First day of trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona and Alfred Yekatom.

These two former Central African militia leaders on Tuesday, February 16, rejected the charges against them of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

Patrice-Édouard Ngaïssona, former Central African Minister of Sports, and Alfred Yekatom, nicknamed "Rambo", are on trial for alleged crimes committed in the Central African Republic during the civil war between 2013 and 2014. 

Ngaïssona and Yekatom, detained by the ICC respectively since January 2019 and November 2018, are notably accused of "murder, rape, torture, forcible transfer of population, persecution and other inhumane acts". 

"I do not recognize myself in the charges against me, I am not guilty," Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona, 53, told The Hague court.                  

Evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt”  

Alfred Yekatom, 46, gave a similar response, saying "these charges are incorrect". 

The Hague-based court determined in December 2019 that there was enough evidence to open a trial against the two former anti-balaka militia leaders, whose cases were joined. 

The opening of the trial takes place against a backdrop of persistent unrest in the Central African Republic, where six of the 14 armed groups that control two thirds of the country launched an offensive against the regime of President Faustin Archange Touadéra in mid-December. 

The Central African Republic has been plunged into an endless civil war since a predominantly Muslim rebel coalition, the Seleka, overthrew then-president François Bozizé in 2013, leading to the creation of armed Christian groups known as anti-militias. -balaka, and who then said they had taken up arms to put an end to the abuses of Muslim armed groups. 

"This day is important for justice," prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye told the court. 

"The evidence in this case will establish the criminal responsibility of Ngaissona and Yekatom beyond a reasonable doubt," he added. 

According to him, the crimes with which they are accused are of such a "scale that they transgress the very nature of our humanity."                  

“An important step for justice” 

Ngaïssona, would have been "the highest leader" of the anti-balaka, according to the ICC.

He was arrested in France in December 2018 before being transferred to The Hague.  

He was at the time president of the Central African Football Federation and a member of the executive committee of the African Football Confederation (CAF).

In 2019, Fifa banned him "from any football-related activity" for more than six years. 

Ngaïssona knew that the militia "would inevitably target the civilian Muslim population in the western part of the Central African Republic," said prosecutor Kweku Vanderpuye. 

 Yekatom, a deputy, was the first suspect to be handed over to the ICC as part of his investigation into the Central African Republic, which opened in 2014. Still a member of the Central African parliament, he is currently being replaced by a deputy.

He "allegedly commanded a group of around 3,000" anti-balaka fighters, according to the court. 

Yekatom "urged them to carry out the crimes committed as part of the widespread anti-balaka attack," Kweku Vanderpuye said. 

The opening of the trial "is an important step for the justice of victims of brutal crimes committed in the latest conflict in the Central African Republic," said in a statement Elise Keppler, deputy director of the international justice section at the NGO Human Rights Watch , on the sidelines of the hearing. 

During a confirmation of charges hearing in September 2019, an ICC prosecutor accused the two men of having been involved in a "campaign of violence and terror" against civilians in the Central African Republic. 

From their former functions - Minister of Sports for one and leader of armed groups for the other - Ngaïssona and Yekatom knew that the militias under their control "were destroying mosques, decimating communities, deporting Muslims, committing murders and raped women and children, "the prosecution had hammered out. 

Another Central African suspect, Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, alleged leader of the Seleka, was handed over to the ICC by authorities in Bangui at the end of January, also on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

The first round of hearings in this trial are scheduled to take place until Friday. 

With AFP 

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