Thursday, November 09, 2006

ICC's First Case

Guardian Unlimited

The international criminal court today began its first case, considering evidence against an alleged Congolese warlord accused of recruiting child soldiers and forcing them to kill and mutilate his enemies.

Prosecution lawyers say Thomas Lubanga's Union of Congolese Patriots and its armed wing, the FPLC, recruited children and trained them to kill members of rival tribes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. If they refused to fight, they were threatened with execution, their case alleges.

Opening their evidence at the international criminal court in The Hague today, the deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she hoped the case would signal that the world would not tolerate the conscription of child soldiers.

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