Congolese warlord 'Terminator' gets harshest ever ICC sentence

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - International Criminal Court judges handed Congolese rebel chief Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda a 30-year jail term for war crimes on Thursday, the highest ever sentence passed down by the tribunal in The Hague.

Ntaganda was convicted in July of crimes including murder, persecution and sexual slavery for a series of massacres of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile, mineral-rich Ituri region in 2002 and 2003.

Condemning Rwandan-born Ntaganda's "multiplicity of crimes," judge Robert Flemr told him "the overall sentence imposed on you shall, therefore, be 30 years of imprisonment."

"Murder was committed on a large scale," Flemr said as he passed sentence, saying they had taken the "particular cruelty" of some of Ntaganda's crimes into account.

The judges gave him the maximum possible sentence allowed by the ICC in terms of the number of years, but said his crimes did not justify a full-life prison term which is reserved for the gravest offenses.

Ntaganda, dressed in a blue suit and shirt and wearing a red tie, stood motionless in the high-security courtroom as he listened through headphones while the judgement was read out.

An ICC spokesman confirmed it was the heaviest ever penalty handed down by the court, which was set up in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes.

Judges said 46-year-old Ntaganda was the ruthless driver of ethnic Tutsi revolts amid the wars that convulsed the DRC after the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda.

They said Ntaganda was a "key leader" of the Union of Congolese Patriots rebel group and its military wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC).

Most of the charges related to two bloody operations by Ntaganda's soldiers against civilians in rival villages in 2002 and 2003. The court heard fearful villagers dub him "Terminator" after the Arnold Schwarzenegger film about a merciless robotic killer.

In total, he was convicted on 13 counts of war crimes and five of crimes against humanity, becoming the first to be convicted by the ICC of sexual enslavement.

He was also the first-ever suspect to voluntarily surrender to the ICC, having walked into the US embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali in 2013 and asked to be sent to the court in the Netherlands.

Sexual slavery

The ICC judges heard separately from victims and witnesses in September to help them decide on the sentence.

Fighters loyal to him carried out atrocities such as a massacre in a banana field behind a village in which at least 49 people including children and babies were disemboweled or had their heads smashed in.

Ntaganda was also responsible for the rape and sexual slavery of underage girls, and of recruiting troops under the age of 15.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since the violence erupted in Ituri region in 1999 according to rights groups, as militias battle each other for control of scarce mineral resources.

Ntaganda -- known for his pencil mustache and a penchant for fine dining -- told judges during his trial that he was "a soldier not a criminal" and that the "Terminator" nickname did not apply to him.

After the Ituri conflict, Ntaganda was integrated into the Congolese army and was a general from 2007 to 2012, but then became a founding member of the M23 rebel group in a new uprising against the government.

Prosecutors said his decision to hand himself in to the ICC that year was based on self-preservation as he was in danger because of a feud in the group.

Ntaganda is one of five Congolese warlords to have been brought before the ICC, which was set up in 2002 as an independent international body to prosecute those accused of the world's worst crimes.

Ntaganda's former FPLC commander Thomas Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years in jail in 2012.

But the ICC has suffered a string of setbacks over recent years with some of its most high-profile suspects walking free, including Ivorian former leader Laurent Gbagbo earlier this year.

It has also been criticized for mainly trying African suspects so far.

In March, the Philippines withdrew from the treaty that created the tribunal on orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing complaints for alleged mass murders in his government's drug war.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ebola death toll in east Congo outbreak climbs above 2,000

GOMA, CONGO - The death toll from Democratic Republic of Congo's year-long Ebola outbreak has climbed above 2,000, government data showed on Friday, as responders battle to overcome community mistrust and widespread security problems.

The government team overseeing the response said the number of confirmed and probable cases had also hit a milestone of more than 3,000 in what has become the second-worst epidemic of the virus on record.

Despite the development of an effective vaccine and treatments, health workers have struggled to control the spread of the disease in remote and conflict-hit areas of eastern Congo, where many locals are wary of the response effort.

"For the treatments to work, people need to trust them and the medical staff who administer them. This will take time, resources and a lot of hard work," the International Federation of the Red Cross said in a statement.

This is Congo's 10th Ebola outbreak, but it is the first in the densely forested hillside provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, where militia-led violence and ethnic killing have undermined security in certain areas for decades.

The government data showed Ebola deaths reaching 2,006 and cases at 3,004.

Earlier in August, the authorities came up against new fronts in their fight to contain the epidemic, fanning fears that the spread of the disease could accelerate.

Health workers confirmed the first cases in South Kivu province on Aug. 16. Soon after, a woman contracted the virus in a remote, militia-controlled territory in North Kivu, hundreds of kilometers away from other known cases.

"We are fighting literally (along) with all partners on the ground to reach people, to reach contacts, to identify cases as early as possible," World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said on Tuesday.

Last week the WHO voiced concern about the widening geographic reach of the disease but confirmed the virus had not gained a foothold in the major city of Goma, even after four cases were recorded there in July and early August.

"Two thousand deaths means that there is a problem," said Timothée Buliga, a Goma resident. "We need to reach the point where we reject Ebola, say no and eradicate it definitively."

Neighboring Uganda said on Friday that a young girl who tested positive for Ebola after crossing the border, the fourth case imported from Congo since June, would be sent back to Congo for treatment.

Only the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been deadlier than the current outbreak. More than 11,300 people died then out of 28,000 who were infected.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

And the average Pinoy penis size is...

MANILA - Better get a tape measure.

Filipinos have an average penis size of only 4.3 inches, which is among the world's smallest, according to a US viral website.

Mandatory.com, which aggregated various reports on penis sizes in 80 countries worldwide, said men from Congo are the most well-hung with an average size of 7.1 inches.

North Koreans, meanwhile, have the world's smallest weiners at 3.8 inches, it said.

The global average is 5.5 inches.

Most of the men who have below-average penis sizes are Asian, according to the website, while Africans and South Americans have bigger dongs.

Americans? They only have an average penis size of 5.1 inches, which is only good for 61st place.

The data is similar to earlier findings by the University of Ulster-Northern Ireland that were heavily criticized.

The Philippines ranked 110th worldwide in the University of Ulster-Northern Ireland study, which said Filipino men only have an average endowment of 4.27 inches.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com