Congo warlord denies using child soldiers

A Congolese militia leader stands trial today over the use of child soldiers at the International Criminal Court’s first ever war crimes trial.

Thomas Lubanga, has pleaded not guilty to six charges of recruiting and using children to fight in and die in the Democratic Republic of Congo's brutal five-year conflict. Prosecutors say Lubanga, leader of political party the Union of Congolese Patriots, used children as young as 10 to kill members of a rival ethnic group. Lubanga is also accused of using child soldiers as bodyguards. Lubanga, 48, says he was a patriot fighting to prevent rebels and foreign fighters from plundering the vast mineral wealth of Congo's eastern Ituri region.

More than 30,000 children were recruited during the conflict, which ended in 2003. Many of them were snatched on their way to school and Reuters reports, plied with marijuana and told they were protected by witchcraft. As many as 250,000 child soldiers are still fighting in more than a dozen countries around the world, the United Nations estimates.

The case is the first to come to trial before the ICC in The Hague, in the Netherlands. It will send a vital message to the armies in Congo and elsewhere that recruit child soldiers, say human rights activists. "This first ICC trial makes it clear that the use of children in armed combat is a war crime that can and will be prosecuted at the international level," Human Rights Watch's Param-Preet Singh, told the Press Association.

Since 2001, the use of child soldiers has been reported in 21 ongoing or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the world, according to Human Rights Watch. Children are most likely to become child soldiers if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a combat zone or have limited access to education. Many join armed groups because they believe that the group will offer food or security. Others are forcibly recruited, or abducted by armed groups.

SOS Children works around the world to help child soldiers and other children deeply scarred by conflict. The organisation’s current child soldier projects include the rehabilitation of child soldiers in Sudan where SOS Children is providing family-tracing, counselling, education and support for child soldiers now trying to rebuild their lives.

Lubanga's trial had been due to start in June 2008 but judges suspended it on concerns that Lubanga might be denied a fair trial because the defense was unable to view some evidence against him. Some 93 victims are due to take part in the case and give evidence.

Written by Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children

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