By Pascal Fletcher

DAKAR, Feb 7 (Reuters) - There can be no impunity for those guilty of war crimes in Africa such as mass rape or slaughtering civilians, even when peace processes are under way, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor said on Thursday.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo made the pledge as he arrived in Central African Republic for a visit to back an ICC investigation into a series of rapes, killings and other abuses that occurred during armed conflict in the country in 2002 and 2003.

The Hague-based ICC, which has opened an office in the poor, landlocked former French colony, is gathering evidence about systematic acts of sexual violence which accompanied fighting in the capital Bangui between government troops and rebels.

"Here, the rapes outnumbered the other crimes ... young girls and old women were gang raped, in public places," Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters in a phone interview from Bangui.

He was due to meet some of the at least 600 reported victims of conflict-related sexual violence in Central African Republic, which has a history of bloody coups and mutinies.

"We are here to meet with the victims, to say to them that we will prosecute the perpetrators," said Moreno-Ocampo, who had prosecuted human rights cases in his native Argentina.

"There can be no impunity for these kinds of crimes," he said. Even when suspects might be engaging in national processes of peace and reconciliation, "you respect the laws".

The ICC was also pursuing war crimes prosecutions against suspects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and in Sudan, relating to its war-torn western Darfur region.

Shortly after Moreno-Ocampo spoke, the ICC announced a former Congolese warlord, Mathieu Ngudjolo, was flown from Congo to ICC custody in the Hague to face war crimes charges including murder, sexual slavery and using child soldiers.

Ngudjolo is the third militia chief from Congo's conflict-torn northeast Ituri province to be transferred to the ICC in a year. The court is already prosecuting Thomas Lubanga and Germain Katanga for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"NEVER ENOUGH JUSTICE"

Moreno-Ocampo said these prosecutions were a sign that the court, which started work in 2002 as the world's first permanent war crimes court, was getting its message across that perpetrators of horrific crimes would not escape justice.

"In a short time, the court is showing its impact," he said, adding that investigations into the use of child soldiers were also taking place in Sri Lanka and Colombia.

But he said ICC investigations could take between nine and 18 months and acknowledged some victims might feel this was slow. "You can never do enough justice for victims, if someone raped my daughter, who can compensate for that?" he said.

In Bangui, the ICC prosecutor was to meet senior members of the government of President Francois Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup which toppled then head of state Ange Felix Patasse.

The crimes being investigated by the ICC were committed during periods of fierce fighting in Bangui between Patasse's troops, supported by Congolese rebels, and insurgents led by Bozize who were backed by Chadian mercenaries.

The government of Bozize, who consolidated his position by winning elections in 2005, had asked the ICC to investigate Patasse and several aides for alleged war crimes, after the country's own justice system said it could not handle the cases.

In a separate move, the International Federation of Human Rights, which groups rights leagues across the world, filed a war crimes case with the ICC against Congolese opposition figure Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose fighters supported Patasse in Bangui.

Both Bemba, who is in exile in Portugal, and Patasse, who lives in exile in Togo, deny the war crimes accusations.

Moreno-Ocampo said the ICC was also concerned about reports of systematic sexual violence by rebel fighters, militia and government soldiers in Congo's North and South Kivu provinces.

Congo's government signed a peace deal last month with rebel and militia groups in the Kivus, which included an amnesty offer for rebel warlords like renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda.

But Moreno-Ocampo said the amnesty offer did not cover war crimes and crimes against humanity and said Nkunda, who was the target of a now-expired government arrest warrant, may still "eventually" face an ICC investigation. (Editing by Daniel Flynn and Mary Gabriel)

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