ICC’’s first war crimes trial gets under way
THE HAGUE: The first-ever trial of the International Criminal Court started in Hague on Monday with Congolese militiaman Thomas Lubanga accused of war crimes for using child soldiers.”At this stage our client would like to plead not guilty,” said Catherine Mabille, Lubanga’’s lawyer.Lubanga, 48, is accused of recruiting hundreds of children under the age of 15 to fight in the armed wing of his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo between September 2002 and August 2003.Humanitarian groups say inter-ethnic fighting and violence involving militia groups in the DR Congo’’s eastern Ituri region, centered on control over one of the world’’s most lucrative gold-mining territories, has claimed some 60,000 lives since 1999 and created hundreds of thousands of refugees.ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is set to make an opening statement to the court on Monday, followed by lawyers for 93 alleged victims and then the defence.The prosecution has listed 34 witnesses, including former child soldiers, ex-members of militia groups involved in the Ituri fighting, and an array of experts in such specialty areas as determining the age of a child from bone x-rays.The first witness, a former child soldier, is to take the stand on Wednesday, followed by his father. Lubanga is being held at the United Nations detention centre in the seaside townb of Scheveningen near The Hague.
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