Judes Mbetingou said the footage consisting of interviews Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalist Gabriel Kahn conducted with residents of Sibut town was “staged.”

Since he started giving evidence in the trial last Thursday, Mr. Mbetingou has stated that Mr. Bemba’s Congolese soldiers “wreaked havoc everywhere” during their two-week stay in Sibut. He recalled that residents of this Central African Republic (CAR) town, including figures of authority, fled to the bush following the arrival of the accused’s fighters on February 24, 2003.

Among those who fled was the town’s mayor, who Mr. Mbetingou said stayed in the bush for “several weeks” until François Bozizé toppled the regime of president Ange-Félix Patassé in March 2003.

In the video footage screened in court today, the mayor was shown in an interview with Mr. Kahn, in which he stated that he had fled his home in October 2002 for over three months following the arrival of Mr. Bozizé’s rebel forces. The mayor added that the rebels had driven residents out of their homes and into the bush to “live like animals.”

“We lived on cassava leaves and what have you, like indigenous people. They [rebels] were seeking to arrest me and all figures of authority. They wanted our heads,” the mayor stated in the video.

The mayor recounted numerous verbal complaints he had received from civilians of looting and rape committed by the Bozizé rebels. The mayor then thanked the Patassé loyalist forces, including the MLC, for liberating Sibut and allowing him and other residents of the town to go back to “normal life.” He suggested that the MLC soldiers should stay on in the town until its residents were fully safe.

“Do you recognize the man in the tape?” asked defense lawyer Peter Haynes.

“That is the assistant to the mayor,” replied Mr. Mbetingou, who is also known in the trial as Victim a/1317/10.

“I suggest to you that this is the mayor [of Sibut] and he had just come back into town two days after the Banyamulenge [Congolese soldiers] arrived,” said Mr. Haynes.

“This person, I do not know him. I do not understand this film. It was staged,” responded the victim.

Mr. Bemba stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from his alleged failure to control his troops who reportedly murdered, raped, and pillaged while they were deployed in the CAR armed conflict. The Congolese forces were in the neighboring country to assist Mr. Patassé fight off a coup attempt led by Mr. Bozizé. International Criminal Court prosecutors charge that the MLC’s progression in the country was marked by widespread crimes against civilians.

In another video shown in court, a resident of Sibut stated that the Bozizé rebels had killed many of his kin. He expressed gratitude to Mr. Bemba’s soldiers for liberating them from the Bozizé rebels’ four months occupation of the town.

Asked by Mr. Haynes if he recognized the resident as someone from Sibut, Mr. Mbetingou responded that the video did not “reflect the reality.” He said, “The entire video has a political stance to it, so I really doubt all these remarks are truthful.”

Mr. Haynes then put it to the victim that as stated by the individuals in the video, Mr. Bozizé’s rebels indeed occupied Sibut from October 2002 until February 2003, and committed crimes in the town.

“Those people were lying. Any right-thinking, normal person would not have made such statements,” responded the victim. “If Bozizé’s rebels had committed acts of violence, I would have told you so.”

The end of Mr. Mbetingou’s evidence brings to an end the testimony of the two victims granted leave to give oral testimony. Three other victims will present their views and concerns by means yet to be determined by judges. The victims’ lawyers and the prosecution have suggested that these victims could testify via video link.

Before court adjourned this afternoon, presiding Judge Sylvia Steiner announced that the “next procedural steps in the proceedings” would be communicated in due course.

Judes Mbetingou, a victim who was testifying for the third day in Mr. Bemba’s trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), was responding to questions by the defense, who wanted to know whether the Bozizé rebels bore any blame for the crimes committed in Sibut.

“They [rebels] could be criticized because they took weapons from Sibut police station,” he said in response to questioning by defense lawyer Peter Haynes. However, he added that the rebels did not harm anyone.

Although he is testifying without protective measures, most of the evidence by Mr. Mbetingou was today heard in closed session. Last Thursday, he described indiscriminate pillaging by Mr. Bemba’s Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) fighters upon their arrival in Sibut on February 24, 2003.

