DRC: ICC Warrant of Arrest unsealed against Bosco NTAGANDA

ICC-OTP-20080429-PR311

Situation: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Case: The Prosecutor v. Bosco NTAGANDA

On 28 April 2008, upon request of the Prosecutor, Pre-Trial Chamber I unsealed the warrant of arrest against Mr. Bosco NTAGANDA, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), and current alleged Chief of Staff of the Congrès national pour la défense du people (CNDP) armed group, active in North Kivu in the DRC.

“Bosco NTAGANDA is a former associate of Thomas LUBANGA DYILO. Today, he is active in the Kivus. We count on all concerned States authorities and actors to contribute to his arrest and surrender him to the Court” said the Prosecutor.

The sealed warrant was first issued on 22 August 2006 by Pre-Trial Chamber I. The Chamber concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that from July 2002 to end of December 2003, Mr. NTAGANDA had played an essential role in enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen years into the FPLC and using them to participate actively in hostilities.

Mr. NTAGANDA is the second person charged in connection with the OTP investigation into crimes allegedly committed by leaders of the FPLC armed group in the District of Ituri. The first suspect in this investigation, Mr. Thomas LUBANGA DYILO, President of the UPC (“Union des Patriotes Congolais”) and former Commander-in-chief of its military wing, the FPLC, was surrendered to the Court on 17 March 2006. He will be the first person to stand trial at the ICC, which is scheduled to start on 23 June 2008.

Bosco NTAGANDA is at large and allegedly continues to be implicated in the commission of crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is reported to have moved from the District of Ituri to the Province of North Kivu, into the Masisi area, where he has reportedly taken the position of Chief of Staff within the political-military group CNDP. The CNDP is a group under the command of Laurent NKUNDA. 

The CNDP is one of the groups against which there are credible reports of serious crimes committed in the two Kivu provinces- including sexual crimes of unspeakable cruelty - as well as the FDLR forces, local armed groups and individual members of the regular army.

The Office of the Prosecutor is in the process of moving on to its third case in the DRC, with other applications for arrest warrants to follow in the coming months and years. In particular, we are collecting information about crimes committed in the North and South Kivu. We are also considering the role of those who organized and financed the militia.

“Bosco NTAGANDA committed crimes in Ituri; he is today in the Kivus. He must be arrested. Like all the other indicted criminals in Uganda and in the Sudan, he must be stopped if we want to break the system of violence. For such criminals, there must be no escape. Then peace will have a chance. Then victims will have hope” said the Prosecutor.

Today, it is for the relevant authorities in the DRC, and other countries as appropriate, with the support of the international community, to arrest him and facilitate his surrender to the ICC.

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For more information, please contact:

Florence Olara
OTP Public Information Co-ordinator
+31 (0) 70 515 8723 (office)                                      
+31 (0) 6 5029 4476 (mobile)
florence.olara@icc-cpi.int

Source: Office of the Prosecutor