Congo ex-militia leader held

A former Congolese militia leader and army general accused of masterminding the massacre of 200 villagers was taken into custody Thursday at the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Germain Katanga was the commander of the Patriotic Resistance Force in the lawless Ituri region of northeastern Congo when his fighters went on a rampage in Bogoro village in February 2003, prosecutors at the war crimes tribunal have said.

According to evidence presented to the court, Katanga’s fighters not only killed 200 civilians, but also raped women and girls before forcing them into sexual slavery, conscripted children to use as soldiers, and imprisoned villagers in a room full of corpses.

Judges at the Hague-based court said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Bogoro incident was part of a systematic attack on members of the Hema ethnic group in Ituri carried out by Katanga’s militia and an allied group in early 2003.

Witnesses have also accused ethnic Lendu fighters in Katanga’s militia of eating the hearts and livers of the dead.