Thomas Lubanga, a rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was found guilty on Wednesday of recruiting and enlisting boys and girls under the age of 15 and using them in war, in the first ruling by the International Criminal Court since it began its work 10 years ago.
The decision, which came after a halting, arduous three-year trial, firmly establishes as an international crime the use of children in war — a practice that still enslaves tens of thousands of the young. The ruling adds to the rush of attention to another suspect wanted by the court, Joseph Kony, the leader of the dwindling Lord’s Resistance Army, which for years turned abducted children into soldiers as it marauded through at least four central African countries. But it also underscores some of the failings and limits of the prosecution’s approach. The rebels under Mr. Lubanga’s command were known to have pillaged, raped and killed many civilians in enemy villages, but prosecutors said when he was handed to The Hague in 2006 that the best evidence they had was about child recruiting. The judges strongly reprimanded the prosecution on Wednesday, saying it had been negligent and had delegated investigations to unreliable paid go-betweens who had encouraged witnesses to give false testimony. Two of the three judges wrote dissenting opinions, which were not immediately released.
In a packed courtroom, Mr. Lubanga, 51, dressed in an elegant white ceremonial robe, looked down as the presiding judge, Adrian Fulford of Britain, said that the evidence had confirmed that he and fellow fighters had enlisted boys and girls, sometimes by force; put them through harsh training; punished them; deployed them in fighting; and subjected girls to sexual violence. Mr. Lubanga, who held a degree in psychology and once worked as a teacher and trader, went on to lead a rebel group in the Ituri region, where the local press reported that he asked every family to contribute a cow, money or a child to his militia. He told the court that he was only the political leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots and had discouraged deploying children. But the judges found that in 2002 and 2003, during a brutal ethnic conflict in the northeast of Congo, Mr. Lubanga also led his group’s military wing, provided weapons, ammunition, food and uniforms and made speeches in the Ituri region “encouraging children to join the army.” Videos presented in court showed Mr. Lubanga in training camps in the presence of uniformed children. Although the conflict in Ituri, fueled by rivalries for power and control over mineral riches, dated to the 1990s, the court’s jurisdiction only went into effect in 2002.
In the coming weeks, the court is expected to issue its sentence of Mr. Lubanga and hold hearings on reparations for his victims. He has 30 days to appeal the court’s verdict. The verdict was welcomed by human rights groups.
Navi Pillay, the South African who is the United Nations human rights commissioner, said that “for many years, and on a daily basis, we have been documenting gross violations of human rights of the sort perpetrated by Lubanga against the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” She said that the Lubanga verdict represented the coming of age of the court and that it sent “a strong signal against impunity for such grave breaches of international law that will reverberate well beyond the D.R.C.”
The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands of boys and girls, some only 8 years old, are involved in numerous conflicts in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Roméo Dallaire, the former Canadian general who commanded the outnumbered United Nations force in Rwanda during the genocide, turned his focus afterward to halting the use of child soldiers. Now a Canadian senator, he said recently that more than 250,000 children, about 40 percent of them girls, are used as messengers, bodyguards, soldiers or sex slaves in conflicts in more than 30 countries.
Some lawyers believe that the ruling dealing with the gravity of sending children into war could help change legal attitudes, if not practices, worldwide. In recent years, other international courts, including those that tried war crimes in Sierra Leone and Rwanda, have addressed similar crimes. But the International Criminal Court, an independent institution now joined by 120 nations, with its broad mandate and scope, carries a particular weight. Still, in Congo, there was some skepticism that the ruling would be able to stop militias from recruiting children. “Over the last 20 years, various militia have conscripted children,” said Aloys Tegera of the Pole Institute, a research group based in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. “Any new militia born will do exactly the same.” He called it a “hope” that the Lubanga verdict would “become a deterrent for warlordism still rampant in the Kivus,” referring to ravaged provinces in the east, and that the court’s critics regard it as a “political instrument.” Even supporters of the court have been ambivalent or critical about the prosecution’s handling of the case. Intense confrontations between prosecutors and judges took place in court as the two sides sought to control the trial. Several times the case came close to imploding.
On two occasions, Mr. Fulford, an experienced British judge, called a halt to the proceedings and ordered Mr. Lubanga released. He said the prosecution’s errors in dealing with evidence and its refusal to follow orders from the bench were making a fair trial impossible. Both times, appeals judges ordered the trial resumed and the errors corrected. Defense lawyers produced evidence that several witnesses, presented as former child soldiers, had given evidence that had been fabricated with the help of researchers for the prosecution
International treaties that prohibit recruiting children have set the age of conscription or other involvement in hostilities at 18, three years older than the limit used by the judges at the court in The Hague. Some activists hope that drafters of future peace treaties will be prompted to recognize the special plight of underage soldiers, perhaps making provisions to start the difficult process to help them rejoin civilian society. Several programs are already under way in Africa. Social workers say that even if children have enlisted willingly, looking for food, status or protection, they are often still damaged by war-time violence and drugs.
Source: New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment