Congolese war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda is seen during his first appearance before judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 26, 2013Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda has pleaded not guilty to string of war crime charges ranging from murder and rape to using child soldiers, at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ntaganda faced ICC judges for the first time on Tuesday after his transfer from Rwanda to The Hague, following his surprise surrender in Rwanda last week.
"My name is Bosco Ntaganda, I only have the two names, the names given to me by my parents," he said when presiding judge Ekaterina Trendafilova asked him to identify himself.
"I was informed of these crimes but I plead not guilty," Ntaganda added, before the judge interrupted him and said he should not enter a plea at this stage.
The man known by the nom de guerre “Terminator” due to his brutal methods, has been wanted by the ICC since 2006 on charges of committing the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen and using them to participate actively in hostilities.
On March 17, Ntaganda surrendered and turned himself in to the US Embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali. On Friday, he flew out of Kigali bound for The Hague, where the ICC is headquartered.
The judge set September 23 as the date for a hearing to confirm the charges against Ntaganda.
Ntaganda allegedly was involved in the murder of at least 800 people in villages in the volatile DR Congo's Ituri region, between 2002-2003.
On March 16, sources in the United Nations and the March 23 movement (M23) said that hundreds of Ntaganda men had fled into Rwanda or surrendered to UN peacekeepers after being defeated by rebels from the March 23 movement (M23) in the eastern DRC.
General Ntaganda had been the leader of the M23 until February 2013, and it is unclear why he chose to part ways with the M23 and to form his own faction.
The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC).
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