Congolese militia leader appears before ICC

Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga on Monday became only the second war crimes suspect to appear before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

During the largely procedural initial hearing, Katanga, 29, sat quietly with his head bowed.

He stands accused of massacring villagers, using child soldiers and sexually enslaving women in the northeastern Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in early 2003.

"I have nothing to say," the 29-year-old told the judges.

Among the allegations cited in the ICC arrest warrant, Katanga -- also known as Simba -- planned and led an attack on the village of Bogoro and "the murder of about 200 civilians, causing serious bodily harm" to other villagers.

Women and girls were abducted from the looted village and made sex slaves, prosecutors allege.

Katanga's Forces for the Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI) was founded at the end of 2002 with the support of neighboring Uganda. Its members, from the Lendu and Ngiti ethnic groups, are suspected of having taken part in massacres of another ethnic group, the Hema.

Katanga is only the second person that the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, has taken into custody. Another Ituri warlord, Thomas Lubanga, was transferred to the court last March.

His trial is expected to start next year.

The ICC became operational in the middle of 2002 and can only rule on crimes committed after its inception.

Congolese human rights associations have complained that both Lubanga and Katanga are "small fish."

Lubanga has only been charged with war crimes for using child soldiers although many NGOs have called for him also to be indicted for sexual violence and massacres.

The fact that his rival Katanga is now also accused of killings and sex crimes could renew tension in the Ituri region, they warned.

Humanitarian groups estimate that inter-ethnic clashes in Ituri and violence between militia seeking control of gold mines and other natural resources have left 60,000 people dead.

In December 2004, Katanga, and other Ituri militia chiefs, was made a general in the DR Congo army as part of a policy to end a five-year civil war that engulfed the vast country and killed about four million people.

In 2005 Katanga was arrested and in July of this year the ICC issued an arrest warrant but it was kept secret to facilitate Katanga's transfer to the court.