Jn Pierre Bemba is a man who wears many hats:
Senator, former VP, political party founder, presidential candidate.........oh, wait, I forgot to mention mafia man and militia leader. His political party maintained(s) a militant wing from the civil war at the start of the decade, the MLC. The armed MLC engaged government forces three times in Kinshasa during the 2006 general and presidential elections. Bemba stood for president and narrowly lost in a run-off vote. He then went on to win the senatorial elections. After the third battle in Kinshasa in April 2007, which left over 600 dead, Bemba fled to Portugal for "medical treatment" to escape charges of treason.
Bemba was arrested last weekend in Belgium by the International Criminal Court at the Hague for crimes against humanity in the Central African Republic. (Haiti watchers will remember the CAR is the country Aristide was dumped in after fleeing the uprisings in 2004 before moving on the Jamaica.) Bemba is accused of ordering his militia, the MLC, to assist then-President Patasse fight a military coup. The MLC is alleged to have stayed after the coup was put down in order to terrorize opposition supporters in the countryside of the CAR.
Click on the BBC link to read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7418932.stm
- reportedly Bemba was gearing up to return to Kinshasa has the "microphone" for the MLC
- Belgium's foriegn minister recently criticized Kabila's govt of corruption and human rights abuses
- the MLC is planning to hold protests in Kinshsa today and "as long as it takes" http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27385005.htm
- the MLC (now a political party) is directly implicated as the perpetrators of the human rights abuses, but is not being called to trial. Bemba is standing on his own
- there are no reports of the MLC denying that it assisted Patasse to defend against the coup attempt. The allegations are reported to stem from after Patasse was restored, the MLC went through terrorizing the countryside
- the bulk of the allegations are sexual abuses, particularly against children
- Both coups in CAR against Patasse, including the first failed one where Bemba ordered the MLC to support Patasse, were reportedly led supported by France
- I have not read anything about Bemba and the MLC supporting Patasse in the successful second coup in 2003
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