The bringing to book of Jean-Pierre Bemba -former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on counts of crimes against humanity and war sets a good precedent to a justice starved country and continent. According to ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, "Bemba's troops stole the possessions of the poorest people in one of the poorest countries in the world" between late 2002 and early 2003 at the request of Ange-Felix Patasse, the republic's president at the time.

In the short run, holding Bemba accountable for the alleged crimes sends a signal to all that the World is indeed watching. However, the ICC should not stop at Bemba; DRC and many bleeding parts of Africa await a date the prosecutors will go for international financiers of crimes against humanity on the continent. If not, picking on Bemba, especially in a country that is yet to recover from "Leopold's ghosts" begs more questions than answers. 

Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's dream to make Congo the center of the sun's radiance across Africa still lives on. With an estimated  $24 trillion (equivalent to the combined Gross Domestic Product of Europe and the United States) worth of untapped deposits of raw mineral ores, including the world's largest reserves of cobalt and significant quantities of the world's diamonds, gold and copper among others; justice to Congo must include a system to tame those who plunder the country's resources. The ICC ought to probe much deeper into the Congo woes.