Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda Is on Thursday to address his war crimes trial at the International Criminal Court, speaking publicly for the first time since he surrendered to the US embassy in Kigali in 2013. Ntaganda, also dubbed “The Terminator”, faces 18 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the Hague-based court, where his trial is entering a second day.
Lawyers representing victims opened on Thursday’s hearing with more harrowing details of murder, rape and other horrors allegedly unleashed by Ntaganda’s rebel forces from 2002-2003.
The trial – expected to last for several months – opened Wednesday with grisly images of bodies littering a banana plantation, as prosecutors accused the former rebel leader of running a campaign of terror in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Prosecutor Nicole Samson showed judges graphic photos and video of bodies dumped in the fields after being indiscriminately slaughtered, allegedly by Ntaganda’s rebel Union of Congolese Patriot (UPC) troops.
