[Infowarrior] - Global court confirms charges for first trial

[Richard Forno]

Global court confirms charges for first trial
Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:00 AM ET
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-
29T150003Z_01_L29142440_RTRUKOC_0_US-WARCRIMES-CONGO.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

By Emma Thomasson

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Monday
there was enough evidence against a Congolese militiaman to launch the new
court's first trial.

The decision to confirm charges and pave the way for a trial against Thomas
Lubanga, accused of recruiting child soldiers, is a major landmark for the
ICC, set up as the first permanent global war crimes court in 2002.

"The chamber confirms the charges brought by the prosecution," Judge Claude
Jorda told the court. "Thomas Lubanga Dyilo should be committed for trial."

Democratic Republic of Congo -- rich in gold, diamonds and timber -- was the
battleground for rebels, local factions, tribes and several neighboring
countries in a 1998-2003 war in which 4 million people died, mainly from
hunger and disease.

Prosecutors say Lubanga, the founder and leader of a militia in the Ituri
district, trained children as young as 10 to kill, made them kill and let
them be killed in 2002-03.

The 46-year-old, who holds a degree in psychology, has denied the charges.
His lawyer has accused the prosecution of withholding information he needs
to prepare the defense.

Lubanga is the only suspect to be delivered so far to the court that issued
its first arrest warrants in 2005 for leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), who have led a 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of
thousands.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also plans to charge suspects soon
for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, which the U.N. Security Council
asked him to investigate in 2005.

The United States has fiercely opposed the ICC, fearing it would be used for
politically motivated prosecutions of its soldiers and citizens, but its
hostility to the court is waning and it abstained when the Security Council
voted on Darfur.

Lubanga, leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic militia
now registered as a political party, is accused of using children to kill
members of the Lendu ethnic group.

Ethnic violence in the Ituri 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.

Up to 30,000 children were associated with Congo's armed groups at the
height of the war. The United Nations estimates there are as many as 300,000
child soldiers worldwide.

The ICC prosecutors' indictment said the children, who often joined the
militia because of their desperate need for food or desire to avenge their
murdered families, were subject to systematic military training and severe
discipline.

The ICC is separate from the International Court of Justice, the highest
legal authority of the United Nations known as the World Court which is also
based in The Hague and which was set up in 1946 to resolve disputes between
states.