Two New Warrants Issued By The ICC

By Stephanie Kammer

Today, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber granted the Prosecutor’s requests for two arrest warrants: one for Sylvestre Mudacumura and another additional warrant for Bosco Ntaganda, already wanted by the ICC.

The warrant for Sylvestre Mudacumura charges him with ordering war crimes in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the period between January 20, 2009 and September 2010. These war crimes consist of attacking civilians, murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, rape, torture, destruction of property, pillaging, and outrages against personal dignity. Mudacumura is the alleged former Supreme Commander of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda-Forces Combattants Abacunguzi (FDLR-FOCA), a milita group operating in the DRC, which includes Rwandan former génocidaires who fled to the DRC after the Rwandan genocide.

The ICC also issued a second arrest warrant for Bosco Ntaganda, alleged former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC) and alleged current Chief of Staff of the Congrès national pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP). A previous warrant issued for Ntaganda in 2006 charged him with three counts of the war crime of enlisting, conscripting, and using children in hostilities. The second warrant for Ntaganda, issued today, includes war crimes - murder, attacks against the civilian population, rape and sexual slavery, and pillaging - and crimes against humanity - murder, rape and sexual slavery, and persecution.