May 4, 2010

Voices From The Ground – Voxpops from Kashugho in DRC

By Wanda Hall

EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers: here is another update from the ground from our friends at Interactive Radio for Justice.  This time, their voxpops are from Kashugho in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the second of our regular instalments from IRfJ – I hope you enjoy (you can also listen to the…

April 23, 2010

Voices from the Ground: Goma, DRC

By Wanda Hall

NOTE FROM EDITORS: Dear Readers, our colleagues at Interactive Radio for Justice compiled a series of vox-pop interviews with people in the Democratic Republic of Congo – who come from the communities most affected by the crimes being prosecuted at the ICC — to find out what they think about the trials at the Court, including Thomas Lubanga’s.  Below…

March 15, 2010

Interview: ICC Prosecutors Will Refute Allegations That Intermediaries Manipulated Evidence in Lubanga Case

By Wairagala Wakabi

Béatrice Le Fraper du Hellen is the Head of the Jurisdiction Complementarity and Cooperation Division of the Office of The Prosecutor (OTP) at the International Criminal Court. She spoke to the Lubanga Trial website’s Wairagala Wakabi about the role which intermediaries played in the war crimes case against former Congolese leader Thomas Lubanga, the view…

January 27, 2010

Lubanga’s Defense Opening Statement – Witnesses Lied, Lubanga is Not Guilty

By Wairagala Wakabi

NOTE FROM EDITOR: Below is an unofficial transcript of the opening statement of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo’s defense team today, presented by his lead counsel, Catherine Mabille. It seems clear the defense is going to take two tracks in the coming months: (1) challenge the truthfulness and integrity of prosecution witnesses, arguing that many of them were not in…

January 24, 2010

As another trial restarts at the ICC……

By Tracey Gurd

As the defense case for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is set to start this week, another trial focussed on the Democratic Republic of Congo will also pick up speed again at the International Criminal Court: the trial focussed on Germaine Katanga and Matthieu Ngudjolo. And their trial is being followed by a great site run by the…

January 13, 2010

Q&A With Luc Walleyn, Lawyer For Victims In Lubanga’s Trial

By Wairagala Wakabi

Luc Walleyn’s team has represented 22 of the 103 victims participating in the Thomas Lubanga trial since 2006. He spoke to the Lubanga Trial website’s Wairagala Wakabi about the importance of victims participating in ICC trials, the opportunity missed by not charging Lubanga with sexual crimes, and why the victims’ lawyers are not happy with…

January 7, 2010

What’s The Buzz About The Trial’s First Day Back?

By Tracey Gurd

Media buzz around the Lubanga trial spiked again today as the UN expert on Children in Armed Conflict, took to the stand as an expert witness to testify about the  plight of girl soldiers in particular when judges contemplate the definition of the crimes of conscripting, enlisting and using child soldier to participate actively in…

January 7, 2010

And now, over to Thomas Lubanga…..

By Tracey Gurd

In the coming months, we will now get to hear Thomas Lubanga’s side of the story. Between January and July last year, we heard horror stories from prosecution witnesses, often former child soldiers, who told of life as a child soldier in the UPC militia camps – the rapes by camp commanders; children abducted on their…

August 10, 2009

Voices From the Ground

By Charles Mukandirwa Wetemwami

The Lubanga trial project, a joint initiative of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting Netherlands and the Open Society Justice Initiative, went on the road last month – to the city of Bukavu in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province. DRC project coordinator Charles Mukandirwa and office assistant Backar Burubi met with lawyers, NGOs, journalists,…

June 22, 2009

Voices From The Ground On The Lubanga Trial

By Charles Mukandirwa Wetemwami

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting Netherlands, IWPR, in partnership with Open Society Justice Initiative has been meeting with local actors in the DRC to understand how much they know about the International Criminal Court, ICC, and the trial of Thomas Lubanga. The impressions so far in North Kivu province from both civil society…