6/10/08

Accused Congo warlord Lubanga asks U.N. war crimes court to dismiss case

Accused Congo warlord Lubanga asks U.N. war crimes court to dismiss case

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: A lawyer for a former Congolese warlord asked a war crimes court Tuesday to dismiss the case against his client because U.N. agencies have refused to disclose evidence they gave to prosecutors.

Defense attorney Jean-Marie Biju Duval said the "scandalous" secrecy meant his client, Thomas Lubanga, would not receive a fair trial on charges of recruiting, conscripting and deploying child soldiers to fight in eastern Congo in 2002-03.

Judge Adrian Fulford also questioned prosecutors on how they believed Lubanga could receive a fair trial when scores of documents were being kept secret — even from judges.

Lubanga's trial, due to begin June 23, is the first to be held by the International Criminal Court based in The Hague, and the first international war crimes case to focus solely on the use of child soldiers.

Lubanga has denied the charges of using children under 15 to fight in the armed wing of his political party, the Union of Congolese Patriots, in the lawless Ituri region from July 2002 to December 2003.

Prosecutors acknowledge they have been given 95 documents by various U.N. organizations or other "information providers" that could help the defense, but were given on condition that the information remain confidential.

Prosecutor Ekkehard Withopf said the nondisclosure of documents should make no difference since the prosecution had given the defense similar material from other sources.

Fulford called the secrecy an "elephant standing in the corner of this courtroom," and suggested that the U.N. organizations "may be expected doubly or triply to trust the judges of this court" to keep documents secret if they had trusted the prosecution to do so.

The defense attorney, Biju Duval, argued that the case should be dismissed. Fulford said he would rule Wednesday on the motion.

"These proceedings are, little by little, being eaten away by confidentiality, which we know is always a danger when seeking justice and when seeking the truth," Biju Duval said.

"We are at stalemate, and the defense conclusion is that we should terminate these proceedings now," he said.

Biju Duval said the confidential documents included evidence supporting Lubanga's contention that he had demobilized child soldiers, and that he lacked control over the militia commanders who actually committed the crimes.

Lubanga was arrested by authorities in Congo and sent to The Hague in March 2006, becoming the first suspect in the court's custody. Since then, two more alleged warlords from Congo, Germaine Katanga and Mathieu Chui, have been turned over and are to be tried together for crimes in the Ituri region. An arrest warrant has been issued for an alleged ally of Lubanga, Bosco Ntaganda.






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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66

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