Judge rules Congolese man should face war-crimes charges in court's first case

In what is being described as a milestone, a Congolese warlord is set to become the first accused to be tried before the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

ICC Judge Claude Jorda ruled yesterday that there is enough evidence to try Thomas Lubanga, accused of systematically recruiting child soldiers into Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo in the country's lawless northeastern district of Ituri.

"Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is criminally responsible . . . for war crimes consisting of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 years and causing them to participate actively in hostilities," Judge Jorda said, speaking for the three-member judges panel.

In his ruling, Judge Jorda said that during fighting, some children "were led to kill, and many recruits, including minors under the age of 15, lost their lives in battle."

No date has been set for the trial, but prosecutors expect it to begin later this year. If convicted, Mr. Lubanga faces a maximum life sentence. He denies the accusations.

Defence lawyer Jean Flamme said his client tried to stop the use of child soldiers. "He wanted peace. He wanted to have conditions against the exploitation of the riches of Ituri," he told a news conference.

Richard Dicker, director of the international-justice program of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the ICC decision is very significant, because until now "there has been complete impunity" for crimes of the type alleged to have been committed by Mr. Lubanga.

"Human Rights Watch has urged the prosecutor to go beyond the limited charges of recruitment of child soldiers and we have also urged the prosecutor to go above and beyond active warlord leaders to charge those, at more senior levels outside the Congo, with criminal responsibility."

Judge Jorda also said that neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda were enmeshed in the Ituri conflict, with Uganda occupying part of the region and Rwanda providing weapons, ammunition and soldiers to Mr. Lubanga's forces.

Mr. Lubanga, 46 and a father of seven, is the only suspect before the court, which issued its first arrest warrants in 2005 for leaders of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, who have led a 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said he plans to charge suspects soon for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, which the United Nations Security Council asked him to investigate in 2005. But no one is holding out hope that any Sudanese accused would come before the courts any time soon.

Domestic politics in many states harbouring prospective targets of the court, and the difficulties of making arrests in complex military situations, complicate the ICC's job.

Overriding Washington's strenuous objections, the court was set up four years ago as the first permanent global court to try those accused of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It is now backed by 104 nations. The president of the court's judges panel is Philippe Kirsch, a Canadian from Montreal.

The United States is opposed to the court on the grounds that its soldiers could be the subject of politically motivated or vexatious prosecutions and that it would water down U.S. sovereignty in criminal justice.

Democratic Republic of Congo was the setting for rebels, local factions, tribes and several neighbouring countries in a 1998-2003 war in which four million people died, mostly from hunger and disease.

Prosecutors say Mr. Lubanga trained children as young as 10 to kill, made them kill and let them be killed from 2002 to 2003.

He was arrested in March of 2005 by authorities in Kinshasa as part of a crackdown aimed at restoring order in the aftermath of the slaying and mutilation of nine United Nations peacekeepers in Ituri.

Credit: The Globe and Mail; Reuter News Agency

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