Thursday, 18 March 2010 - Prosecution Witness 15: "OTP Intermediaries wanted to mock the Hema ethnic group"
Prosecution Witness 15 adds other ingredients to the question of the intermediaries. In the witness´s view, the individuals that cooperated with the Office of the Prosecutor and unduly influenced witnesses to tell lies had a clear motivation: mocking the Hema ethnic group.
Witness 15 reappeared yesterday in court after his testimony was unexpectedly halted in June 2009 when he said he had lied to the ICC investigators. Yesterday, he just insisted on what he had previously said, that a third person had encouraged him to fabricate lies.
"He told me I had to tell the investigators what I read in a document he drafted, according to the plan we made. I had to tell the investigators things that he and I agreed on in that hotel room," says the witness to Counsel Marc Desalliers. Today the Lubanga Defence team cross-examines Witness 15.
Each morning before the interview with the investigators, Witness 15 met the intermediary. If a complicated question was put to him, the youngster had to pretend he wasn´t able to read or he did not understand what they were saying. As explained by the witness, that was the plan. "The intermediary knew what I was doing; for me it was a matter of making false accusations," he says.
Witness 15 told the investigators that he had been a soldier in the UPC between 2002 and 2003, the indictment period. "He invented a rank for me. He gave me a title. For him, I was a soldier. He gave me an identity document, so people would believe I was a soldier. It was the rank of captain," he explains. The document was a diploma that the intermediary had manipulated and that the witness used as proof of identity to get into the ICC Witness Protection Program.
Witness 15 claims he just followed the intermediary´s guidelines. If this individual said he had to lie, he would lie. But why did the intermediary have to concoct lies? Was there a motivation besides monetary gain? Witness 15 gives a clue: "The motive was to have people arrested. I think the money was his second motivation. It is my own opinion. [...] He brought false accusations against the Hema [ethnic group]. [...] His motivation was to mock a particular ethnic group. In Congo there are tribal problems everywhere; at that moment, the UPC controlled Ituri and that shocked certain Iturian intellectuals. So when the ICC intervened they found the way to get in touch with the [court]. They distorted the reality saying: ´listen it was you who committed the massacres.' For me it was a way of mocking." The war broke out in Ituri in 1999 when two ethnic groups, the Hema and the Lendu, started fighting one another and crimes against civilians occurred on a massive scale.
Another episode marked his status as a witness. In 2006, the Witness requested to see a lawyer. He wanted to give certain explanations to the investigators. "They thought I wanted to see a lawyer because I didn´t want to go to the place they wanted to relocate me to," he says. Under the ICC Protection Program, Witness 15 was entitled to be relocated for security concerns.
"When I arrived here at The Hague they wanted me to discuss with the investigator over the phone." But the witness wanted a face to face meeting. "I told the investigator I needed a lawyer. But he said ´you are not a suspect so you don't need a lawyer,'" explains the witness. "I felt myself in a situation of insecurity."
According to the witness, he made the same request before the trial started. He insisted once again that he needed a lawyer but the head of the Victims and Witness Unit "responded very insolently." The witness states he was told if he wanted a lawyer he had to get one by himself. "I was isolated; I had not money. [...] They did not treat me with so much consideration. That was the situation from 2006 to 2009."
"Do you know other persons that told lies to the OTP?" asks Mr. Desalliers. "I refused to answer this question last year; I had a worry. I thought I would be put in prison," replies the witness. "[Now] if I say the truth it helps all the parties: [yes], I know people. I know children involved."
Witness 15 continues his testimony on Monday.
Produced in partnership with 3 Generations