In denying the charges against him, Mr. Bemba argues that any of the numerous armed groups active in the 2002-2003 armed conflict could have committed the crimes he has been charged with.

Several prosecution witnesses have testified about the brutal crimes committed in Sibut, purportedly by the accused’s fighters. However, last June the prosecution’s ‘Witness 209′ testified that Mr. Bozizé’s rebels plundered government property in Sibut. This witness stated that the rebels pillaged other towns including Damara and “all along the road all the way to Chad.”

Joseph Mokondoui, a former officer in the CAR army, also incriminated the rebel forces in rapes and murders in various towns on their match to capture the capital Bangui. Testifying last October, Mr. Mokondoui said that the towns of Sidhu, Bambari, Bossangoa, Bozoum, Bossembélé, Boali, and Sibut were some of the areas where the Bozizé rebels committed atrocities after they dislodged the national army.

Mr. Bemba is on trial for allegedly failing to control his MLC soldiers who prosecutors say raped, murdered, and pillaged during their deployment in the neighboring country to support its then president Ange-Félix Patassé fight off a rebellion led by Mr. Bozizé.

The defense last August presented video footage taken by a Radio France Internationale (RFI) journalist showing residents of Sibut, including the mayor and local vicar, describing Mr. Bemba’s Congolese troops as “liberators” who had freed them from the brutalities of the Bozizé rebels.

The trial continues to hear Mr. Mbetingou’s testimony tomorrow morning.

The victim, who was testifying for the second day, said the visit took place in March 2003. He said the accused arrived by helicopter at a football field in Sibut near a hospital on the road to Begua town.

“When he arrived he first went to the [military] base then the market. He walked slowly whilst waving to the people,” recalled the victim. “Thereafter he went to the market to purchase pancakes. The woman wanted to give him change but he refused it.”

Whereas residents tried to get close to where Mr. Bemba was, they were stopped by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) troops that were in control of the town at the time. Mr. Mbetingou did not state whether he knew the purpose of the visit, or whether there were any meetings between the visiting militia leader and residents of the besieged town.

International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors charge that Mr. Bemba’s soldiers brutalized civilians in Sibut and other towns in the CAR during 2002 and 2003. At the time, the Congolese soldiers were among the armed forces active in the neighboring country’s armed conflict. Although Mr. Bemba was not personally in the conflict country, as commander-in-chief of the group he is being tried for failing to rein in his troops who allegedly committed the rapes, killings and pillaging. He has denied the charges.

Prosecutors contend that Mr. Bemba was aware of the crimes his soldiers were committing because he maintained regular communication with his commanders on the frontline. They also charge that he made visits to the conflict country during which residents informed him of the crimes his troops were committing.

Meanwhile today, Mr. Mbetingou told the trial that some husbands in Sibut were “punished” by the MLC fighters after their wives reported them to the Congolese troops.

“Women would go and complain to the Banyamulenge [Congolese soldiers] about their husbands so that they would be beaten up,” he said.

As a result of the “bad lashing” meted out to the husbands, the women got “frightened” and stopped making complaints to the MLC. He said he was aware of three cases of husbands being lashed.

Asked by victims’ lawyer Marie-Edith Douzima-Lawson whether witnessing such acts made him afraid, he replied in the affirmative: “How could I not be afraid? How can one not be afraid of cannibals?”

Mr. Mbetingou is the second victim to testify in the Bemba trial. He has recounted widespread looting and rape by the MLC upon their arrival in Sibut on February 24, 2003. He stated that in some cases, looted goods were sold back to the owners. He also said the Congolese troops drunk a lot of alcohol, smoked cannabis, and were “accountable to no one.”

When the MLC ended their two-week occupation of Sibut, the town was occupied by the country’s armed forces known as the Forces Armées Centrafricaines (FACA). He said before the arrival of Mr. Bemba’s troops and after their departure, his town suffered no atrocities.

The trial, which started in November 2010, is being heard by Judges Sylvia Steiner (presiding), Joyce Aluoch, and Kuniko Ozaki.

