Ocampo seeks 30 years for Lubanga

Prosecutors at The Hague war crimes court said on Thursday after securing their first ever conviction that Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo must get close to the maximum 30 years in jail for sending children into battle.They also plan to demand that President Joseph Kabila hand over a serving army general, Bosco Ntaganda, who was promoted after being indicted with Lubanga by the International Criminal Court and who now faces new charges of mass rape and murder.Lubanga, 51, was found guilty on Wednesday in the first verdict handed down by the ICC since it was set up 10 years ago.Lead prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said it was hard to define an appropriate punishment for a man who had damaged the lives of so many boys and girls, pressed into service while aged under 15: “If we are going to ask for one year per child, we would go far beyond the maximum of 30 years established by the statute,” he. “We will seek a sentence close to the maximum.”Lubanga recruited and commanded child soldiers in 2002 and 2003, during a five-year war in the Ituri region that left an estimated 60,000 people dead. He has 30 days to appeal.The length of his sentence and cash reparations for victims will be discussed at a hearing on April 18, Moreno-Ocampo said.He also announced a new drive against Ntaganda, whose continued presence in the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo has underlined the political limitations on the court and dismayed those who believe Lubanga was far from a lone criminal.Announcing plans to bring new charges against Ntaganda, the prosecutor said his men stood accused of mass rape and murder.“He cannot be a General in the DRC army. It’s time to arrest him,” Moreno-Ocampo said, adding that he will again ask Kabila to detain Ntaganda immediately and send him to The Hague. The ICC on Tuesday unanimously found Lubanga guilty of conscripting and recruiting children into his rebel group.He was charged of enlisting children under the age of 15 in his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC)militia and using them to participate actively in hostilities from September 1, 2002 to August 13, 2003, in the Ituri region of DRC. The UPC was founded in 2001.“The Chamber has reached its decision unanimously. The Prosecution has proved that Thomas Lubanga is guilty of crimes of conscription and enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate in hostilities,” Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford announced. “The evidence demonstrated that children endured harsh training regiments and were subjected to hard punishment. The evidence demonstrated that the children were deployed . . . and took part in the fighting”.On March 17, 2006, Lubanga became the first person arrested under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. He first appeared in court before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I on March 20, 2006.The guilty verdict is the first handed down since the ICC was established in 2002. Presently, 14 cases are before the Court, three of which are at the trial stage.Governed by the Rome Statute, which Rwanda is not a signatory to, the ICC is the first permanent international criminal court established in order to end war crimes impunity.Lubanga, 51, founded and led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and was a key player in the Ituri conflict. Rebels under his command have been accused of ethnic massacres, murder, torture, rape, mutilation and forcibly conscripting child soldiers.Born in Djiba in the Ituri Province, Lubanga studied at the University of Kisangani and has a degree in psychology. He is married and has fathered seven children.In July 2001, he founded a rebel group, the UPC and became president of the group. He founded its military wing, the Patriotic Force for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC).Under Lubanga’s leadership, the UPC became one of the main actors in the Ituri conflict between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups. It seized control of Bunia, capital of the gold-rich Ituri region, in 2002, and demanded that the Congolese government recognise Ituri as an autonomous province.Lubanga was arrested on June 13, 2002 while on a mission to Kinshasa but was released ten weeks later in exchange for a kidnapped government minister.The UPC was forced out of Bunia by the Ugandan army in March 2003. Lubanga later moved to Kinshasa and registered the UPC as a political party, but he was arrested on March 19 2005 in connection with the killing of nine Bangladeshi United Nations peacekeepers in Ituri.