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- DR Congo - ICC - Rwanda - war crimes
ICC issues warrant for Rwandan militia chief Mudacumura
The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Rwandan commander Sylvestre Mudacumura, who faces charges on nine counts of war crimes allegedly committed by his notorious militia in eastern Congo.
By News Wires (text)
AP - Judges at the International Criminal Court have issued an arrest warrant for a Rwandan commander in a notorious militia accused of widespread atrocities in eastern Congo.
The court said in a statement Friday it has issued the warrant for Sylvestre Mudacumura following a request in May by then-prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.
Judges say there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Mudacumura is responsible for nine war crimes including murder, mutilation, rape and pillage, in the Kivus region of Congo.
The 58-year-old is allegedly a field commander in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which is also known by its French acronym FDLR.
Judges initially rejected the application for an arrest warrant, but prosecutors then filed a more detailed request, leading to Friday’s decision.
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Sylvestre Mudacumura
The guy on your photo that frames your report on Sylvestre Mudacumura is not the latter, but rather General Jean-Bosco Ntaganda. Mudacumura is the military chief of the FDLR, a radically ethnicist HUTU militia of Rwandan origins that traces clear roots to the Hutu-Power movement of the pre-1994 Rwandan MRND regime and its genocidal Interahamwe militia. In contrast, General Jean-Bosco Ntaganda, formerly FARDC (Congolese army) General, formerly-formerly CNDP adjutant to Laurent Nkunda, formerly-formerly-formerly UPC adjutant to Thomas Lubanga and formerly-formerly-formerly-formerly Colonel with the FPR of Paul Kagame that ousted the genocidal Rwandan MRND regime in 1994 is largely regarded as inofficial military chief of the M23 militia (M23's official military chief is Colonel Sultani Makenga), a mutinying group of largely Congolese TUTSI soldiers that are more or less all ancient CNDP members. The M23/ CNDP and FDLR are enemies. In fact, the CNDP has repeatedly professed that the FDLR and its predecessor organizations are part of their own rasion d'être: protecting TUTSI communities against violent attacks by ethnic Hutu militia (FDLR and its predecessors). All this said, there is little doubt that today, much of the motivation of the FDLR and CNDP/ M23 activities lies in the mineral resource riches of North and South Kivu/ Eastern RDC. However, by professed ideology as well as in the field Mudacamura's FDLR and Ntaganda's M23/ CNDP remain square enemies.
The ICC should get more serious than that!
'Judges say there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Mudacumura is responsible for nine war crimes ...'
The wording itself is already suspicious enough. In other words, they have no proof! They should get a little be serious over there!
Without being a lawyer to the man, I think the ICC is terribly biased. In fact many now read ICC as 'International Colonial Court'.
Facts of History have shown that any leader in the world who takes a stand against capitalism and colonialism interests is either a war criminal,a terrorist or a dictator.
Milosevic, Saddham Hussein, Pyongyang, Laurent Gbagbo, Kadhafi, Hugo Chavez, Robert Mugabe, El Assad etc! There are (or were) “reasonable grounds to believe” they deserve(d) to be killed or tried in the ICC, in the name of democracy and freedom, right?
Why do you have a photo of Bosco Ntangda?
To whom this may concern. As you point out Mr. Mudacurumura is a member of the FDLR but you have a photo of Bosco Ntangda, who is a member of M23/CNDP? These are two opposing rebel factions. Also why does your article mention that while it is welcome that a member of the FDLR is indicted by the ICC, why is the court concentrating its efforts on the FDLR when M23 movement is on the offensive. Why has the court not issued arrest warrants against M23's backers in Kigali?