ICC path to justice tested in Congo
Investigations for the International Criminal Court's first trial face serious logistical and security obstacles as well as charges of selective justice.
from the May 24, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
The difficulties of investigating
In 2004, the Congolese government asked the ICC to investigate the many atrocities that took place in this country during and after the Second Congolese War, the five-year conflict that ended in 2003 and killed some 4 million people through hunger, disease, and violence. It didn't take long for investigators to zero in on Mr. Lubanga, who headed one of the militias fighting over the gold-rich Ituri Province.
Wide swaths of Ituri are still plagued by warring militias. The region is so volatile – and so underdeveloped – that it can take investigators days or weeks to travel short distances.
Still, prosecutors say they have pieced together a case that shows that Lubanga forced children to fight.
In January 2006, the ICC submitted an application for an arrest warrant against Lubanga. Two months later, the government handed him over without dispute.
Meanwhile, ICC investigators continued their work in and around Bunia, asking people such as Charlotte Agoyo what she remembered about Lubanga.
"Thomas Lubanga came and held a meeting here," Ms. Agoyo says, sitting in a neighbor's house on the western side of Bunia. "He said all children older than 10 should come for military service. Families who resisted would be considered enemies. Those who didn't agree were sliced with machetes."
Agoyo and her neighbors say they told ICC investigators about the fear they had when they saw children armed and vengeful, and about the families killed when Lubanga's militia raided their neighborhood.
But across town, where most of the residents are of Lubanga's ethnicity, people wonder about the ICC's focus.
Jean Paul Dhelo works at a rehabilitation center for child soldiers.
He says that he knows young boys who were in Lubanga's militia, but says he knows plenty of children conscripted by other militias, too.
"We welcomed children from all those armed groups," he says. "And in each group there was a leader. There should be other leaders who are arrested."
Mr. Dicker, of Human Rights Watch, says his organization has heard many complaints about the court unfairly targeting Lubanga – a sentiment that has made Bunia and surrounding areas dangerous for ICC investigators and those who cooperate with the court.
"There's a concern that the ICC is biased, or at least applying justice selectively," says Dicker.
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