A former child soldier told prosecutors this week that commanders in defendant Thomas Lubanga’s militia ordered the recruits to rape. “Did you rape girls?” Prosecutor Manoj Sachdeva asked the unnamed witness. “Yes, I raped once,” the witness said, explaining that the rape occurred after a battle against ethnic Lendu fighters in the Ituri village of…
Prosecutors in the trial of accused militia leader Thomas Lubanga on Friday presented their fourth former child soldier, who told the court that he volunteered for the militia. “We had nothing to do, so we went with [the soldiers],” the witness told Prosecutor Julieta Solano McCausland. The witness agreed to use the pseudonym “Patrick” while…
During a brief public session on Thursday, lawyers pressed a former child soldier on details surrounding his alleged abduction and conscription into defendant Thomas Lubanga’s militia. The unnamed witness told prosecutors on Wednesday that he was at school when he saw soldiers arrive to take children away. He fled to his home, but the soldiers…
A former child soldier told prosecutors today that he was ordered to rape and kidnap women. “When we were sent to get girls from families [in the village], the commanders said to … carry out activities which were not good,” said the unnamed witness. “These [activities] entailed taking girls by force,” he continued. “That is,…
Thomas Lubanga’s defense lawyers on Tuesday probed discrepancies in the testimony of a former child soldier between his original statement and his comments in court. On the stand for the third consecutive day, the unnamed witness told prosecutors that he was wounded in a battle with Ugandan soldiers in 2003. A vehicle was called to…
Defense lawyer Catherine Mabille grilled a witness about the 2007 statement he gave to court investigators, during Monday’s brief public session in the trial of Thomas Lubanga. Although the witness confirmed that he had signed the French version of his statement, he claimed that he never initialed it, raising doubts regarding the validity of the…
A former child soldier told prosecutors today that he was abducted on three separate occasions by soldiers in Thomas Lubanga’s militia and wounded in battle. “During a war, you have to fight,” said the unnamed witness, who testified in Swahili with digital face and voice distortion. He said he was shot in the leg during…
Prosecutors relied heavily this week on video evidence that appeared to show children in military uniforms with accused militia leader Thomas Lubanga. “I saw them,” an unnamed witness said of the children in the videos. The witness was present at the filming of most of the video clips shown at the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
The defense cross-examined an unnamed witness on Thursday about a video clip depicting a large group of children singing for defendant Thomas Lubanga. “Is this song a military song?” asked Jean-Marie Biju-Duval, one of Lubanga’s lawyers. “Yes,” responded the unnamed witness, who was testifying for the fourth consecutive day. The witness was present when the…
In an unedited video interview shown in court on Wednesday, defendant Thomas Lubanga denied using child soldiers to fight in his militia. In the video, Lubanga is shown speaking with an unidentified British journalist. Lubanga alleges that it was the Ugandan army who “armed some children” in various militia groups in the Ituri region, not…
Thomas Lubanga on trial at the International Criminal Court. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is the first person to be tried by the International Criminal Court. A former rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lubanga is accused of conscripting, enlisting, and using child soldiers. More
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