Congo colonel gets 20 years after rape trial

Source: AP

BARAKA, Congo – As the uniformed soldiers on trial sat nearby, a newly married bride flung her torn and bloodied clothing onto the floor of the makeshift courtroom. She swayed in her chair, as if to comfort herself as she recounted the brutal rape she'd survived.

One mother of six threw herself to her knees and raised her arms to heaven, crying to God and the military judges to grant her some peace. Other survivors spoke so softly it was hard to hear them in the torridly hot courtroom over the sniffling and whimpers of babies, and the occasional drumming of an equatorial thunderstorm on the tin roof.

On Monday, a mobile military court convicted an army colonel of crimes against humanity, a landmark verdict in this Central African country where aid groups say thousands are brutally raped each year and where impunity prevails for the soldiers and militia groups who terrorize civilians.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110221/ap_on_re_af/af_congo_mass_rapes

It's hard to believe the case got to trial, much less conviction and verdict.

It's gotta be more than "merely some rape charges". He annoyed his boss, somehow.

:hi:

Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations, and oddly enough, some people really know how to hold a grudge, especially when the atrocities are ongoing.