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Bogoro Victim Recounts Traumatic Ordeal
Court hears disturbing details of sexual abuse by soldiers during Bogoro attack.
By Anjana Sundaram - International Justice - ICC
ACR Issue 276,
10 Nov 10
A victim told the International Criminal Court, ICC, last week of the terrifying
rape that she suffered on the day that forces, allegedly led by defendants Germ
ain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, attacked the Ituri town of Bogoro.
Testifying with face and voice distortion, witness 353 said she was forced to be
the wife and sexual slave of two soldiers who participated in the attack.
The witness recounted what one soldier told her.
“He said, ‘From now on, you are my wife’, and I thought he wanted to kill me,” the witne
ss said. She added that the soldier then ordered her to go into the bedroom, say
ing, I want your body .”
After being dragged towards the bed by the soldier, the witness said she began t
o cry. She was told by the soldier, “If you want to die, continue crying.” The witne
ss was then undressed and raped by the man. The witness reports that, shortly af
terwards, the second soldier came and raped her again.
The witness, a Hema who said that she claimed Nande ethnicity to escape persecut
ion, told the court that she assumed the attackers were Lendus who were targetin
g the Hema population on the day of the Bogoro attack.
The Lendu and Ngiti groups are allegedly represented by the Patriotic Resistance
Force, FRPI, and National Integrationist Front, FNI, respectively. Conflicts be
tween the Lendu and Ngiti and the Hema reached a peak at the time of the Bogoro
attack on February 24, 2003.
Katanga and Ngudjolo, allegedly the respective leaders of the groups, are charge
d with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including sexual slave
ry and rape.
The witness said on the day of the attack she had been in Bogoro, staying at her
sister’s house.
“Before daybreak, we heard gunshots while we were asleep,” the witness said. “When I h
eard the gunshot, I was frightened. Everyone was afraid.”
The witness added that once day broke and there was more visibility, she left th
e house to assess the situation and briefly recognised the approaching attackers
as Ugandan soldiers carrying bladed weapons, who had camouflaged themselves wit
h leaves.
Upon hearing more commotion, the witness went back into the house and hid. Other
civilians hiding in the house started to pray when the soldiers banged on the e
ntry door.
The witness recounted that the soldiers shouted in Swahili, “The god that you are
praying to is someone you are going to see face-to-face” as they broke down the do
or and started to kill people.
The soldiers continued, “If you are not Hema, you must leave now”, according to the
witness. From the bedroom where the witness was hiding, only three girls were sa
ved after they told the soldiers they were not Hema.
The witness was one of those that was allowed to leave, because she told the sol
diers that she was Nande. Outside, one soldier challenged her, saying that she w
as not a Nande, but a Hema.
Before things escalated, another soldier stopped him and confirmed that the woma
n was a Nande and was to become the wife of two of the soldiers. So, eventually
they dropped their questioning of her ethnicity.
When prosecutor Florence Darques-Lane asked the witness whether she witnessed th
e killings of the other civilians in the house, she replied, “Yes, I saw it with m
y own eyes.”
“They (the soldiers) used machetes to kill them,” the witness said. “But, before killi
ng them, they cut their arms off and told the victim to walk and then cut their
ears off.”
It was during her escort from the house to a different camp that the two soldier
s informed her that she would become their wife. The witness said that the rapes
by the two soldiers happened daily for many months.
After one month of being isolated at a camp allegedly located in Geti, the witne
ss ventured into the village and recognised one of the women who had been taken
with her from Bogoro. They met and lamented about their plight, with the other w
oman suggesting they should try to escape the village.
But the witness told the court that she didn’t believe there was any way to escape
, fearing that they would be killed if they tried.
The trial is continuing this week.
Anjana Sundaram is an IWPR contributor.