Congo's Bemba to stand ICC trial

Congolese ex-Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba will face five counts of war crimes, the International Criminal Court has ruled.

The charges relate to the actions of his troops in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003.

Mr Bemba has denied all charges, saying the militia was not under his command once they had crossed the border.

He led a rebel movement during DR Congo's long civil war but became vice-president under a peace deal.

Mr Bemba is the most high-profile of four Congolese warlords facing trial at the ICC.

A pre-trial panel of judges "found that there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is criminally responsible" for murders, rapes and pillaging, said a statement from the ICC.

He is to face trial on three counts of war crimes and two of crimes against humanity.

Fighters from his Movement for the Liberation of Congo were accused of committing atrocities when they intervened in the conflict in CAR.

At a pre-trial hearing in January, the prosecutor said Mr Bemba "wanted to traumatise and terrorise the civilian population so they would not support the rebels".

"He chose rape as his main method... rapes against mothers in the presence of their children and rapes of children as their parents were forced to watch," the prosecutor said.

Mr Bemba, 46, was arrested in Belgium last May and extradited to The Hague in July.

One of his defence lawyers suggested that the charges may be politically motivated, to remove Mr Bemba from future elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He lost a landmark run-off election against President Joseph Kabila in 2006.

He fled the country after being charged with treason after his bodyguards clashed with the army in 2007.

BBC Online, Jun. 15th, 2009