Congo warlord guilty of conscripting child soldiers

Former DR Congo militia leader Thomas Lubanga is guilty “beyond any possible doubt” of conscripting child soldiers, the International Criminal Court heard yesterday in the closing stages of its first ever trial.

Mr Lubanga, 50, is accused of using children under the age of 15 to fight for his militia during the Democratic Republic of Congo’s five-year civil war, which ended in 2003.

“The evidence submitted in this case show not only beyond reasonable doubt but beyond any possible doubt that Thomas Lubanga is guilty,” deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told judges at the Hague-based court.

“Those children were trained in about 20 camps around Ituri... they were used to rape and pillage.” Mr Lubanga’s trial began in January 2009 and the international tribunal has also since begun the trials of two other militia leaders from the DRC who fought against his militia.

“Thomas Lubanga, in a plan with others, systematically enrolled children under the age of 15,” Ms Bensouda told the world war crimes court.

She said child soldiers fighting for Lubanga’s Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC) were subjected to the “most cruel training” and beaten when they were sick or tired.

“Those who have no visible scars on their body keep scars that will remain within,” she said. “The case we present is a plea of humanity to law,” added Benjamin Ferencz, a former Nuremberg prosecutor and special counsel to the prosecutor’s office.

“Words and figures cannot adequately portray the physical and psychological harm inflicted on vulnerable children. Imagine the pain of mothers... still wondering what happened to their child,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of victims, their legal representative Paolina Massida the trial was “historic for the thousands of victims in Ituri hoping that justice will be done.”

“Nothing and no one can erase the terrifying moments when they had to look death in the face,” she said when talking about child soldiers.