According to Luis Moreno-Ocampo:
“The attack on Bogoro was carried out in successive waves of violence. At around 5.30 in the morning, hundreds of men, women and children, under the command of Katanga and Ngudjolo, armed with automatic weapons, machetes and spears, descended on the village centre.”
After killing more than 200 civilians, “Commanders were congratulated by their troops for a job well done. One witness will say, and I quote: 'The officers were set up there. They had put some chairs. They were drinking beer and then got drunk. And they were even congratulating the commander who had led the operation.'”
And:
“The next day, captured civilians were forced at gunpoint to lure out other community members who were hiding in the bushes. When they appeared, these survivors were brutally executed.
The joint attack achieved its goal. But horror was not over yet for the women of Bogoro. Once captured, some women hid their Hema [tribal] identity to save their lives. Those later revealed as Hema were killed, the others were raped and forced into marriage as combatants’ 'wives' or detained to serve as sexual slaves by Katanga or Ngudjolo’s soldiers. All these women were victimized on the basis of their gender: they were attacked in particular because they were women.”
People in the Ituri hope that at the end of this trial this pair of criminals will be put away for the remainder of their miserable lives. There is another Congolese warlord in jail at The Hague who is awaiting trial next year for crimes perpetrated in the Central African Republic (CAR) that also involved mass rapes: former Congolese transitional vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. Another Congolese war criminal being sought by the ICC continues to elude Chief Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo as he is being protected by the Congolese government: General Jean-Bosco Ntaganda, erstwhile associate of Laurent Nkunda.
UPDATE (November 25): The ICC finally posted today the English version of the excerpt of the Opening Statement by ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo:
2. Zulu King sued over bull-killing thanksgiving ritual of Ukweshwama (South Africa):
Zulu virgins at the Umkhosi Womhalanga, the Royal Reed Dance
Last year, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini decided that henceforth virgins at the Umkhosi Womhalanga, the Royal Reed Dance, had to cover up because some “‘perverted’ Europeans keep taking pictures of their bare bottoms.” According to the Zulu monarch, “There are times when maidens have to sing and dance and we end up seeing certain private parts that we’re not supposed to see.” This tradition is “carried out to pay homage to the king, who chooses his wives from among the dancers.” King Goodwill Zwelithini is a polygamist who has a modest harem comprising five wives—a tiny harem for sure, that pales in comparison to that of his brother-in-law (brother of his third wife), King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of the landlocked Kingdom of Swaziland, who boasts 14 wives (this being an “incomplete list,” according to his Wikipedia entry), most of whom chosen during the Umhalanga, the Swazi equivalent of the Zulu Royal Reed Dance.
If King Zwelithini could change at will a centuries-old tradition, animal rights activists in South Africa and around the world (including PETA) don’t understand why the good king doesn’t stop the barbaric bull-killing ritual of Ukweshwama.
In a letter released on Thursday November 5 and addressed to South African President Jacob Zuma asking him to end the Ukweshwama, Indian animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi (PETA/Asia) pleads: ““Tradition is not an excuse for cruelty, and many societies have ended or are working to end 'traditional' practices -- such as slavery, cannibalism, infanticide, female circumcision, foot-binding, bullfighting and fox hunting -- that cause animals or humans to suffer.”
The South African Animal Rights Africa (ARA), having “exhausted all other remedies to meet with and discuss the issue with the parties concerned,” went this Tuesday November 24 to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg in a bid to stop the “cruel Ukweshwama ritual, which is due to take place on the 5th December in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, during the First Fruits Festival.”
The court adjourned till Tuesday “December 1 to allow [King] Zwelithini and other respondents to file their papers” though some “want to make sure that this matter is resolved amicably” through negotiations.
“The Ukweshwama ritual does nothing to strengthen nation building, social cohesion or peace. During this cruel ritual a group of men torture and kill a bull with their bare hands. The bull suffers tremendously. According to an eyewitness description of the killing, ‘For 40 minutes, dozens trampled the bellowing, groaning bull, wrenched its head around by the horns to try to break its neck, pulled its tongue out, stuffed sand in its mouth and even tried to tie its penis in a knot. Gleaming with sweat, they raised their arms in triumph and sang when the bull finally succumbed.’”Amazingly there are people in South Africa who have accused ARA of "cultural intolerance" and even "racial chauvinism" for its assault on the Ukweshwama.
A few years back, I heard some similar rationale made by Native-Americans to dismiss those opposing ritual or commercial whaling as "eco-colonialism."
ARA seems, however, unimpressed by these accusations and demands nothing short of dramatic cultural change:
"According to Ndela Ntshangase, an expert in African religious practices,Ukweshwama is performed to ensure that the Zulu nation has a strong army to defend the king's subjects. South Africa is not at war. There is no Zulu army only one national military force: all South Africans - Zulus and non-Zulus alike - are protected by the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] and the SAPS [South African Police Service], (the Zulu king himself is protected by VIP Bodyguards provided by the national government) via tax-payers money, and they have other, more legitimate ways, overseen by legislation, regulation and policy of ensuring that they are competent and effective."
Young Zulus at the annual Ukweshwama ritual
















