Judge Adrian Fulford on Friday directed court officers to install a signal light system for closed sessions in order to better protect witnesses. The directive came during the continuing testimony of a former junior commander in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia, who briefly provided information in a public session that was supposed to…
To date, 93 victims have been granted participation status in the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, and although it is early days in the proceedings their presence is already being felt in the courtroom. Lubanga’s trial began on January 26 with the opening statements of seven victims’ representatives. The victims are mostly former child soldiers,…
A former platoon commander in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia on Thursday confirmed the presence of child soldiers in the militia, and that Thomas Lubanga was the group’s leader. The witness, who testified only briefly in public session and with sound and visual distortion to protect his identity, said the child soldiers in…
Experts asked to establish the age of some former child soldier witnesses in the Lubanga trial admitted on Wednesday that the methods they used were not foolproof. Despite the admission, the experts told Thomas Lubanga’s attorney Marc Desalliers that the age-determination techniques were the most reliable that are currently in use. Dr. Caroline Rey-Salmon, a…
An age-determination expert said Tuesday that x-ray images taken of former child soldiers in the militia of accused Congolese leader Thomas Lubanga, indicate some were around the age of 15 years. According to the prosecution, the images were taken at the end of 2007 and in January 2008. This would suggest that the former child…
Former social worker Serge Kilo Ngabu said he was asked by a commander in the militia of accused Congolese leader Thomas Lubanga to arrange a meeting to quell ethnic fighting in the troubled Ituri region. Under cross-examination by Lubanga’s defense counsel Catherine Mabille, the former social worker said he was approached about a meeting to…
The rapid rise of accused Congolese leader Thomas Lubanga within the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and his role in the group’s militia were revealed this week in his trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Lubanga started as a bean seller at a market in the Ituri regional center of Bunia in…
A social worker who helped to reintegrate former child soldiers in Congo’s Ituri district told the court on Thursday that some families were unhappy when their children left militia groups. “We had huge difficulties to reintegrate them as many families were hostile to their returning,” said the witness, Serge Kilo Ngabu. “Many families considered this…
An attempt by a rich family in Bunia to drive ethnic Lendu from their land sparked the Ituri region’s bloody ethnic conflict, according to testimony on Wednesday. Continuing his testimony from the previous day, a former political leader in Ituri told the Lubanga trial that the Savo family, ethnic Hema who were financial backers of…
The Thomas Lubanga trial resumed on Tuesday with a former political leader in the Ituri region telling the court that Uganda trained hundreds of Congolese fighters, including children, who later served in Lubanga’s militia. The witness also said Lubanga sold beans at Bunia market before he became a spokesperson for Hema ethnic militias, and later…
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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