International justice and Congo 'warlord' on trial

Test of court's credibility as millionaire businessman and former vice-president faces charges of mass murder, rape and pillage

The International Criminal Court began a key test of its credibility yesterday on the first day of a trial against the most prominent government figure ever to be put in the dock at the Hague.

Jean-Pierre Bemba, a millionaire Congolese politician, businessman and alleged warlord, denied charges of rape, pillage and murder in central Africa and has assembled a formidable legal team in his defence.

The prosecution has set its sights on using the trial to define a commander's responsibility for his troops' actions. The ICC's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo badly needs a win to shore up the reputation of a court set up to deal with large-scale atrocities. "The judges' definition of the responsibility of the commander will be a warning for all the military commanders in the world," he said ahead of the trial.

While there have been notable achievements at the ICC's temporary tribunals on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the permanent court set up eight years ago is under pressure to prove its worth after the controversial indictment of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir failed to result in an arrest. The trial will test Mr Ocampo's ambition to use the ICC to target those "most responsible" for serious crimes against humanity or war crimes. The trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor is underway in the same city but is under the authority of the special court for Sierra Leone.

There was surprise in Democratic Republic of Congo two years ago when the 48-year-old Mr Bemba was arrested during a visit to Belgium. The former vice-president of the vast DRC was thought untouchable but yesterday was charged with two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes relating to rape and killing campaigns carried out by forces under his control.

Mr Bemba's lead defence lawyer Nkwebe Liriss denied each of the five charges as they were read aloud.

The charges centre on the actions of Mr Bemba's MLC militia which in 2002 crossed into the neighbouring Central African Republic from northern Congo to help the president there put down a coup. It is alleged that his men went on a murder spree and raped 400 women and children. The defence will try to portray the trial as a politically motivated stunt to discredit their man. Mr Bemba's supporters in the DRC have accused the ICC of allowing itself to be used to remove the political rivals of the President Joseph Kabila.

The Brussels-educated scion of a wealthy family, Mr Bemba added to his wealth through interests in telecoms and air freight before becoming a leading politician in his troubled homeland. In 2006 he was the runner-up to Joseph Kabila, and retains a powerful support base around the capital Kinshasa.

But the prosecution will seek to remind the court of his forces' numerous victims in central Africa and the need to punish those most responsible. "Bemba's troops stole the possessions of the poorest people in one of the poorest countries in the world. Bemba's troops raped in their masses women, girls and the elderly and men – men with authority," Mr Ocampo told the court. "We are not saying Bemba committed crimes personally, that he raped women... but he did not stop them and that is the responsibility of a commander."

Margot Wallstrom, the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, welcomed the trial saying it "represents a milestone in the history of international criminal justice and this is against the backdrop of wartime sexual violence having been one of history's greatest silences".

The ICC has stirred resentment in some African governments for its perceived fixation with the continent and public opinion on its neutrality in the Congo is split. However, there is strong public support for the court in Kenya where the ICC is aiming to bring the chief orchestrator of the country's disastrous post-election violence in 2007-08 to justice. Local politicians who have found themselves under investigation have sought to stir up feeling against the international court but have largely failed as Kenya's discredited justice system is widely seen as compromised.

Jean-Pierre Bemba

* Born into wealth in 1962 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Jean-Pierre Bemba became a millionaire with interests in air cargo, mobile phones, coffee and wood. In the early 1990s, Bemba was personal assistant to DRC's (then Zaire's) self-appointed leader Mobutu Sese Seko, before he was overthrown in 1997.

While war raged in DRC between 1998 and 2003, Bemba seized vast areas of land by force as head of the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), and his businesses grew.

In 2003, the MLC became a political party and Bemba was sworn in as vice-president of DRC after declaring that he would lay down his arms. However, Bemba was defeated in DRC's first democratic presidential elections in 40 years in 2006 and his fighters were accused of associated waves of violence, though Bemba denies this.