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**By APD writer **Aditya Nugraha
THE HAGUE, Nov. 7 (APD)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) handed down here on Thursday a 30 years sentence against Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda over series of crimes he committed during 2002 - 2003 atrocities in Congo.
Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator”, was convincingly proved of committing murder, rape and sexual slavery during the Congo ethnic conflict period.
The sentence passed by Presiding Judge Robert Gremr was seen as the highest ever issued by global court.
In total, Ntaganda was found guilty of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to his role as a Congolese militia commander during the atrocity period.
“Bosco Ntaganda’s 30-year sentence sends a strong message that even people considered untouchable may one day be held to account,” Ida Sawyer, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division said to welcome the verdict.
Ntaganda turning himself in in 2013 after his powerbase fell apart in the country. Before that, he pleaded innocent in some seven years after the global court indicted him guilty.
Judges at his trial said he was guilty as a direct perpetrator or a co-perpetrator of a string of crimes including murders, rapes of men and women, a massacre in a banana field behind a building called The Paradiso and of enlisting and using child soldiers.
Child soldiers also were raped by Ntaganda’s troops and forced into sexual slavery, leaving them with lasting physical and psychological scars. Ntaganda himself used child soldiers as bodyguards.
Ntaganda was the deputy chief of staff and commander of operations for rebel group the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo.
The force’s leader, Thomas Lubanga, was convicted by the ICC in 2012 of using child soldiers. He is serving a 14-year prison sentence.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