Mr. Mbetingou’s testimony continues next Monday morning.

Stating that the residents of the town “will never forget what they were subjected to,” Mr. Mbetingou told the trial that Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) troops arrived in Sibut on February 24, 2003, at 1:00p.m.

Upon arrival, the Congolese soldiers proceeded to indiscriminately loot the possessions from the town’s inhabitants. “They wreaked havoc everywhere,” recalled Mr. Mbetingou, whose property was also grabbed by the rampaging soldiers.

“Besides looting of possessions of inhabitants, are you aware of anything else the Banyamulenge [Congolese soldiers] did in Sibut?” asked the victim’s lawyer, Marie-Edith Douzima-Lawson.

“There were several cases of rape of girls of 10 years of age,” he replied. He said one woman would be raped by up to 20 soldiers, and some of the women who were assaulted died as a result. However, he was unable to state the number of women subjected to the assaults.

“The girls were ashamed to state that they had been raped by the Banyamulenge. They were afraid of being stigmatized,” he explained. He said he became aware of these incidents when he saw girls running around naked.

Mr. Mbetingou said Mr. Bemba’s soldiers claimed they had been sent to “liberate” the town from rebel forces led by François Bozizé, who were believed to be based there. He said the rebels were no longer in Sibut when the MLC arrived, and their arrival simply brought “panic to the town.”

Sibut is one of the Central African towns in which prosecutors charge that the MLC fighters, without proper military training and unaware of their group’s code of conduct, brutalized civilians during that country’s 2002-2003 armed conflict. At the time, rebel forces led by the country’s current president, Mr. Bozizé, were fighting the regime of then president Ange-Félix Patassé.

Mr. Patassé invited the Congolese troops to reinforce his loyalist forces. Mr. Bemba has been on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) court since November 2010 and denies the five charges against him, which stem from his alleged failure to stop or to punish his soldiers who prosecutors claim carried out rapes, killings, and pillaging.

Meanwhile, earlier today, Pulchérie Makiandakama, the first victim to take the witness stand in the trial, completed giving testimony. Ms. Makiandakama, whose testimony started on Tuesday, has told the court that she was twice gang-raped by soldiers belonging to the accused’s militia. She described pillaging and murder in the Mongoumba locality. Mr. Bemba’s defense has highlighted numerous inconsistencies between her in-court testimony and her statements recorded by court officials in 2010.

Mr. Mbetingou continues to testify tomorrow morning.

The defense today questioned the victim about discrepancies between her in-court accounts of rape, murder, and pillaging by members of the armed wing of the Mr. Bemba’s group and statements recorded by International Criminal Court (ICC) officials in 2010.

Pulchérie Makiandakama, also known as Victim a/0866/10, started giving evidence in the Bemba trial yesterday. She recounted the arrival of Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) troops in her hometown on March 5, 2003. The Congolese soldiers forcefully took her as an interpreter as they advanced on the town, then twice gang-raped her in the vicinity of a military camp in the Central African Republic (CAR).

However, in the victim’s statement recorded by ICC officials in April 2010 and read out by defense lawyer Peter Haynes in court this afternoon, Ms. Makiandakama makes no mention of the rape and is quoted as saying that she was taken into a house by the Congolese soldiers. She also states that outside the house, there were exchanges of gunfire and she lost consciousness when a bullet was fired close to her.

“I didn’t say that. When I was taken they didn’t keep me inside a house. I lost consciousness when they started abusing and brutalizing me,” Ms. Makiandakama responded today. She added that the interpreter did not get her remarks correctly.

Mr. Haynes then asked her why in the same 2010 statement to court officials she did not mention any looting or murders. The victim again attributed the discrepancy between her statement and in-court testimony to translation errors.

“If I could express myself in French, then I am sure she [the ICC official] would have written it down properly,” she replied. “The problem is, I did not understand the language she spoke, and she didn’t understand the language I spoke.”

