FIELD NOTE PART 1: A KNOWLEDGEABLE COMMANDER INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT V. BEMBA The Basics FILMING Tribunal: International Criminal Court (ICC) What Crimes: Murder as a war crime and crimes against humanity, rape as a war crime and crimes against humanity, pillaging as a war crime Who: Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo How: Command responsibility Backstory In October of 2002, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo’s personal army, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), allegedly crossed the border from their stronghold in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into neighboring Central African Republic (CAR) to help then President Ange-Felix Patasse put down a coup attempt. FROM AN EXPERT “Different from a single rapist, Bemba’s weapon was not a gun; it was his army.” ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Opening Statement, ICC v. Bemba TRIAL STATUS Bemba stands accused of leading a devastating and widespread campaign of rape, murder and pillaging in CAR, with rape being the primary method used to terrorize civilians. According to prosecutors at the ICC, Bemba’s army raped women and girls in front of their families, as well as raped men and important elders to publicly humiliate them. As of November 2015, the verdict in Bemba’s Case had not been issued by the International Criminal Court. For continuous updates on the trial go to: ijmonitor. org/category/ jean-pierre-bembagombo/summary/. Bemba claimed that the troops were not under his effective command (Element 1) and dismissed the reports of criminal activity by his troops as “untrue”. We will not address the evidence prosecutors submitted to prove he had effective command here. Instead, we go directly to the evidence prosecutors submitted to prove that he knew his troops were committing crimes (Element 2). Let’s look at some of the “notice evidence” prosecutors assembled in their attempt to prove that Bemba was well aware that MLC troops were, in fact, committing crimes. 125 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: PROVING RESPONSIBILITY V 1.0