Warlord found guilty

were killed.
Lubanga (51) was found guilty of enlisting child soldiers to fight for his militia in a gold-rich region during the bloody four-year war in the Democratic Republic of Congo which ended in 2003.
“The chamber reached its decision unanimously that the prosecution has proved Thomas Lubanga guilty of crimes of conscription and enlisting children under the age of 15 and used them to participate in hostilities,” presiding Judge Adrian Fulford told the Hague-based court, set up in 2002. The evidence demonstrated that children endured harsh training regiments and were subjected to hard punishment,” Fulford said.
The evidence demonstrated that the children were “deployed  and took part in the fighting.”
First transferred to The Hague in 2006, the alleged founder of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and chief commander of its military wing, went on trial in January 2009.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors told the court that militia under Lubanga’s control abducted and conscripted children as young as 11 from their homes, schools and football fields to serve as soldiers, and that young girls were used as sex slaves.
The ICC is the world’s only permanent criminal tribunal to try genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Lubanga will be sentenced at a later stage, the court said.
He faces up to 30 years in jail or, if judges decide the crimes were exceptionally grave, he could be jailed for life. Lubanga will remain behind bars at the ICC detention facility in the nearby seaside Hague suburb of Scheveningen.
The rebel leader will however have 30 days to appeal the verdict once he has been given a transcript of the sentencing translated into French, a process which may take several months.
During the trial Lubanga’s lawyers accused the prosecution of fabricating evidence with the help of intermediaries used to find witnesses, and claimed that individuals were paid to give false testimony.
Judge Fulford rapped the prosecution, saying it did fail in some instances to verify testimony organised through intermediaries. During 204 days of hearings, prosecutors called 36 witnesses, the defence 24, and three represented victims.
The ICC, the world’s only independent, permanent tribunal to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, has issued four arrest warrants for crimes in the DRC and is investigating seven cases, all in Africa.
Two militia leaders, Germain Katanga (33), and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui (41) who fought against Lubanga, are facing trial on similar charges. — AFP.