DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Congolese people welcome militia leader Thomas Lubanga's trial in the Hague

Record ID: 561635

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Congolese people welcome militia leader Thomas Lubanga's trial in the Hague
  • Date: 27th January 2009
  • Summary: KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (JANUARY 26, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE JUSTICE PALACE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SITTING ON THE STAIRS OF PALACE OF JUSTICE, D.R. CONGO FLAGS IN FRONT OF STAIRS (SOUNDBITE) (French) KINSHASA RESIDENT, ALEXI KAMANGANITETE, SAYING: "It is really a good thing, we are happy because the bad people need to be judged, we cannot have them get away without being judged every time." MAUSOLEUM OF LAURENT DESIREE KABILA, VARIOUS CARS AND PEOPLE ON STREET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AND CARS WOMAN GETTING OUT OF CAR, TELECOM VENDOR IN BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (French) KINSHASA RESIDENT, INNOCENT KONDOLI, SAYING: "It must show to all old warlords that they cannot repeat such things, it is a lesson, what they did was really bad." FOOD STANDS AND MONEY CHANGERS, VARIOUS PEOPLE WALKING PAST STANDS (SOUNDBITE) (French) KINSHASA RESIDENT, INNOCENT KONDOLI, SAYING: "We are all parents, who can't accept that their child from the age of six to ten years old, so who is still a youngster, can carry a gun. A child is innocent." DRC FLAG OUTSIDE PALAIS DE JUSTICE
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA8HO724QWO3IQR6AHL687TVMAJ
  • Story Text: Ordinary Congolese people on the streets of Kinshasa on Monday (January 26) welcomed Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga's trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague.
    Lubanga stands accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape, according to a prosecutor.
    Lubanga, 48, pleaded not guilty on the first day of the historic trial, which opened more than six years after the ICC was set up as the world's first permanent war crimes court.
    An ethnic Hema, he is accused of enlisting and conscripting children under 15 to his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in Congo's eastern Ituri district to kill rival Lendus in a 1998-2003 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    ICC prosecutors say child soldiers recruited by the UPC were involved in hostilities between October 2002 and June 2003, and that some of them were forced to kill, while others lost their lives in combat.
    Most ordinary people on the streets of Kinshasa welcomed the trial in the Hague.
    "It is really a good thing, we are happy because the bad people need to be judged, we cannot have them get away without being judged every time," Alexi Kamanganitete said.
    "It must show to all old warlords that they cannot repeat such things, it is a lesson, what they did was really bad," Innocent Kondoli, another Kinshasa man said.

    "We are all parents, who can't accept that their child from the age of six to ten years old, so who is still a youngster, can carry a gun. A child is innocent," Kondoli added.
    In an opening address to the court, chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Lubanga committed the most serious crimes of concern to the international community -- crimes against children.
    More than 30,000 children were recruited during the conflict in Congo, many given marijuana and told they were protected by witchcraft, according to Bukeni Waruzi, the Africa and Middle East coordinator for human rights group Witness.
    Some of the children were now using drugs, some had become prostitutes, and others were jobless, Moreno-Ocampo said. Court officials say the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
    Lubanga's trial had been due to start in June 2008, but judges postponed because the defence was unable to view some evidence against him.
    The matter was resolved in November when prosecutors began releasing documents to the defence that had been provided on condition of confidentiality to protect sources in war zones.
    But some procedural measures are still pending.
    The three-judge court has allowed 93 victims to take part in the case and give evidence. They can also seek compensation.
    Four of the victims are among the 34 witnesses that prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo will call during the trial, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
    Ethnic violence in the Ituri region between the Hema and Lendu, and clashes between militia groups vying for control of mines and taxation, have killed 60,000 people since 1999.
    Lubanga was handed over to the court in 2006 after Congo referred the case to the ICC prosecutor in March 2004.
    The defence will make its opening statement on Tuesday.
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