THE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 27 (UPI) -- The International Criminal Court in the Netherlands arrested a former Democratic Republic of the Congo vice president on war crime charges, the court said.
Besides war crimes, Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo was charged with crimes against humanity, having been accused of carrying out systematic attacks against civilians in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said in a news release issued from New York. The warrant alleged the attacks included rape, torture and pillaging.
"Mr. Bemba's arrest is a warning to all those who commit, who encourage, or who tolerate sexual crimes," the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo stated. "There is a new law called the Rome Statute. Under this new law, they will be prosecuted."
Bemba is the first person arrested in the court's investigation of the Central African nation.
"There are no excuses for hundreds of rapes. There are no (excuses) for commanders ordering, authorizing or acquiescing to the commission of rapes and looting by their forces," Moreno-Ocampo said.
The ICC is an independent, permanent court trying people accused of serious, international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Rome Statute covers the the establishment of an international criminal court.
