From Monday, December 1 to Friday, December 5, the hearings continued, with victims taking the stand one after another. Three facts emerged: the \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d troops responsible for this bloody operation did indeed commit systematic looting, rape, executions, torture, and used forced labour; the victims overwhelmingly point the finger at Lumbala; but some witnesses believe the troops were acting under the authority of Jean-Pierre Bemba<\/a>, former leader of the MLC armed group. Bemba is currently Deputy Prime Minister of the DRC and a key ally of the current president, F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A former teacher from Mambasa had only been married a week when the \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d troops arrived and took all his wedding gifts. \u201cThere were plates, kitchen utensils, and many other things. I tried to bury them in the ground, but they were already at the door and took everything,\u201d he told the court. \u201cThey even took a needle.\u201d He was then requisitioned to transport his looted goods. When his young wife saw the rebels leaving with her husband, she followed them. \u201cOnce we arrived at their destination, they told me to go back but they kept my wife for a week,\u201d he said, but did not say what happened to her during her week of captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another victim gave an idea. \u201cI was tied up and one of them said, \u2018Sala mosala na bino\u2019 [do your job, in Lingala]. Then they raped my wife and daughter in front of me,\u201d he told the court, adding that his daughter did not survive. After he was freed and his brother drove him to hospital for emergency care, the man says he saw Lumbala\u2019s soldiers at the hospital entrance, including one of the men who had raped his wife and daughter. This man recognized him and prevented him from getting treatment. \u201cLumbala\u2019s men had also brought one of their own, who was wounded, to the hospital. When they saw us coming, one of them recognized me and told his colleagues to chase me away. We went to get treatment elsewhere,\u201d recalled this Nande gold trader, who says he lost his fortune in the war. The RCD-N soldiers \u201cthought that we, the Nande, were accomplices of Mbusa Nyamwisi [a Nande]. I lost more than $24,000. At the time, I had a motorbike worth more than $3,000, which was not something everyone had.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pisco Paluku taught mathematics at a school in Mambasa. He appeared before the judges with a map he had drawn to explain the progression of the fronts. They first clashed, he told the court, in Mabukusi, 27 km west of Mambasa, when Lumbala\u2019s soldiers encountered those of Mbusa Nyamwisi. When Mambasa was taken by the RCD-N, the witness claims to have taken part in a meeting organized by Freddy Ngalimo, alias Mopao, who told the inhabitants that the RCD-N soldiers had come to \u201csave Mambasa, recover the territory of Mbusa Nyamwisi, that he (Ngalimo) was the commander, and that Lumbala would lead us\u201d. But far from being saved, the witness said he was instead subjected to forced labour. \u201cWe were requisitioned to build their camps, draw water and prepare food for them,\u201d Paluku told the court. \u201cWe were forced to go and catch other people\u2019s animals, goats and chickens, which we then prepared for them to eat. To get away, we had to stay indoors all day or spend the night in toilets. Despite the smell, it was a safe place to avoid being caught and forced to work for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t Next to testify was Father Silvano Ruaro, an 87-year-old Italian priest who has preached and taught in Mambasa since 1989. He is well known there, to the point that another priest called as witness, Francesco Laudani, called him \u201cthe soul of Mambasa\u201d. For nearly three hours, Father Silvano testified about the looting and rapes committed in Mambasa by soldiers from Effacer le tableau. The priest, who still lives in the area, said that when the rebels arrived, they looted everything, including at the Catholic mission he ran. \u201cWhen they entered, there were bullets flying everywhere, he told the court. \u201cWe saw residents carrying mattresses. When they got to the Catholic mission, I fled into the fields, from where I could see them looting the mission. There were cows and sheep. They killed everything for fun. They were stomping and shouting \u2018we are Bemba\u2019s soldiers\u2019.