Charged with war crimes
The International Criminal Court’s [ICC] appellate chamber on 19th Oct confirmed charges brought against Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government official charged with war crimes.
Bemba allegedly committed the crimes in the neighbouring Central African Republic [CAR]. His alleged war crimes included rape, murder and pillaging.
In February, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’s defence team challenged the admissibility of the charges against him, arguing that the ICC should in the first instance respect the work that authorities in the CAR are doing with regard to his case. They had effectively attempted to block the ICC from hearing the case.
Citing the Rome Statue which set up the ICC, Bemba’s lawyers had argued that a case is inadmissible at the ICC if it is still being investigated by a State [CAR] which has jurisdiction over it.
The ICC’s appeals chamber has however confirmed the trial chamber’s dismissal of an earlier appeal by Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and ruled that the CAR courts’ decisions were not “a decision not to prosecute” under the ICC terms since it [the CAR court] ruled that the case should be referred by the CAR authorities to the ICC.
The ICC’s pre-trial chamber confirmed last year that Mr. Bemba had the “necessary criminal intent” when in 2002 he ordered his armed group, the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC) into the CAR to back up embattled leader Ange-Félix Patassé.
It said that MLC fighters committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during that mission with Bemba “effectively acting as military commander.”
It’s also an open secret that Museveni’s government supported Jean-Pierre Bemba’s MLC rebel group. So the question that comes immediately on the lips of many Ugandans is this: Is our own Museveni safe from charges of being Bemba’s war crimes accomplice?
After all, former Liberian President Charles Taylor is today facing trial at the ICC for aiding and abetting Foday Sankoh’s RUF rebels to commit war crimes in Sierra Leone. END. If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent. Never miss out again!