Yesterday, Ms. Makiandakama described pillaging and murders allegedly carried out by the Congolese fighters at a church, hospital, mayor’s compound, and two civilians’ residences.

Also today, Mr. Haynes questioned the victim about the identity of the perpetrators of crimes in her town. It is the victim’s testimony that there were no Congolese soldiers in Mongoumba before March 5, 2003 and that the first question the unruly troops put to her was to show them the border between Mongoumba and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Furthermore, she said they threatened to kill her because “she would betray them to loyalist forces.”

Asked by Mr. Haynes why anybody from the DRC would ask to be shown the border that they had crossed previously and use the term ‘loyalists’ to refer to opposing forces, she responded that she did not know why the soldiers used those “expressions.” Mongoumba is a port town on the Oubangui River which separates Congo from the CAR.

Mr. Bemba has denied that he had effective command over his armed group but failed to punish or control his rampaging troops deployed in the neighboring country during 2002-2003. His troops were in the country to assist forces loyal to then president Ange-Félix Patassé beat back a rebellion. Mr. Bemba argues that once his troops crossed into the neighboring country, they fell under the direct command of Central African authorities. It is also the accused’s defense that any of the other armed forces active in the Central African conflict at the time, including Chadian and Libyan nationals, as well as the national military and ethnic militia, could have committed the alleged crimes.

The defense continues to question Ms. Makiandakama tomorrow morning.

Going by the pseudonym Victim a/0866/10, she testified in full public view without protective measures. However, following a recommendation by the court’s Victims and Witnesses Unit (VWU), she testified with the help of an in-court support assistant and a psychologist was present to monitor her.

She said two soldiers raped her outside a Central African Republic (CAR) military camp. One of the soldiers purportedly threatened her with a broken bottle while the others – about 20 in number – “were watching the show”. She said, “Some of them were shouting with joy while others were firing in the air.”

On a second occasion on the same day, an estimated 12 soldiers assaulted her. “They slept with me in the anus, vagina, and mouth,” she said. She vomited and lost consciousness during the ordeal. Among her attackers was an individual named Kovo, who appeared to be the commander of the group.

Asked by her lawyer Marie-Edith Douzima-Lawson why she decided to take part in the proceedings, the witness said that it was an opportunity to tell the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the whole world what she had suffered.

“I was treated like an animal, and I cannot live normally. I was a woman with dignity, but I lost my dignity. I suffered inhuman treatment,” she said.

As a result, she has been stigmatized by her community. She is referred to as a wife of Banyamulenge [Congolese soldiers] and “sometimes people spit on me.”

She said troops belonging to Mr. Bemba’s militia arrived in Mongoumba town on the morning of March 5, 2003. Residents fled their homes and some of them, including the victim, took refuge at a hospital and hid under beds. Cries from a baby alerted a group of armed soldiers about the hiding place. The soldiers then lined up all the people in the hospital and took money and other goods from them.

“They took everything, all our personal items. They did not spare anything,” she said.

Asked by Ms. Douzima-Lawson what language the soldiers spoke and how she was able to recognize it, the witness replied that they spoke Lingala, a dialect native to the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The border between the two countries is not far away so I was able to go to the other side [of the border] to do shopping. That is why I knew this language. I understand it.”

Because she spoke to the soldiers in Lingala, they “forcefully” took her along with them to act as an interpreter as they advanced on the town. At one time they stopped at a local church “brandishing their weapons” and threatening to kill. They robbed the church priest and nuns of money and property including vehicles, furniture, and television sets.

“They even took the sacramental wafers and ate them,” she added. One of the soldiers wore the bishop’s cassock.

The soldiers continued their day-long looting, ransacking the gendarme office, the mayor’s compound, and a resident’s home. They purportedly shot the resident, cut off his genitals, and stuffed them in his mouth. At another residence, they found an elderly woman holding a baby. When she resisted their attempts to grab her property, they shot her too.

