Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga trained child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape, a prosecutor has told the International Criminal Court at the start of its first war crimes trial.
Lubanga (48) has pleaded not guilty on the first day of the historic trial, which opened more than six years after the ICC was set up as the world’s first permanent war crimes court.
Lubanga, an ethnic Hema, is accused of enlisting and 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 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ICC prosecutors say child soldiers recruited by the UPC were involved in hostilities between October 2002 and June 2003. Some of them were forced to kill, while others lost their lives in combat.
In an opening address to the Hague-based court yesterday, 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,” Mr Ocampo said. “Hundreds of children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga’s crimes.
“They cannot forget what they suffered, what they did, what they saw.” – (Reuters)