Congo rebel leader denies criminal charges, says he was a ‘revolutionary’

"I ask you to make a distinction between a revolutionary rebel and a criminal," he told the judges. "I am not a criminal."

Earlier, a lawyer for victims described how girls as young as 12 were forced to serve as "wives" to senior officers in the UPC or were forced to be sexually available to soldiers.

Prosecutors say Ntaganda let ethnic Hema troops under his command rape and massacre ethnic Lendu civilians who lived on land rich in oil, diamonds and gold, which he wanted for himself. They also accuse him of raping child soldiers.

One 13-year-old said becoming pregnant with the child of a senior commander was a "relief" from the daily round of sexual favors she otherwise had to offer fighters, the victims' lawyer said.

But Ntaganda's lawyers said he was a disciplined and highly professional soldier who protected civilians from other militias during a power vacuum in the country that followed the 1997 toppling of President Mobutu Seke Seso.

Before Ntaganda gave himself up in 2013 after seven years on the run, he fought for 15 years in wars that killed some 5 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the past two decades.

U.N. experts have said the M23 rebels he fought alongside were backed by Rwanda, a charge Kigali has always denied.

Born in Rwanda but raised in Congo, Ntaganda began his military career alongside Tutsi rebels who seized control of Rwanda in 1994, bringing to an end the genocide in which 800,000 died.

Reuters