Prosecutors charge that MLC soldiers systematically murdered, raped, and pillaged civilians during their deployment in the CAR between October 2002 and March 2003. “They killed civilians who resisted rape, physical violence, and pillaging. They killed them sometimes as part of a single attack or as a series of attacks,” said prosecution lawyer Petra Kneur at the start of the trial in November 2010. As their commander-in-chief, Mr. Bemba is being tried for their crimes at the court based in The Hague. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of war crimes and three crimes against humanity.

Victim a/0866/10 continues giving testimony tomorrow morning.

Mr. Bemba, who is charged with three war crimes and two crimes against humanity, has been on trial at the court based in The Hague since November 2010. Prosecutors closed their case last month after calling 40 witnesses. These included crime-based witnesses (individuals who prosecutors say were victimized, witnessed abuses, or could provide evidence on the alleged crimes committed) as well as expert witnesses and former insiders in the accused’s Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC).

In a February 22, 2012 ruling, Judges Sylvia Steiner, Joyce Aluoch, and Kuniko Ozaki authorized five victims to provide evidence after the close of the prosecution case and before the start of the defense case. Two victims were granted leave to give oral testimony, while the remaining three would express their views and concerns by means yet to be determined by the judges.

One of the victims authorized to provide in-court testimony is a rape survivor and pillage victim in the town of Mongoumba in the Central African Republic (CAR). She also witnessed several instances of pillaging and murder in various locations, purportedly at the hands of Mr. Bemba’s soldiers. The second victim is also expected to provide evidence on murder, rape and pillaging committed by the Congolese troops. Furthermore, this victim allegedly witnessed a visit by Mr. Bemba to the town of Sibut.

Mr. Bemba’s trial has the largest number of participating victims of all trials so far conducted at the ICC. At the start of the trial, 135 victims had been allowed to participate. By December 2011, the number had grown to 1,861. To date, there are 2,744 victims participating in the trial.

In the trial of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, who was last month found guilty of using and conscripting child soldiers, there were 129 participating victims. In the ongoing joint trial of two other Congolese militia leaders, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, there are 365 participating victims.

Prosecutors charge that as commander-in-chief of the MLC, Mr. Bemba is criminally responsible for the rape, murder, and pillaging committed by his troops against Central African civilians. The Congolese troops were among numerous armed groups active in the 2002-2003 armed conflict in the CAR. He denies the charges.

Moreover, the defense argues that the prosecution’s approach invites the chamber to delegate its judicial function to external bodies that authored some of these reports, such as the United Nations (UN), the United States (US) Department of State, Amnesty International, and the Fédération Internationale des Droits de L’homme (FIDH). Additionally, Mr. Bemba’s defense faults prosecutors for submitting “numerous entire reports” without highlighting the relevant extracts, and concludes that accepting them into evidence would prejudice the rights of the accused.

“The prosecution cannot resort to simply introducing swathes of un-tested documentary material for the truth of its contents, in lieu of calling witnesses whose evidence can be tested through questioning by the defense and the chamber,” argued defense lawyers in a March 19, 2012 filing. “Nor is it appropriate for the prosecution to invite the chamber to delegate its judicial function by simply accepting the facts as asserted by NGOs or other agencies as to the existence of particular events or crimes, rather than making independent findings based on the evidence heard in the courtroom.”

Judges have allowed prosecutors to respond to the defense’s submission. Accordingly, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on March 30, 2012 submitted that the purpose of a bar table motion is to introduce evidence without having to call live witnesses, thus the absence of live witnesses is not a per se ground to object to the process.

“The submission of only 97 items of evidence via a bar table motion in a complex criminal case of this nature reflects the prosecution’s minimalistic and supplementary approach. The admissibility of each of these items is subject only to the three-stage test of relevance, probative value and prejudice,” argued the prosecutor.

He added that evidence admitted by bar table motion would be assessed in light of the totality of evidence on trial. The prosecutor said items submitted via a bar table motion supplemented core prosecution evidence in support of allegations contained in the prosecution’s charge documents.

