DRC militia leader convicted of war crimes

The International Criminal Court on Friday convicted Congolese ex-militia boss Germain Katanga of being an accessory to war crimes and crimes against humanity for a 2003 village massacre. "The chamber by majority finds Germain Katanga guilty... of complicity in the crimes committed on February 24, 2003," said judge Bruno Cotte. Katanga was convicted of murder and pillaging but cleared of rape, sexual slavery and using child soldiers in the attack. The court will sentence Katanga, the one-time commander of the ethnic-based Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI) operating in the DR Congo's mineral-rich northeast, at another hearing. The verdict was only the ICC's third since opening its doors more than a decade ago, and the first involving sexual violence charges, according to AFP.