By: Priscila Néri, Posted: Feb 26 09

Regions: Africa, Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Issues: Armed conflict, Child soldiers, War crimes

Tags: A Duty to Protect, child soldiers, childrens rights, DRC, icc, International Justice, Lubanga, On the Frontlines, war

The historic Lubanga Trial completed its first month today at the International Criminal Court (ICC) with testimony from a third former child soldier who admited he was forced to rape and loot after being kidnapped by the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), Thomas Lubanga's militia. He was cross-examined by the defense today. 

This followed testimony of a former child soldier who told prosecutors that he was abducted three times by the UPC.  Both these unnamed witnesses testified with their faces and voices digitally distored for security reasons. The second former child soldier to testify said he was taken for the first time when he was in third grade and then forced to train for combat with machine guns and heavy weaponry. 

The first former child soldier - nicknamed Dieumerci - originally recanted his testimony during his first appearance on the witness stand but later confirmed that he was in fact recruited and trained by Thomas Lubanga's militia.  Asked why he had reversed his testimony the first time he went before the court, he responded: "A lot of things went through my mind.  I got angry and wasn't able [to testify]."  My colleague Bukeni Waruzi was in the courtroom as this unfolded on Day 3 of the trial - watch his special comment on the incident:

The following week, Dieumerci took the stand again.  This time, he told the prosecutors that he had been beaten by his commanders and trained to kill.  "We would jump over bodies.  We had killed a lot of people," he testified.  Read more here on Rachel Irwin's post and watch this video excerpt of the testimony from IJCentral:

Lubanga - the first person ever arrested on a warrant from the ICC - stands accused of conscripting children under the age of fifteen to fight on the frontlines of the Congolese civil war, an ongoing conflict that has left over 5 million people dead and more than 1.5 million displaced.  He could face life in prison if convicted.

In the first weeks of the trial against Lubanga, video has played a crucial role in helping the prosecution prove its case.  Video clips were shown during the prosecutor's opening statement and also used in the following weeks during questioning and cross examination.  This past week, Rachel Irwin reported that prosecutors showed clips of Lubanga visiting a training camp in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and speaking to a group of soldiers and recruits - many of whom appeared to be children under 15. 

As this landmark trial unfolds in the courtrooms of The Hague - thousands of miles away from the DRC - many questions remain about how to keep the local communities that were actually affected by Lubanga's actions informed and involved in the ICC's trial against him.  This interesting post by In Situ - a new blog by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court - calls the lack of public information about the trial on the ground the "greatest challenge for the Lubanga trial" thus far.  "Victims and witnesses in the Kivus [provinces in the Eastern DRC] have virtually no access to information on the hearing," it writes.  Continue reading here...

My colleague Bukeni - who travelled to the ICC to attend the first week of the Lubanga Trial - is a native of Uvira, in the Eastern DRC, and has dedicated a lifetime to working with child soldiers.  Bukeni founded a local nonprofit called Ajedi-Ka/PAS to demobilize and rehabilitate child soldiers and, in partnership with WITNESS, he produced two films about the conditions facing child soldiers in the DRC - A Duty to Protect and On the Frontlines.  Both videos were made with specific advocacy goals in mind - On the Frontlines was geared towards raising awareness in local communities in the DRC; A Duty to Protect was focused on persuading the ICC to tackle the issue of child soldiers in its first case ever.  Here are some excerpts from A Duty to Protect (full version here):

To learn more about how Bukeni's personal trajectory connects with this historic ICC trial, watch this special four-part interview series with Bukeni.  In Part 1, Bukeni recounts how he first got involved with child soldiers; Part 2 addresses his decision to use video to document what was happening; Part 3 tells the story of how he partnered with WITNESS to plan the advocacy goals for his footage; Part 4 reflects on the significane of Lubanga Trial to so many families and communities.  Watch the final installment here:  

Stay tuned here on the Hub blog as we continue to follow the Lubanga Trial in the coming months!

[This post is only possible thanks to the wonderful reporting from
the Hague by Rachel Irwin from the Institute of War and Peace Reporting
(IWPR).  Read her daily dispatches and weekly roundups at the Open
Society Justice Iniatives's LubangaTrial.org] 

-- Additional Resources --

+ Videos, vlogs, and analysis on the Hub  GO->

+ Daily updates and weekly roundups on the Open Society Justice Initiative's Lubanga Trial site GO->

+ In situ, a new blog by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) which seeks to help bridge the gap between populations affected by the crimes under the Court's investigation and the ICC's daily activities at The Hague GO->

+ Child Soldier Relief blog GO->