Congo: Supporters of the International Criminal Court say Thomas Dyilo's trial could help lay to rest scepticism about the institution's effectiveness, writes Nora Boustany
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to begin its first case this week in The Hague, where a three-judge panel is to hear charges and evidence against Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who has been indicted as one of Africa's most notorious recruiters of child soldiers.
The hearing, set for tomorrow, is a necessary procedural step before Lubanga can be brought to trial. The case is unusual because Lubanga is being prosecuted solely for the forcible enlistment of children younger than 15, a war crime that can be prosecuted under the international court's jurisdiction.
The court was established in 2002, despite strong objections from the United States and a global US lobbying campaign aimed at stopping other countries from participating.
Supporters of the court say that how the upcoming proceedings unfold might lay to rest some scepticism on the part of its critics about the court's effectiveness and establish precedents for other cases - such as those concerning northern Uganda and the Darfur region of Sudan - that the ICC is investigating with tacit US support.
While the US is not a party to the International Criminal Court, 102 countries, Ireland included, have ratified the treaty, called the Rome Statute, which brought it into being. After years of official US hostility, the debate in some military and political circles in America seems to be shifting to how its policy and the court's goals intersect.
"Before, the ICC's critics were afraid it would be abused to scrutinise Americans in the military. But that is not why it is here," said Raj Purohit, a senior fellow with Citizens for Global Solutions, a non-governmental organisation that supports the tribunal.
"The court exists to bring to justice horrendous war criminals who have done terrible things, such as Lubanga." The United States has helped set up separate, UN-backed tribunals of limited duration to try war crimes suspects from conflicts in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia. Saddam Hussein was tried in an Iraqi court set up with US assistance.
While it has a relationship with the United Nations, the International Criminal Court is independent, with its own budget, using funds supplied by participating member governments. In addition to ICC member states, the UN Security Council can refer cases to the court. Proceedings can be suspended for a year at a time in the interest of peace negotiations or other specific circumstances.
On August 28th, the office of Fatou Bensouda, the ICC's deputy prosecutor, filed its evidence and charges alleging Lubanga deliberately rounded up child soldiers and funded military training camps and the arms the children would carry. The evidence includes testimony from six child soldiers.
Lubanga was arrested in March 2005, and a year later was transferred to a Dutch prison unit in The Hague reserved for the ICC. He has denied the charges and faces a possible maximum life sentence if convicted.
Hearings in the case have been postponed twice - once to give Lubanga's lawyers the required 60 days to prepare a defence, and a second time to ensure that "protective measures for victims and witnesses were in place", Bensouda said.
Four million people perished during the 1998-2003 Congo conflict, known as Africa's "first World War". Two million people have been displaced. Six countries became involved in the Congo crisis, arming militias and fuelling killing sprees.
"This would be the first time we have a real attempt to stem the cycle of atrocities and impunity that has fuelled the continuation of the conflict," said John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, the Brussels-based conflict analysis organisation.
Only three years ago, Lubanga, commander of an ethnic Hema rebel group in control of the eastern town of Bunia, gave an interview to the Washington Post as he lounged on an outdoor sofa at one of his three villas. Child recruits who doubled as bodyguards brought him trays of tea and trimmed the hedges framing his garden. He said he had taken in the children because they had nowhere to go and promised to remove them from armed service. A year later, they were still there with him.
At the height of the fighting, Lubanga had 3,000 child soldiers between the ages of eight and 15, according to human rights organisations.
At the same time, according to the United Nations, there were nearly 300,000 child soldiers fighting in 30 countries, 75 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
Amnesty International has interviewed children who described being given drugs to prompt them to fight - making it difficult for these young recruits to return home or survive otherwise. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)