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| |  | | Germain Katanga | | | context : | DRC  | | judgement place : | ICC | | status : | Indicted | | particulars : | Arrested by the Congolese authorities in March 2005; warrant of arrest issued by the ICC on 2 July 2007; trial began on 24 November 2009; he pleaded not-guilty | | position : | Commander of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) |
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| | | | Germain Katanga, aka «Simba», was born on 28 April 1978 in Mambasa, on the territory of Mambasa, in the district of Ituri, in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Married and father of two children, he is believed to be of Ngiti ethnicity. Katanga is allegedly the highest ranking leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) since the beginning of 2003. On 11 December 2004, he is alleged to have been promoted to the rank of General in the Army of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Between January 2002 and December 2003, over 8'000 civilians died and more than half a million persons were displaced from their home in Ituri as a consequence of the armed conflict between the FRPI and other armed militias in the region of Ituri. Between January 2003 and March 2003 at the earliest, the FRPI and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) are believed to have conducted attacks – in a systematic or widespread manner – against the civilian population of certain parts of Ituri.
As the highest ranking commander of the FRPI, Katanga is believed to have played an essential role in the planning and the implementation of an indiscriminate attack against the village of Bogoro in Ituri, on or around 24 February 2003, together with other commanders of the FNI. He is also believed to have order his subalterns to launch this attack.
On the morning of 24 February 2003, members of Katanga’s militia allegedly entered the village of Bogoro and launched an indiscriminate attack, targeting mainly civilian members of the Hema ethnos. It is alleged that the FRPI had children under the age of fifteen participate in the attack. At least 200 civilians died in the attack. Moreover, the ones who had survived the initial attack were locked in a building with the bodies of the dead persons. Furthermore, women and young girls were abducted and turned into sexual slaves. Finally, the FRPI ended up pillaging the village of Bogoro, thus striking it off the map.
According to Human Rights Watch, Katanga played a part in the leading of one of the most important mass murder in Ituri, that of the hospital of Nyakunde in September 2002. Over a 10-day period, his combatants took part in the mass murder of at least 1’200 Hema, as well as other civilians targeted on the ground of their ethnical belonging. The same report by Human Rights Watch points out that Katanga allegedly led FRPI combatants in other mass murders, among which those of Bunia and Komanda, in 2002 and 2003. However, Katanga’s indictment by the ICC does not mention those acts.
Early March 2005, Katanga was arrested in Kinshasa’s Grand Hôtel by the Congolese authorities, along with eight other members of various Ituri armed groups in relation to an attack against MONUC peacekeepers in Ituri on 25 February 2005 in which nine peacekeepers were killed. Later, Katanga was transferred to the detention centre in Kinshasa. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Congo, the democratic republic of the | | | date of birth : | | | 28.04.1978 | | | also known as : | | | Simba | | | last time seen : | | | The Hague, Netherlands | | | period of charges : | | | 02.2003 - 02.2003 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 25.01.2010 |
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