International Criminal Court judges on Thursday released an arrest warrant for a Central African Republic militia commander, charging him with having murdered opposition supporters a decade ago.
Edmond Beina is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity for a string of atrocities he is accused of having carried out as the country spiralled into sectarian violence.
He and his fighters allegedly carried out the crimes as they carried out a three-month reign of terror in a small CAR village in early 2014, say prosecutors.
The charges included murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape, extermination and pillaging.
Beina, who prosecutors says is aged between 35 and 45, led a unit of the anti-Balaka fighters.
They were a militia formed in 2013 in reaction to the takeover of Bangui by the Seleka, a coalition of armed groups mainly composed of Muslims opposed to former president Francois Bozize.
The Seleka’s ousting of Bozize sparked a wave of conflict with the mainly Christian vigilante anti-Balaka fighters.
Prosecutors said Beina and his unit of between 100 to 400 fighters attacked a small village in western CAR called Guen in February 2014.
Facing no military resistance, they “encircled the village… killing at least 22 Muslim civilians including elderly and children using machetes,” says the arrest warrant.
The following day Beina allegedly “summarily executed several Muslim men and boys with his Kalashnikov rifle, emptying one magazine and another.
“Subsequently, Beina ordered his men to finish off any survivors,” say prosecutors at the Hague-based ICC.
Beina, together with his deputies, “implemented the anti-Balaka policy which entailed the targeting of the Muslim population in western CAR,” the prosecution said.
The arrest warrant against Beina was issued in 2018, but only made public on Thursday. The ICC did not give reasons for the delay.
Three other suspects from both the Seleka and anti-Balaka camps are currently on trial for the violence during that period.
They are anti-Balaka suspects former CAR sports minister Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and MP Alfred Yekatom, dubbed Rambo and alleged Seleka leader Mahamat Said Abdel Kani.
The ICC is the world’s only independent court that investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of the world’s worst crimes.
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