Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have convicted two men of leading Christian-dominated militias in attacks on Muslims in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2013 and 2014, on Thursday, and sentenced them to up to 15 years in prison.
After more than four years of procedures before Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, the verdict in the trial of two anti-balaka militia leaders from the Central African Republic has been delivered.
Alfred Yekatom has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, and his co-accused, Patrice-Édouard Ngaïssona, to 12 years.
Disappointed expectations
These sentences fall far short of those requested by the civil parties, who had hoped for a 30-year sentence, the maximum.
The broadcast of the verdict was followed live on a giant screen by the victims in the courtroom of the ICC office in Bangui, as RFI correspondent reported.
Euphrasie Nanette Yandoka, coordinator of ANAF, an association that supports the victims, told RFI he has mixed feelings about the decision.
"I'm happy because Alfred Yekatom was sentenced to 15 years and Patrice Edouard Ngaïssona to 12 years. Normally, for us victims, 12 and 15 years isn't a lot. We expected 30 years for both."
A witness named Rabiatou said she was raped and her home looted in December 2013, when anti-balaka militiamen attacked the town of Boda in the southwest of the country. "Since then, I've felt stigmatised; I'm called the rebels' wife. I saw the militiamen take all our belongings, forcing my family into eight years of exile," she told RFI.
Most of the refugees are now returning to the Central African Republic, with the gradual restoration of peace. According to Euphrasie Nanette Yandoka, however, victims are looking for help.
"What we are asking for is reparations," she told RFI. "Indirect or direct reparations. We can build a vocational training centre or a shelter for the victims. We are also asking for the construction of a museum that retraces the victims' history, financial reparations, and a monument that can represent the victims in the CAR."
Potential appeal
Ngaïssona, Yekatom and their supporters are unhappy as well.
The defence now has 30 days to appeal the decision.
Judges said Ngaissona, a former football executive, and militia commander Yekatom helped to lead a campaign of violence against Muslim civilians and convicted them of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, forcible transfer and persecution of Muslim civilians.
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Judges ruled Ngaissona was a long-time leader of the mostly Christian militia forces known as "anti-Balaka".
Yekatom, nicknamed "Rambo", commanded some 3,000 militia members and praised members of his militia who committed atrocities, the court found. He received a 15-year prison sentence.
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According to Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, this is a very important step for the Central African Republic, for the ICC, and for justice.
"It sends a very strong message", he told RFI, to those still in the bush, the two convicts being among the main rebel leaders.
The anti-Balaka militia took up arms in 2013 in response to months of looting and killing by mostly Muslim Seleka rebels who had seized power in March the same year.
Both men pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in 2021.
The ICC has been investigating the violence in the Central African Republic since May 2014.
A trial of one Seleka leader is also under way at the ICC.
(with Reuters)
