A Congolese militia leader widely known as “The Terminator” has gone on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.<br /><br />Bosco Ntaganda is charged with recruiting child soldiers and organising a campaign of ethnically-motivated rape and murder.<br /><br />As his trial opened, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court: “Ntaganda is here before you because of his role in pursuing a campaign of violence and terror<br />against civilians and children for more than a year.”<br /><br />Ntaganda, who commanded the United of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia, had “failed to prevent or punish crimes by troops under his effective command or control,” she said.<br /><br />Prosecutors also told judges that Ntaganda had committed the crimes over a decade ago while leading fighters of Hema ethnicity to drive ethnic Lendus out of the mineral-rich Ituri region in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.<br /><br />But defence lawyers responded that the Ituri conflict had not had the ethnic character prosecutors were ascribing to it.<br /><br />The trial is being seen as a test for the court after a string of troubled cases. <br /><br />Ntaganda could face life imprisonment if convicted and has yet to enter a plea.
