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

Miriam Defensor Santiago passes away

MANILA - Former senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has passed away after a long bout with lung cancer. She was 71.

Senator Grace Poe announced Santiago's passing Thursday, as she offered a prayer during a Freedom of Information bill hearing.

In a Twitter post, Santiago’s staff said the former senator died “peacefully” at 8:52 a.m. Thursday. The wake will reportedly be at the Cathedral Grottos of The Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Cubao.

Santiago's passing came just weeks after she was brought to the hospital after suffering complications.

The former lawmaker, known for being feisty and fearless, first announced on July 2, 2014 that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She was then teary-eyed speaking to reporters but still went on to tell jokes, even saying that she was "excited" she had the disease.

In October 2015, or over a year after her announcement, Santiago declared she would seek the presidency for the third time after having supposedly "conquered" cancer.


TRIBUTES POUR FOR MIRIAM

Senator Franklin Drilon, who had known Santiago since their college days in the 1960s, lamented the passing of a "pillar" of the justice system.

"We have lost a brilliant mind, a pillar in the legal profession and we will miss her," Drilon told ABS-CBN News Channel.

Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III also extended his sympathies to the family of Santiago, his former law professor at the University of the Philippines

"She has made her position on a lot of issues on... If you want to remember the good senator, then you can always look at her record in the Senate for her philosophy in life, her beliefs. We are blessed in that way -- that once upon a time, there was a Miriam Santiago who became senator and who shared her intelligence and insight in the Senate," he said.

A LIFE WELL-LIVED

Santiago served in all three branches of the government. She was a former presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (judicial branch); immigration commissioner, agrarian reform secretary (executive branch); and a senator for three terms (legislative branch) or from 1995 to 2001 and 2004 to 2016.

She had filed the most number of bills in the Senate. Some of her pending bills are the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill, which seeks an end to political dynasty in the country, and the Anti-Signage of Public Works Bill, which aims to bar politicians from claiming credit for projects built with public funds by putting their names on signages.

Santiago was the first Filipino to be elected as judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2011. She, however, let go of her post in 2014 due to her chronic fatigue syndrome.


A cum laude graduate of Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines, she was also a UP law professor for some 10 years.

Her most prestigious feat is winning the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Magsaysay Award for Government Service, in 1998.

Santiago also wrote books on law and the social sciences.

Her recent books, best-selling "Stupid is Forever" and sequel "Stupid is Forevermore," are compilation of jokes, one-liners, pick-up lines and speeches that she had delivered.

SEEKING PRESIDENCY

Santiago narrowly lost to Fidel V. Ramos in the 1992 presidential race and filed an election protest. In 1998, she placed 8th in a 10-person contest which saw then Vice President Joseph Estrada win the presidency by a wide margin.

Throughout the presidential campaign for the May 9, 2016 elections, Santiago repeatedly dismissed questions about her health and her capability to lead the country.

She was, however, not active in the campaign trail with her running mate, Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. She only attended a few provincial rallies.

She also failed to attend the second presidential debate on March 20 because she had to undergo a clinical trial for a new anti-cancer pill.

During the third and final debate, she also stuttered at times as she answered questions and presented her platforms.

Santiago lost and placed last in the presidential race dominated by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. She got only over 3% of the votes cast for president.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com