Congolese Thomas Lubanga Trial Resumes at The Hague

A year after his trial began, the defense team of a Congolese warloard accused of turning children into deadly-forces soldiers began its presentation at the International Criminal Court.

The trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, also the first suspect to be arrested by The Hague-based ICC, also marks the first in the history of international law to see the active participation of victims in the proceedings, including child combatants.

Lubanga, founder and leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots in the Ituri region of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, faces two counts of war crimes: conscripting and enlisting child soldiers into the military wing of his group and engaging them in hostilities between September 2002 and August 2003.

The prosecutor’s handling of the case has been criticized by human rights groups. At points in the trial it appeared that all might collapse, leaving Lubanga to go free.

The defense team will present about 30 witness in the coming months, most who have not asked for additonal protection not to testify. Most of the prosecution’s 30 witnesses were granted protective measures, including voice and facial distortions and the use of pseudonyms.

With Thomas Lubanga Dyilo’s case being the first, the second trial relating to atrocities in the Congo began last November. Germain Katanga, a senior commander from the group known as the Force de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), faces three counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes for a deadly assault on the village of Bogoro, in the province of Ituri. Hundreds of people were killed and many women forced into sexual slavery in that February 2003 attack.

Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, a former commander of the rebel National Integrationalist Front (FNI), is on trial with Katanga.  He faces three counts of crimes against humanity and six of war crimes, and is alleged to have played a key role in designing and carrying out the Bogoro attack. via Defence kicks off case for Congolese warlord at International Criminal Court UN

More reading: UN Envoy for children visits World Criminal Court in The Hague UN Radio

Congo Militia leader Thomas Lubanga ‘trained child soldiers to kill’ Guardian UK

Update on Sat, September 11, 2010 by Anne

Victims Say Lubanga Release Would Put Their Lives At Risk Aug. 31, 2010