ICC begins key trial with Congo
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 27, 2009 00:00
THEHAGUE, Netherlands - A Congolese warlord pleaded not guilty to recruiting child soldiers and sending them to fight and die in ethnic battles as the International Criminal Court began its historic first trial yesterday.
The trial of Thomas Lubanga has been hailed as a legal landmark because it is the first international criminal prosecution to focus solely on child soldiers.
Wearing a dark suit and red tie, Lubanga showed no emotion as his French lawyer, Catherine Mabille, said he pleaded not guilty to using children under age 15 as soldiers in the armed wing of his Union of Congolese Patriots political party in 2002-03. Lubanga's militia "recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, pillage and rape. The children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga's crimes," prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a three-judge panel in his opening statement. "They cannot forget what they suffered, what they saw, what they did."
Moreno-Ocampo showed judges video of Lubanga at a training camp. The footage featured young men and children, some dressed in military fatigues, others in T-shirts and shorts. The U.N. estimates that up to 250,000 child soldiers are still fighting in more than a dozen countries around the world.
Wearing a dark suit and red tie, Lubanga showed no emotion as his French lawyer, Catherine Mabille, said he pleaded not guilty to using children under age 15 as soldiers in the armed wing of his Union of Congolese Patriots political party in 2002-03. Lubanga's militia "recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, pillage and rape. The children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga's crimes," prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a three-judge panel in his opening statement. "They cannot forget what they suffered, what they saw, what they did."
Moreno-Ocampo showed judges video of Lubanga at a training camp. The footage featured young men and children, some dressed in military fatigues, others in T-shirts and shorts. The U.N. estimates that up to 250,000 child soldiers are still fighting in more than a dozen countries around the world.