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C.Africa ex-militia leader ‘Rambo’ to appear at ICC
THE HAGUE, Nov 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A former militia leader from Central
African Republic known as “Colonel Rambo” will for the first time face judges
in The Hague Friday on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Alfred Yekatom, 43, was arrested late last month in the volatile African
country and extradited on Saturday to the International Criminal Court in the
Netherlands.
Yekatom faces 14 charges for his role in the CAR’s bloody unrest, which has
pitted Christian and Muslim groups against each other since 2013.
An elected MP since 2016, Yekatom was arrested after he drew his gun and
fired into the air in the parliament in Bangui, the capital, during an
altercation late last month.
At Friday’s hearing, scheduled for 1000 GMT, judges will “verify the
identity of the suspect and the language in which he is able to follow the
proceedings,” the ICC said earlier this week.
“He will be informed of the charges against him,” it said in a statement.
The charges include murder, mutilation, torture, cruel treatment and
recruiting child soldiers into his so-called anti-Balaka militia group,
responsible for attacks on Muslims between December 2013 and August 2014,
prosecutors said.
– ‘Violent acts’ –
Yekatom was wanted in particular for leading an attack in Bangui on
December 5, 2013, when his group armed with guns, grenades and machetes,
attacked Muslims in Boeing district, killing between six to 13 civilians.
The group then moved to another location where four Muslims were killed,
prosecutors said.
Yekatom had been in prosecutors’ sights since 2015 for “engaging in or
providing support for acts that undermine the peace, stability or security in
the CAR”, his ICC arrest warrant said.
But it said the shooting incident in parliament showed “that he resorts to
violent acts” and that his arrest was necessary “to prevent him from
committing further crimes within the jurisdiction of the court.”
Yekatom’s transfer is the first since the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou
Bensouda opened a probe in 2014 into the deadly violence that has left
thousands dead and forced more than a quarter of the population out of their
homes, according to UN figures.
One of the world’s poorest nations despite a rich supply of diamonds and
uranium, CAR has struggled to recover from a 2013 civil war that erupted when
President Francois Bozize, a Christian, was overthrown by mainly Muslim
Seleka rebels.
In response, Christians, who account for about 80 percent of the
population, organised vigilante units dubbed “anti-Balaka” in reference to
the balaka machetes used by Seleka rebels.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0938 hrs