ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of FDLR’s Mudacumura

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said he is seeking arrest warrants for Sylvestre Mudacumura, the supreme commander of a Rwandan terrorist group, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said he is seeking arrest warrants for Sylvestre Mudacumura, the supreme commander of a Rwandan terrorist group, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

FDLR is a DRC-based militia mainly composed of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, which claimed the lives of at least a million people.The warlord is charged with five counts of crimes against humanity and nine counts of war crimes committed between 2009 and 2010 in DRC’s North and South Kivu provinces.

The charges include attacks against civilians, murder, mutilation, rape, torture, and destruction of property.

The eastern DRC has been plagued by armed conflict and violence since the end of Congolese civil war in 2003, resulting in the death of thousands of civilians.

Thousands others have fled across the border to Rwandan or Uganda. The region is home to many militia groups, local and foreign, with FDLR one of the most notorious.

 "We are pretty confident on our evidence,” says Ocampo. "But the main issue will be if this request could contribute to establish peace and security in the Great Lakes region.”

Ocampo said he would not try Mudacumura in absentia because "the point