The International Criminal Court (ICC) has found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of war crimes in its landmark first ruling since it was set up a decade ago.
Lubanga was accused of recruiting and deploying child soldiers during a five-year conflict until 2003. An estimated 60,000 people 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 (DRC) 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.