The prosecution charges that Mr. Bemba, a former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is criminally responsible as a commander for murder, rape, and pillaging, allegedly committed by his troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) during 2002 and 2003. Mr. Bemba has acknowledged that troops from the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) military group that he led went to neighboring CAR during this period to help the country’s then president, Ange-Félix Patassé, stave off a coup attempt. However, the accused has denied that he is responsible for the three war crimes and two crimes against humanity charged against him from his alleged failure to punish or control his marauding troops. He argues that once the troops left Congolese territory, they no longer fell under his command but that of Mr. Patassé.

The defense explained why it opposed the admission of the documents including:

• Four UN reports that the defense argue are not sufficiently reliable due to the lack of identification of authors and sources of information with sufficient detail;

• Seven NGO reports from FIDH and Amnesty International: The defense contends that the authors are not identified, there is insufficient information regarding the methodology used to compile and analyse the reports; FIDH is allegedly biased against the MLC/the accused and has an interest in these proceedings;

• 26 media reports on the basis that such reports are generally unreliable evidence with no probative value because they often contained opinion evidence.  In addition, 11 of these reports do not identify the authors;

• 10 Radio France International (RFI) audio recordings because they lacked probative value because they were not sufficiently reliable;

• Two documents from the U.S. Department of State because they lacked probative value and credibility;

• Two medical reports, as their creators should have been called to testify;

• Two flight logbooks because they lacked authenticity and should be properly introduced through witnesses who have knowledge of them;

• Thuraya satellite phone records because there is no basis for their provenance or authentication and the prosecution did not offer “any foundation for its assertion that the telephone number cited belonged to the accused.”

The prosecutor contested the defense’s argument that the prosecution’s bar table motion was improperly substituting documentary evidence for witness testimony, “but even if that were true that is not a ground to object to their admission.”

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said that “[c]ontrary to the defense position, the bar table motion is an efficient tool that avoids undue delay that would follow if the parties were required to call witnesses solely to authenticate facially reliable pieces of evidence.”

The defense also charged that the timing of the prosecution’s bar table motion precluded the testing of the reliability or credibility of this material through prosecution witnesses and complained that no cause had been shown for making this request at the “absolute closing stages of the prosecution case.” The defense faulted the prosecution for submitting “numerous entire reports into evidence” and complained that the prosecution made no attempt to highlight the relevant extracts or paragraphs of “these reports, sometimes running to over 100 pages.”

However, the prosecution countered that the very use of a bar table motion contemplated that the evidence’s reliability would not be tested through witnesses, thus the timing of the prosecution’s bar table motion was irrelevant to that complaint.

In the trial of Thomas Lubanga, who was last month found guilty of conscripting and using child soldiers, ICC judges admitted into evidence the curriculum vitae of the accused, as well as a logbook containing a record of radio communications between the headquarters and the field staff of the rebel group Mr. Lubanga is said to have commanded. However, the judges declined to accept into evidence some documents tendered by the prosecution because they did not fulfil the test for admission from the “bar table.”

The Lubanga trial chamber set out that the expression from the “bar table” described the situation when documents or other material are submitted directly by counsel, rather than introduced via a witness as part of his or her testimony.

Mr. Bemba’s lawyers have argued that in the ongoing trial of Germaine Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, when a party wished to admit a document through a bar table motion, it was required to submit a table providing a short description of its content, and an index of the most relevant portions. “The prosecution in this [Bemba] case has not done so, and has made no attempt to highlight the relevant extracts or paragraphs in these lengthy reports,” submitted Aimé Kilolo Musamba and Peter Haynes.

The trial judges are expected to rule on the matter in due course.

In a March 28, 2012 ruling, Judges Sylvia Steiner, Joyce Aluoch, and Kuniko Ozaki granted a request by the defense to postpone the evidence of the victims by “a couple of days” as they would be committed outside of The Hague.

The judges stated that after analyzing the defense’s request, they were “satisfied” that a postponement to the commencement of evidence by the victims would not affect the fairness and expeditiousness of the trial. Moreover, the postponement was not inconsistent with the rights of the accused and the protection of victims and witnesses.

