When the trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga resumed yesterday at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, Lubanga’s lawyer asserted that the warlord had played no role in the recruitment of child soldiers (or, child combatants, as they are often known in the context of non-state armed groups).
Lubanga stands accused of recruiting children into his militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) during the civil war of 1998-2003. It is estimated that ethnic violence has led to the deaths of over 60 000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to date.
The main international legal instrument protecting children is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), according to which it is illegal to conscript children under the age of 15 into any armed force. An additional protocol to the convention further extends protection to children under the age of 18. While all countries except the U.S. and Somalia have ratified the CRC, not all countries adhere to the additional protocol.
Defence lawyer Catherine Mabille contends that all of the 28 witnesses brought forward by the prosecution, such as children claiming to have been child soldiers and their parents, lied before the court. Mabille further contends that Lubanga made an effort to demobilize many child soldiers within the UPC.
“All the individuals presented as child soldiers, as well as their parents in some cases, deliberately lied before this court,” she said. She continued, “Six of them were never child soldiers, the seventh lied about his age and the conditions in which he enrolled, and the eighth never belonged to the UPC.”
One boy had apparently admitted to having his testimony scripted by humanitarian groups, but still maintains that he was forcibly recruited and trained in weapons. Other children have testified that they were indeed trained and ordered to kill or main, and that girls were raped repeatedly and suffered forced abortions.
Notwithstanding the trials currently underway at the ICC, the active recruitment of child soldiers continues in the northern DRC's Kivu province. Many children who have already been reintegrated are orphans or are rejected by their families. Some even return infected with HIV or addicted to drugs. It is too common for them to face systematic harassment from their former communities, police forces, and other officials. Too often, they are left alone to protect themselves.