Gender Report Card on the International Criminal ... - YWCA Canada

Trial Proceedings
during the attack on Kasenyi, and that they
never returned. 1321 The witness explained that
during one of the consultation meetings for
armed groups, at which both the witness and
Ngudjolo were present, when the witness asked
about these women, several leaders confirmed
that ‘whatever the case may be, they’re already
married, some of them already have children’. 1322
In addition, the witness stated that one of the
leaders, Lobo Justin, had said to him ‘in view
of the fact that the Hemas do not like to give
us their daughters, well, then we had to serve
ourselves’. 1323 Witness 12 also testified that
something similar happened at Lac Albert, where
Colonel Lugubamba abducted women and used
them as sexual slaves. 1324 Witness 12 added: ‘We
call them sexual slaves, when you go and abduct
women and you use them against their will.’ 1325
He confirmed that these women were abducted
for the purpose of being sexual slaves. 1326
Witness 219 also testified that women were
forced into marriage; he specifically mentioned
two women who had been forcibly married to
Ngiti soldiers. 1327 He did not know with certainty
of what ethnicity these women were. Witness
219 also testified about a system called gilet,
which involved the mutilation and killing of men
and women and which was put into practice
during the attack on the school in Bogoro. 1328 The
witness testified that ‘no woman survived’ the
attack on the school and that ‘those parts of the
women were cut off … [n]o woman could stay
alive beyond a period of 45 minutes there’. 1329
He mentioned in particular a soldier named
Akufaka ‘who was moving about and wearing a
woman’s genitalia on his wrist like a bracelet’. 1330
1321 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-196-Red-ENG, p 33 lines 5-8.
1322 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-196-Red-ENG, p 33 lines 15-17.
1323 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-196-Red-ENG, p 33 lines 22-24.
1324 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-196-Red-ENG, p 34 lines 3-23.
1325 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-196-Red-ENG, p 34 lines 5-7.
1326 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-196-Red-ENG, p 34 lines 19-23.
1327 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-206-Red-ENG, p 43 lines 4-23.
1328 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-206-Red-ENG, p 17 lines 14-21.
1329 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-206-Red-ENG, p 17 lines 14-15, 19-21.
1330 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-206-Red-ENG, p 17 lines 16-17.
The witness explained that under this so-called
gilet system, ‘the genitalia of the women were
cut off. Even the men’s sexual organs were cut
off.’ 1331 He added that it could also involve cutting
someone’s head off, or opening his chest ‘as if
one was opening a Bible to read it’. 1332 Mutilation
was not included in the charges against Katanga
& Ngudjolo.
As described in the <strong>Gender</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> 2010, two
Prosecution witnesses, Witness 279 and Witness
280, testified about the use of ‘fetishes’ in
warfare and alluded to the conditions involved
in such use, one of which is the rule that soldiers
must not rape. 1333 During the period covered
by this year’s <strong>Gender</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> a further two
witnesses, one Prosecution witness and one
Defence witness, also spoke about these fetishes
and battle practices.
Witness 28, the 22nd Prosecution witness and
a former FRPI child soldier, stated that female
hostages were taken to the Kagaba camp. 1334 The
witness distinguished between what happened
to women and men during the attack on
Bogoro; women were taken hostage, while men
were killed. 1335 He added that he did not know
whether the women were taken hostage to work
or to become combatants’ wives. 1336 Witness
28 also stated that, because of their fetishist
rituals, ‘we were not supposed to have sexual
relations before we went into battle or during
the battle. That was forbidden. It was contrary to
the use of the rituals or the various fetish items
that we had.’ 1337 He explained that raping a
woman would be breaking a prohibition of these
fetishist rituals. 1338 When asked by Presiding
Judge Cotte whether, under these fetishist
1331 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-206-Red-ENG, p 17 lines 17-19.
1332 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-206-Red-ENG, p 18 lines 4-8.
1333 For a detailed account of their testimony see <strong>Gender</strong>
<strong>Report</strong> <strong>Card</strong> 2010, p 176-177.
1334 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-218-Red-ENG, p 25 lines 1-16.
1335 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-218-Red-ENG, p 25 lines 6-9.
1336 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-218-Red-ENG, p 25 lines 9-10.
1337 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-218-Red-ENG, p 65 lines 20-24.
1338 ICC-01/04-01/07-T-218-Red-ENG, p 65 lines 24-25.
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