Wednesday, 13 April 2011- The next defense witness to take the stand is Mr. Pierre Lungi, the former Personal Secretary of Commander Bosco Ntaganda, who at the time was the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), the armed wing of the group presided over by Thomas Lubanga. Today, Ntaganda is sought by the International Criminal Court, accused of committing the same crime as Mr. Lubanga - conscripting, enlisting, and using children under the age of 15 in hostilities during 2002 and 2003. Bosco Ntaganda remains at large as the Chief of Staff of the Congrès National pour la Défense du People (CNDP), an armed group active in Congo's North Kivu province.
Mr. Lungi testified publicly from DRC via video conference. Before he became a teacher at the Lopa Institute in Bule - a town located 110km to the Northeast of Bunia -, the witness served as a soldier in the Congolese Popular Army (APC), the military force of the the Congolese Rally for Democracy - Liberation Movement (RCD-K-ML), the rebel group that controlled Ituri from 1999 to 2002. But, as the witness explained, in 2002 attacks began to intensify against the Hema population, and the soldiers of this ethnic group were subjected to discrimination and "inhuman treatment" in the APC. As a result many Hema fighters decided to quit the APC and return to their villages. "Others tried to join distinct armed groups to defend the Hema community which was threatened," said the witness.
Mr. Lungi was amongst the soldiers who decided to team up with the Hema self-defense forces. He chose to go to Mandro, situated 15km East of Bunia where a military camp had been created by Commander Kahwa Panga, who later on became Deputy National Secretary for Defence in the FPLC. "At the beginning we simply had a force of 30 soldiers who had left the APC. Commander Bosco was also in the camp," explained the witness.
Once the APC was chased out from Bunia by the UPC on the 9th of August 2002, the Hema soldiers trained in Mandro left the military camp and went to the provincial capital. "There were some arrangements between the commanders in Mandro and the UPC, so we could go to Bunia," explained the witness. "[At that point in time] our group became the military force of the UPC." In September 2002, the UPC turned into political and military movement under the name of Union of Congolese Patriots/ Reconciliation and Peace. As previous witnesses explained, the APC mutineers, after their military victory in Bunia, decided to trust the leadership of Thomas Lubanga and give the UCP control over the territory. The mutineers also held relevant positions within the recently created UPC's military wing: Floribert Kisembo and Bosco Ntaganda were designated Chief of Military Staff and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC). The witness then became Bosco Ntaganda's Personal Secretary, a role that he hold until 2003.
The Prosecution used the witness' position as Private Secretary of Bosco Ntaganda to corner him. In the view of Prosecutor Manoj Sachdeva, the witness should be familiar with the manner in which documents were filed at the Main Staff Office. So Mr. Lungi was shown a document drafted under the order of the General Chief of Staff, Floribert Kisembo, and signed by the Operations Unit. The letter, dated October 2002, was sent to all commanders in the FPLC ordering the demobilization of child soldiers in their ranks. Mr. Sachdeva indicated that there was a gap in reference numbers relative to the FPLC filing system, and asked the witness to provide an explanation. "If i suggest this document is an invalid document, what would you said, Mr. Witness? asked Sachdeva. In the prosecution's view, the UPC deliberately produced false documents to appease the international community, which was then complaining about the use of child soldiers by the FPLC. As Mr. Sachdeva stated, the demobilization orders of child soldiers were never implemented and in fact, children were rearmed and used in conflict. The witness denied the allegations. "If the document was falsely created, I cannot confirm that. [But] to say that it is a bit strong."
The Prosecution insisted on the fact that, while the UPC attempted to satisfy the international community by issuing demobilization orders, Eric Mbasi, the UPC official responsible for relations between soldiers and the civilian population, was actively calling for the recruitment of children in the army.
Mr. Sachdeva also suggested that, contrary to what the witness said, Thomas Lubanga exerted some kind of control over the self-defense groups, in which, as the witness said, the presence of children aged 16 to 18 was a fact. As the prosecution submitted, otherwise the UPC could have not been able to ask the self-defense forces - which were not supposedly under his control - to demobilize child soldiers. The witness rejected these accusations and also denied the presence of children under the age of 15 in those self-defense groups and in the FPLC.
