DR CONGO/FILE: Congolese Justice Minister confirms that rebel leader Thomas Lubanga has been handed over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague

Record ID: 872762

  • Title: DR CONGO/FILE: Congolese Justice Minister confirms that rebel leader Thomas Lubanga has been handed over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague
  • Date: 18th March 2006
  • Summary: (BN12)KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (MARCH 17, 2006) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN THE STREETS OF KINSHASA (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA0H7XY7009FHSF0KOISX6VB6N
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  • Story Text: Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday (March 17) confirmed that rebel leader Thomas Lubanga had been handed over to the International Criminal Court.
    Justice Minister Kissi Mba Ngoy told journalist the rebel leader, suspected of ordering the killing of nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers last year, had been handed over to the International Criminal Court.
    Lubanga, who left aboard a French military plane, was expected to arrive in The Netherlands later on Friday.
    "Thomas Lubanga Dyilo ... was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court ... Thomas Lubanga must answer for war crimes," the International Criminal Court (ICC) said in a statement.
    Lubanga leads the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic militia now registered as a political party and accused of widespread human rights abuses in eastern Congo's lawless Ituri district.
    The ICC was set up as the first permanent global war crimes court to try individuals, and Lubanga is the first suspect to be delivered into its custody.
    The ICC issued its first warrants last year for five leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which also operates in northeast Congo. It has launched investigations into war crimes in Congo and Sudan's Darfur region.
    The United States is firmly opposed to the new court, fearing it will be abused for politically motivated cases against its troops and citizens.
    Lubanga's UPC, dominated by the Hema ethnic group, stands accused of widespread human rights violations in Ituri, where a range of foreign and local militias have raped, looted and murdered civilians during and since Congo's 1998-2003 war.
    Lubanga was arrested in March 2005 in the Congolese capital Kinshasa, where he had moved more than a year earlier and registered the UPC as a political party.
    His arrest was part of a U.N. crackdown after nine Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers were killed in February 2005 in the deadliest attack on the world body's biggest peacekeeping force.
    U.N. military sources said Lubanga was suspected of ordering the attack from Kinshasa. Other militia leaders also accused of involvement have been arrested and detained in Kinshasa.
    Tens of thousands of people have been killed during years of militia violence in Ituri, one of Congo's most violent areas.
    In all, the war and subsequent militia violence is estimated to have killed 4 million Congolese, mostly through hunger and disease caused by the conflict.
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