ICC's first war crimes trial to open June 23
THE HAGUE (AFP) — The International Criminal Court said Thursday that its first war crimes trial, involving former Congolese militia chief Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, would open on June 23.
Lubanga, 46, is accused of abducting children under the age of 15 and forcing them to participate in attacks by the armed wing of his political Union of Congolese Patriots during wars that ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo.
His trial was initially scheduled to start March 31 but was postponed over logistical and procedural issues.
It will be the first trial for the ICC, which was set up six years ago as a worldwide permanent court mandated to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Since the court took up its functions in 2002 the ICC has opened four investigations into crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan and the Central African Republic and issued 10 arrest warrants.
The court can only try cases involving states that are party to the ICC, 105 countries at the moment, and cases referred to it by the UN Security Council.
For the DRCongo the ICC has issued three arrest warrants and currently has three Congolese war crimes suspects in custody.
Lubanga was transferred to the court in March 2006. Two of his rival war lords, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, arrived at the ICC detention unit in October 2007 and February 2008 respectively.
The prosecutor accuses the three men of crimes committed in the mineral rich Ituri region of the DRCongo.
Ituri was from 1999 wracked by ethnic bloodshed between the Hema and Lendu peoples as well as being embroiled in the broader rebel war that raged in the DRC between 1998 and 2003, drawing in more than half a dozen foreign African armies on rival sides.
In the Lubanga case the charge of enlisting child soldiers, a war crime, was upheld in a special hearing last year, after the prosecution produced evidence from many of Lubanga's alleged recruits.
Lubanga's trial will be a real test for the ICC which has raised many hopes in the past six years and already delivered some disappointments.
Many non-governmental organisations have called for Lubanga, who was arrested in Kinshasa in 2005, to be indicted for sexual violence and massacres and not just for conscripting children. There was also criticism that Lubanga is a relatively small fish.
Despite efforts by the court to try and hold some hearings in the DRCongo the trial will be conducted entirely in The Hague, far away from the victims.
In a pre-trial hearing Wednesday, British judge Adrian Fulford said the court's requests to hold hearings there were refused by the Congolese authorities on the grounds they would "cause tensions".
Lubanga's case will mark the first time in international justice that victims will be able to participate in the trial through their lawyers and could demand reparations if Lubanga is found guilty.
