A protected witness testified at the International Criminal Court (ICC) entirely in closed session on Thursday. While his role was not disclosed, he spoke very briefly about the Ituri conflict in open court on Wednesday before the proceedings adjourned. “When I set up my activities in [Ituri] in 1998 … there was latent conflict there,…
Defense lawyers questioned a witness today on why he repeatedly hid his weapon after leaving the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC). “If you were caught with your weapon, they would take it from you and you would be arrested,” the witness told Marc Desalliers, one of Lubanga’s lawyers. The witness, who continued his testimony from…
Commanders in Thomas Lubanga’s militia impregnated young female recruits, a former soldier in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) told prosecutors on Tuesday. “[The commanders] took girls and would get them pregnant, and then these girls had to leave the camp and go [back] to the village,” said the witness, who trained young recruits at…
A protected witness scheduled to testify this week against accused Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga told judges that he had given a false name and statement to investigators. The witness was the second for prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to recant testimony in the Lubanga trial. The first witness ultimately testified, and the…
An expert on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) told the court Wednesday that militias in the Ituri region often made contradictory statements about the use of child soldiers. The militia leaders would both justify the use of child soldiers and then deny they did it, said Roberto Garreton, a Chilean lawyer and former…
Defendant Thomas Lubanga told new military recruits that he wanted to transform the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a witness revealed to prosecutors on Thursday. “[Lubanga] simply asked the men to be calm, and said the [Union of Congolese Patriots] wanted peace and that we were going to remake our country,” explained the unnamed…
A former child soldier told prosecutors on Thursday that he was beaten when he arrived at a military training camp allegedly run by Thomas Lubanga and other commanders in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC). “Can you describe how you were beaten?” asked prosecutor Nicole Samson. “No, I can’t,” the unnamed witness replied. “I might…
The Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia received arms from Rwanda when supplies from Uganda became unreliable, a witness at the Thomas Lubanga trial said on Wednesday. The witness also recalled seeing “hundreds” of child soldiers being trained at camps run by the UPC. Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese who remains free despite an ICC warrant…
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…
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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