The international war crimes court at The Hague found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty on Wednesday in its first ever ruling after a decade of work limited largely to Africa while major cases elsewhere remain beyond its reach.
Governments and rights groups level war crimes accusations at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for cracking down on protesters. But the International Criminal Court (ICC) cannot act because of deadlock among world powers at the United Nations Security Council, the only body that could order a prosecution.
But what message does this verdict sends to African war lords and even rulers who kill their people with impunity? Maybe not much changes as some African leaders do think it would take time if not almost impossible for the international community to come after them much more face charges at the tribunal.
What remains to be seen is these crimes would never go unpunished, and either by people or God, all crimes against humanity would one day be punished for their crimes.
Mr. Lubanga who is 51, will be sentenced later. He was found guilty of recruiting and deploying child soldiers during a five-year conflict until 2003. An estimated 60,000 people were killed in the violence, part of much wider bloodshed in central Africa.
Crimes against humanity committed by leaders against their own people sometimes goes political and world leaders instead of serving the oppresses people, tend to follow their individual national interest by either vetoing or using their influence to stop proceedings against criminals leading people.
“It’s not the fault of the ICC,” said Brody, who established a reputation as a scourge of dictators during efforts to bring Chile’s Augusto Pinochet to trial. “It’s the fault of the Security Council and of the world order … the international justice system does not operate in a vacuum.”
While welcoming the verdict against Lubanga, which may help set a precedent for other cases involving the recruitment of child soldiers, he added: “Those countries with political power and their allies have been shielded from the court.”
Among those accused by the court is Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has dismissed his 2009 indictment as a Western conspiracy and has both continued in office unhindered and been able on occasion to travel to sympathetic countries.
I hope this monster would never hurt anybody every again.
CHILD SOLDIERS
At The Hague on Wednesday, ICC Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford said in reading the court’s historic first judgment: “The chamber concludes that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is guilty of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years.”
Thomas Lubanga “was essential to a common plan to conscript and enlist girls and boys below the age of 15,” Fulford said.
This one is a victory for the victims and I hope others would get their fair share soon.
