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Bogoro Attack Allegedly Targeted Tribal Alliance

Prosecution witness says Katanga intended to undermine efforts by Hema and Lendu
to strengthen links.
By Anjana Sundaram - International Justice - ICC
ACR Issue 273,
15 Oct 10
A witness told the International Criminal Court, ICC, last week that alleged Con
golese warlord Germain Katanga launched an attack on the Ituri town of Bogoro in
order to scupper a tribal alliance that excluded his own tribe.
Continuing his testimony from the previous week, the prosecution witness, a form
er commander in the Ugandan armed forces, testified with face and voice distorti
on.
He told the court that the February 24, 2003 attack on the mainly Hema-populated
village had been carried out to weaken an alliance between the Lendu and Hema p
eople, which Katanga’s own Ngiti tribe was not part of.
The witness recalled that the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups had been strengthenin
g their political ties during that period. The Front for Integration and Peace i
n Ituri, FIPI, which brought the two ethnic groups together under a single polit
ical umbrella, had been established at the end of 2002.
He said that during several encounters with Katanga in late 2003, he heard the a
lleged militia leader boast of military triumphs in Ituri as “a sign to the people….
to understand that [the FIPI] would suit the Lendu but not the Ngiti”.
Katanga was “really proud of that exploit” and happy with the results of the assault
on Bogoro, continued the witness, adding that a similar motive lay behind an at
tack on the village of Mandro, not far from the provincial capital of Bunia, whi
ch occurred just days after the Bogoro attack.
Katanga is standing trial before the ICC along with Mathieu Ngudjolo. Both men a
re charged with three counts of crimes against humanity and seven counts of war
crimes, including the use of child soldiers, murder, pillaging, sexual slavery a
nd rape.
Katanga was allegedly the commander-in-chief of the Patriotic Forces of Resistan
ce of Ituri, FRPI, while Ngudjolo is said to have led the Nationalist and Integr
ationist Front, FNI.
The two men are accused of planning the attack on Bogoro in order to secure the
route between Bunia and the Ugandan border.
However, Ngudjolo’s reaction to the Bogoro strike was markedly different from that
of his co-defendant, according to the witness.
The witness - who claimed to have also served with the FRPI - said that Ngudjolo
had shown remorse for his actions during a meeting at the Mango Hill hotel in K
ampala, between May and June 2004, when another militia group, the Revolutionary
Movement of Congo, MRC, was created.
The witness said that Ngudjolo expressed regret for killing so many Hema people,
which he claimed to have done mistakenly.
Ngudjolo’s declaration surprised the witness. “He was converted,” the witness said. “He
was no longer the person I knew before.”
The witness also claimed that Katanga led the attack on Mandro but not the one o
n Bogoro, which was masterminded by someone he referred to as “Commander Dark” – a man
previously identified during the trial as an FRPI commander.
The witness added that Ngudjolo commanded his forces to root out members of the
Hema tribe in Bogoro in the February 24 attack.
The trial continues this week.
Anjana Sundaram is an IWPR contributor in The Hague.