\u201d The priest said he had never experienced looting on such a scale before: \u201cThey left me with just four pairs of underwear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later he met victims of sexual violence while accompanying a M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res employee who had come to assess the needs of displaced people and refugees in Mangina, near Beni, in North Kivu. \u201cI was acting as interpreter,\u201d said Father Silvano. \u201cOne of the victims came to talk to us about her case, and she told me she was my student in Mambasa. She told us how she was raped, saying: \u2018There were five soldiers, one raped me while the other four held me down, and they took turns\u2019.\u201d His student was only 12 years old at the time. He also spoke of how the wife of a Mambasa pastor was raped in her husband\u2019s presence: \u201cThe pastor said to me \u2018Father, I can never forgive them. They raped my wife. There were 19 of them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But while other victims identified their attackers as Lumbala\u2019s men, Father Silvano instead pointed the finger at Bemba. \u201cWhen they were still in Bafwasende [before the first conquest of Mambasa], we heard talk of Lumbala and his republic of Bafwasende, but we didn\u2019t take it seriously because he had no political or military influence,\u201d said the priest. During the time he spent with them in Mambasa, he says he \u201cnever heard them [the rebels] refer to Lumbala\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawyers for the civil parties countered with a November 4, 2002 press release published by his Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which attributed the recapture of Bafwasenfende and Mambasa to Lumbala\u2019s RCD-N forces, supported by Bemba\u2019s MLC. But the priest maintains he had nothing to do with the press release, saying it was published while he was in Kampala seeking aid for displaced persons. According to him, the two local commanders of Operation \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d were Fr\u00e9ddy Ngalimo, alias Mopao, and Ramsens Widi Divioka, alias Roi des imb\u00e9ciles (\u201cKing of Fools\u201d), both of whom claimed to belong to the Arm\u00e9e de lib\u00e9ration du Congo (ALC), the armed wing of the MLC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his trip to Kampala at the end of October 2002, the witness said he received an authorization to leave the country signed by Mopao as commander of the ALC. The court then showed another document signed by Constant Ndima, then ALC commander, which bore a seal with the words \u201cCongolese Rally for Democracy-National (RCD-N)-Arm\u00e9e de lib\u00e9ration du Congo\u201d. While it may be confusing, this attested to the alliance between the RCD-N and the MLC. The prosecutors wanted to know why the witness, a privileged source of information for the media, diplomats, aid workers and the Church, had not sought to understand the actors involved. \u201cYes, I was troubled,\u201d he replied. \u201cWe heard Lumbala speak, but he wasn\u2019t impacting the violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The priest also mentioned his meeting in Beni with Jeannot Bemba Saolona, Jean-Pierre Bemba\u2019s father, who wanted to know everything his son had done in Mambasa. \u201cI spoke to him for two hours, telling him everything,\u201d the witness recounted. \u201cGirls who were raped and lost everything, systematic looting. He was moved and didn\u2019t know what to do. He apologized and said, \u2018I gave my son his body, but not his mind\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Father Francesco Laudani did not testify via videoconference as originally planned, due to health concerns and his advanced age. But the court read his statement. According to him, Operation \u201cEffacer le tableau\u201d was carried out by Lumbala\u2019s and Bemba\u2019s troops, and he referred to the balance of power between Constant Ndima and Lumbala. \u201cNdima was under Lumbala\u2019s orders,\u201d he said in his written statement. \u201cNdima was aware of the situation and answered to Lumbala.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that Father Silvano denied Lumbala\u2019s role surprised the victims, who said they expected him to support them. \u201cI don\u2019t know what motivated him to change his position on an event everyone went through,\u201d came Paluku\u2019s reaction outside the courtroom. \u201cPerhaps his age? He\u2019s old enough. Maybe he is confusing Lumbala and Bemba. Everyone spoke of Lumbala.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\u201cThey took everything\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFather, I can never forgive them.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Father Silvano\u2019s different view<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The weight of old age<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/RDCongo_foret-Ituri-chemin_@Alexis-Huguet-AFP-540x360.jpg\")
<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t