In dock at last – Lubanga, the man accused of training children to be killers

Published on Monday 26 January 2009 21:05

MILITIA leader Thomas Lubanga trained child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape, a prosecutor told the International Criminal Court at the start of its first ever war crimes trial yesterday.

Lubanga, 48, pleaded not guilty on the first day of the historic trial.

The ethnic Hema is accused of conscripting children under 15 to his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in Congo's eastern Ituri district to kill rival Lendus in a 1998-2003 war.

Prosecutors say child soldiers recruited by the UPC were involved in hostilities between October 2002 and June 2003, and that some were forced to kill, while others died in combat.

In an opening address to the Hague court, hearing its first case more than six years after being set up as the world's first permanent war crimes court, the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said Lubanga committed the most serious crimes of concern to the international community – crimes against children.

"Lubanga's armed group recruited and trained hundreds of children to kill, pillage and rape. Hundreds of children still suffer the consequences. They cannot forget what they suffered, what they did, what they saw.

"They cannot forget the beatings they suffered, they cannot forget the terror they felt and the terror they inflicted. They cannot forget the sounds of the machine guns, they cannot forget that they killed. They cannot forget that they raped, that they were raped. Their gun was father and mother and would feed and clothe them," he said.

Some of the children now used drugs, some had become prostitutes, others were jobless, Mr Moreno-Ocampo said.

He said he intended to demand close to the maximum sentence, which court officials say is life imprisonment.

The three-judge court was shown videos said to feature Lubanga with child soldiers. Girls were particularly vulnerable, the court heard. "Thomas Lubanga's commanders could select them as their wives. Wives is the wrong word. They were sexual slaves," Mr Moreno-Ocampo said.

Lubanga looked impassive as the charges were read out.

Some 400 people in the town of Bunia – at the heart of the violence – were watching the trial via video-link, including many UPC supporters, a Human Rights Watch official said.

She said the start of the trial was a signal to the world that there would be accountability for war crimes, but also urged the court to look into officials in Uganda and in Rwanda who supplied arms.

Four alleged victims are among 34 witnesses the prosecution will call during the trial, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Ethnic violence in the region between the Hema and Lendu, and clashes between militia groups vying for control of mines and taxation, have killed 60,000 people since 1999.

Lubanga was handed over to the court in 2006 after Congo referred the case to the ICC prosecutor in March 2004.

The defence will make its opening statement today.

BACKGROUND

MORE than 30,000 children were recruited during the conflict in Congo, according to Bukeni Waruzi, the Africa and Middle East co-ordinator for human rights group Witness.

Lubanga, a 48-year-old university graduate, claims he was a patriot fighting rebels and foreigners from plundering the mineral wealth of Congo.

The UN estimates that up to 250,000 children still fight in more than a dozen countries.