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World court will decideif warlord stands trial
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 29, 2007
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Prosecutors call Thomas Lubanga a Congolese warlord whose militias plucked children off the streets as they walked to and from school and forced them to fight and die in a rebel conflict. His lawyer says he is an innocent patriot who sought to end plundering of resources and bring peace to his mineral-rich region. Today, judges will decide whether Lubanga becomes the first war crimes suspect sent for trial at the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. "We believe it will be approved and then we're going to have a trial in the second part of 2007," said the court's top prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Lubanga faces three charges of recruiting and using child soldiers in a conflict in the Ituri region of eastern Congo in 2002-2003. He faces a maximum life sentence if sent to trial and convicted. His Belgian attorney, Jean Flamme, said Lubanga was a man of peace who upset the Congolese government and opponents in neighboring Uganda by advocating sharing Congo's mineral wealth. Lubanga, the former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, was arrested in March 2005 by authorities in Kinshasa as part of a crackdown aimed at restoring order to Ituri in the aftermath of the slaying and mutilation of nine U.N. peacekeepers there. A rival warlord has been arrested in Congo and charged in the peacekeeper killings. Lubanga is the only suspect in the custody of the world court, which was established in 2002. He also is the first person to be charged at an international court with using child soldiers and prosecutors intend the case to send a message around the world that arming and using children to wage wars will not be tolerated. Thousands of people were killed in fighting that continued in Ituri even after the country's 1998-2002 civil war ended. The judges will decide whether to confirm charges against Lubanga and order him to stand trial based on a preliminary hearing of evidence in November.
[Last modified January 29, 2007, 00:09:08]
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