The former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of murder, rape and pillage at the start of his war crimes trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Bemba is charged with three counts of war crimes and two counts of crimes against humanity for atrocities allegedly committed by his troops in the Central African Republic in late 2002 and early 2003.
International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Bemba permitted some 1,500 members of his personal militia, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, to raid C.A.R. villages.
Moreno-Ocampo said small groups of soldiers invaded houses, took possessions that could be carried off and raped women regardless of their age.
He said the troops who committed the crimes were under Bemba’s “effective authority and control.”
Bemba’s lawyer Liris Nkwebe told the court that his client rejects all the charges against him.
Bemba’s defense lawyers say he had no command of the troops once they crossed the border into the Central African Republic and is not responsible for their crimes.
He sent his fighters to the C.A.R. at the request of the country’s then-President Ange-Feliz Patasse. Patasse wanted them to fight a rebellion led by the country’s former army chief of staff, Francois Bozize, who is now the C.A.R.’s president.
Bemba was later vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo and finished second in the DRC’s 2006 presidential election. He fled the country after his militia clashed with security forces in 2007 and was arrested in 2008 in Belgium.
Bemba’s is the highest profile trial so far at the International Criminal Court.
More than 1,000 people have asked to be recognized as victims in the alleged atrocities.
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