By John Stephen Katende

25^th March 2013:

Congolese war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda a.k.a “The Terminator” will make his first appearance before the International Criminal Court (ICC) tomorrow, March 26, following his transfer from Rwanda to The Hague.

“…The initial appearance of Bosco Ntaganda before Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC is scheduled for Tuesday, 26 March 2013 at 11:00am local time (10:00 GMT),” the court said in a statement on Friday last week.

Judges at The Hague court will use the Tuesday morning hearing to formally verify Ntaganda’s identity – which is a standard practice in most criminal proceedings.  He will also receive a medical check-up before appearing before judges where the charges he faces will be read to him.

The commencement of this trial was only made possible by Ntaganda’s surprise decision to hand himself to the US Embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Monday last week.

He will now have to answer to a plethora of charges ranging from murder, rape, to using child soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo.  He was allegedly involved in the brutal murder of at least 800 people in villages in the eastern DR Congo, using child soldiers in his rebel army, and keeping women as sex slaves between September 2002 and September 2003.

From the latter allegations alone, he faces seven charges of war crimes and three of crimes against humanity.

Earlier on Friday, Rwandan foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a message on her Twitter account that Bosco Ntaganda had taken off from Kigali.  The ICC also confirmed Ntaganda had arrived at the court’s detention centre in the Netherlands after leaving the Rwandan capital.

“This is the first time that a suspect has surrendered himself voluntarily to be in the ICC’s custody,” the court said in a statement, thanking American, Dutch and Rwandan authorities for their support.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has welcomed the transfer of Ntaganda to the ICC as a victory for “justice and accountability”, adding that, “…now there is hope that justice will be done.” END: Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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