ICC charges Bemba

Once-fugitive ex-Vice President of the Democratic Republic of Congo and former leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC; a rebel group in the Second Congo War) Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo has been charged with three counts of war crimes and two of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

But his lawyers are appealing, saying the militia was not under his command once they had crossed the border.

Where this gets confusing is that the crimes committed by his troops were during the MLC's intervention in a conflict *inside* the Central African Republic, not inside D.R. Congo. That's "the border" the lawyers are talking about. Here's more about the obfuscation-in-progress:

The ICC prosecutors will try to establish a direct line of responsibility between those crimes in the Central African Republic and Mr Bemba himself.

But defence lawyer Aime Kilolo argues that Mr Bemba cannot be held responsible as they were not under his command.

"The most important thing now to do is that for us we submit the case to the appeal and the judge is going now to decide between Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba and the former President Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic, who was really the commander of the troops," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

If we're taking opinions on this, I'd offer that indicting both of them would be entirely reasonable. But 'reasonable' and 'African politics' are uncommon bed-fellows.

T.I.A.