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Trial opens at world’s first permanent court for prosecuting war crimes
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LONDON – Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia leader facing charges of recruiting child soldiers to rape and kill, became the first occupant Monday, Jan. 26, of the defendant’s box at the new International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The court is the world’s first permanent venue to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other major crimes against humanity, most of which up to now have been tried at a series of temporary courts, from Nuremburg to more recent U.N. tribunals focused on Rwanda’s genocide and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
Its first case represents “the beginning of a long road,” John Prendergast, a longtime expert on crises in Africa and co-chair of the Enough Project, an anti-genocide effort at the Center for American Progress in Washington said.
The court is designed to prosecute crimes referred to it either by national governments, which feel they cannot do justice at home, or by the United Nations Security Council. Prosecutors investigate cases, issue indictments when warranted, and then rely on national and international police forces to arrest and turn over suspects.
Judges are drawn from more than 100 nations that have ratified the treaty creating the court. The United States has signed the treaty but not yet ratified it, after officials raised fears that U.S. soldiers could be prosecuted.
The opening of Monday’s trial suggests how powerful the court may be in creating a deterrent against war crimes and providing a voice for victims. While Lubanga pleaded not guilty, his court appearance, and prosecution video of him in training camps with child soldiers, was broadcast live on giant screens in Congo’s war-ravaged northeast, devastated by years of attacks by militias like that led by Lubanga.
People of the area, long used to militias enjoying near-impunity, “were completely transfixed,” Alison des Forges, a senior adviser on Africa issues for Human Rights Watch, who spoke Monday with colleagues in Congo, said.
The new international court will operate under a European trial system in which victims of crimes are allowed to testify against the accused. Dozens are scheduled to do so during Lubanga’s trial, which is predicted to take at least several months.
The chance for a face-to-face confrontation with the alleged perpetrator “is important from the victim’s point of view. It gives them much more direct incentive to testify,” des Forges said.
Lubanga, charged with abducting children under 15 for use as soldiers, is just one of several Congolese militia leaders indicted by the International Criminal Court. Others facing prosecution if they can be arrested include Joseph Kony of northern Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group built on kidnapped child soldiers. Several Sudanese officials also are charged with war crimes in Darfur.
In February, the court is expected to decide whether to indict its highest-profile target to date: Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, also accused of crimes in Darfur.
If indicted, al-Bashir would face transport to The Hague if “somebody, somehow arrests him” inside or outside of Sudan, Prendergast said. That means “his capacity to interact normally with nations around the world disappears.”
That the new court’s targets so far all have roots in African conflicts has made it a focus of some criticism by African leaders. Backers of the court point out that several of the requests for indictments came from African governments, particularly Uganda and Congo.
LAURIE GOERING
Chicago Tribune