At a status conference on March 27, 2012, the Victims and Witness Unit (VWU) informed the chamber that the procedures for the issuance of passports for the victims authorized to appear before the court had been initiated, and the VWU was working with the court Registry’s field operations section in order to expedite the process. However, the VWU said that it was difficult to anticipate whether it would be possible to have the victims in The Hague by the April 23 deadline.

The victims who will testify are based in the Central African Republic (CAR), the country where Mr. Bemba’s troops allegedly brutalized civilians during the 2002-2003 armed conflict. Three other victims have been authorized to present their concerns to the court in person, although it is not clear how this will be done. The prosecution and victims’ lawyers have suggested than these individuals could testify by video link.

Since November 2010, Mr. Bemba has been on trial at the ICC for failing to stop the rapes, killings, and pillaging allegedly perpetuated by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) troops. He has pleaded not guilty to three war crimes and two crimes against humanity.

Judges ordered the VWU to advise, by no later than April 12, whether the victims authorized to appear before the court would be able to commence their testimony on the set date.

Once the victims complete giving their evidence, the defense case will commence tentatively in August of this year. The defense intends to call around 40 witnesses.

The court is going on spring judicial recess today.

Speaking at a status conference, defense lawyer Peter Haynes said that they expected to call about the same number of witnesses as those called by prosecutors. Over the course of 16 months following the opening of the trial in November 2010, prosecutors called 40 witnesses. Four of them testified between January and March of this year.

Mr. Haynes stated that unlike the prosecution witnesses, the defense would call witnesses with “tangible knowledge” of the five-month long operations of Mr. Bemba’s soldiers who took part in the 2002-2003 armed conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR).

“They will take rather longer [giving testimony] than the prosecution’s whose knowledge of the events was second-hand and partial,” said Mr. Haynes. “We are looking at a period in excess of a year, probably as long as two years.”

Mr. Bemba is on trial at the ICC for three war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging) and two crimes against humanity (murder and rape) arising from his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) troops’ alleged brutal behavior against the Central African civilian population.

Mr. Bemba’s troops were among the armed forces active in an armed struggle between the conflict country’s former president, Ange-Félix Patassé, and current president François Bozizé between October 2002 and March 2003. Mr. Bemba has pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him.

Over the coming months, the defense is expected to liaise with the court’s Victims and Witnesses Unit (VWU) to arrange for the testimony of the defense witnesses. Mr. Haynes said a more detailed brief on the defense case would be availed before the beginning of the court’s summer recess in July 2012.

Meanwhile, legal representatives of victims also today gave observations on the modalities for selected victims to present evidence. On February 22, the trial judges permitted two out of the more than 2,000 victims participating in the trial to give oral testimony in court. Judges granted three other victims the right to express their views through a means yet to be determined.

This morning, victims’ lawyers Marie-Edith Douzima-Lawson and Assingambi Zarambaud  stated that asking the three other victims to express their views and concerns in writing “would be overkill.” This is because these victims are illiterate and had already given oral statements three times in Sango, a Central African language, which were transcribed into written statements submitted to the court.

“The least could be to have them testify via video link so as not to impose a further writing exercise on them, since they are not allowed to physically attend the court,” argued Mr. Zarambaud.

Ms. Douzima-Lawson supplemented that allowing these victims to express their views to the court remotely would allow the chamber to observe their physical manner and demeanor, which would be important in establishing their credibility.

“We do not believe that this will slow down the trial,” she added.

The prosecution and the defense made no objections to the legal representatives’ request.

Judges last month directed that the two victims who would give oral testimony should appear in court as of April 23, 2012. A court official said today that the VWU and the court’s field operations unit were working to accelerate the passport application and visa acquisition process to enable the victims to appear by the set date.

Presiding Judge Sylvia Steiner said the chamber would decide on the date of the commencement of the two victims’ testimony after receiving concrete information from the VWU about their travel arrangements. Regarding the mode of receiving the testimony of the other three victims, Judge Steiner stated that the chamber’s decision would be communicated in due course.

The court is due to go on its spring judicial recess from April 5-16, 2012.