The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | A former Central African militia leader Alfred Yekatom, also known as “Colonel Rambo” will face international war crimes judges for the first time Friday, the International Criminal Court said.
“The initial appearance of Alfred Yekatom… is scheduled for Friday, November 23, at 11 am local time,” the Hague-based court said in a statement issued Tuesday.
At Friday’s hearing, judges will “verify the identity of the suspect and the language in which he is able to follow the proceedings.”
“He will be informed of the charges against him,” the ICC added.
Yekatom arrived at the ICC’s detention unit over the weekend after being extradited from the Central African Republic where he is suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and recruiting child soldiers.
He is accused of leading a group of some 3,000 so-called anti-Balaka militias responsible for attacks on Muslims in the volatile country between December 2013 and August 2014.
Yekatom, who has been an elected MP since 2016, was arrested in October after he drew his gun and fired into the air in the CAR parliament during an altercation.
His transfer is the first since the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a probe in 2014 on crimes committed in fighting between Christian and Muslim groups.
One of the world’s poorest nations despite a rich supply of diamonds and uranium, the 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 a local machete.
The deadly violence so far has seen thousands killed and more than a quarter of the country’s population fleeing their homes, according to UN figures published this year.
Initial appearance of Alfred #Yekatom before the #ICC scheduled for 23 November 2018. More info: https://t.co/IvCeHfFt3E
— Int’l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) November 20, 2018
Why cant these people understand that a person must be tried under the jurisdiction within which he committed the crime. ICC was designed to treat us Africans like children. We have courts and judiciary systems. Why do we go to the ICC? It is wrong. We need to use our own systems. We may import judges to preside over some cases but they do so using our laws and systems of justice.