A Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting children will be the first suspect to face trial at the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor of the ICC said today.
Thomas Lubanga arrived at an ICC temporary detention centre late on Friday having been flown from the Democratic Republic of Congo aboard a French military plane one day after Congolese authorities surrendered him to the court.
"Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was transferred to The Hague and is now in the custody of the Court," the ICC's Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference.
Lubanga was the founder and leader of one of the most dangerous militia in Congo's lawless northeastern district of Ituri, Moreno-Ocampo said.
He has been charged with enlisting children under the age of 15 as soldiers but investigations continue and more charges could be brought as prosecutors probe years of militia violence in Ituri which has killed tens of thousands of people.
"These are extremely serious crimes. Forcing children to be killers jeopardises the future of mankind," Moreno-Ocampo said.
"We will show pictures of Thomas Lubanga inspecting the camps where children from seven years were training to become soldiers," he added.
The conflict in the mineral-rich area pits various ethnic-based militias against each other and has displaced some 100,000 people, hampering the former Belgian colony's efforts to recover from a wider five-year war which began in 1998.
International pressure to arrest Ituri's warlords, some of whom have joined Congo's national army as part of a peace deal, increased after UN Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in an ambush by unknown gunmen in February 2005. Lubanga was arrested the following month.
"National states need help, that is why we need international justice," Moreno-Ocampo said, adding Lubanga's arrest would help tackle impunity around the world.