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Evert-Jan Daniels / Pool via EPA
Former Congolese rebel commander Thomas Lubanga sits in a court room the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands, on Wednesday.
Updated at 10:37 a.m. ET: THE HAGUE -- The Hague international war crimes court found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty in its first ruling on Wednesday after a decade of work.
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, 51, was detained six years ago and faced charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over a 1998-2003 war, when tens of thousands were killed. He was accused of among other things of sending children into battle.
The trial lasted more than 2 1/2 years and was halted twice. Prosecutors and defence lawyers called dozens of witnesses. Among them were victims of crimes, technical experts and Lubanga's former colleagues.
Lubanga said during his trial he was a politician who had no power over the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (FPLC), the armed militia of the Union of Congolese Patriots which Lubanga headed and to which he is accused of conscripting children younger than 15 to fight.
Prosecutors took several years longer than planned to complete preparations for the Lubanga trial.
Lubanga could face up to life imprisonment, although sentence will not be passed immediately. An appeal can be filed within 30 days.
U.N. Human Rights chief Navi Pillay on Wednesday hailed the verdict as "a great step forward for international justice and a major milestone in the fight against impunity."
Lubanga's conviction could help lend momentum to other prominent cases, such as that against former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo is charged with individual responsibility on counts of crimes against humanity -- murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, and other inhuman acts.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Now they need to do the same thing to Bush/Cheney, hehe.
That was my first thought as I began reading this article. When will the international community place the Cheney/Bush crew on trial for its illegal, immoral, unjustified invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq? When will the citizens of Iraq sue the citizens of the United States for one trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000.00) for invading and murdering its citizens under false pretenses? The United States surrendered its moral conscience under Republican leadership; certain, to go down in the history books as another black period in America's past.
Why do we never see people who sell weapons to these dictators go to jail. Heck we don't even see their names!
Yeah, good luck with that. Starting a questionable (or, if you prefer, unquestionably wrong) war wouldn't land him in the ICC, even if the US were part of it.
Not saying he does or doesn't deserve it, but it's a pointless fantasy.
why patronize them, feed them & even deal with them..take them Out, or send them to the gallows, Asap....
It took a decade to conduct one trial?
Big government on an international scale. Get us out of the UN...it ever there was a worthless organization, this is it.
It took ten years but at least they did something. The alternative? Nobody does anything and Dyilo is not held accountable. The US helped found the UN and is on the permanent security council, we're not getting out.
No kidding I have to agree. Although I don't think we should get out of the UN. We just need cut way back on Funding them.
http://www.unausa.org/unfunding
Other nations need to pick up more of the UN's tab.
Better a decade and show this scum a lifetime in prison than a blind eye to his crimes.
One animal down, a bunch to go.
Now it is time to go after the biggest of all war criminals, Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney, Slick Willie, Baby Bush and Daddy Bush, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner who just recently announced that he intends to start killing American citizens without trials or due process, and his attorney general who supports such crimes against humanity.
A bullet is so much cheaper, and allows everyone to find solace much quicker, so why parade around these mockeries of justice, just to say "we're civilized"?
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth... and pretty soon all of this human-excrement would be wiped-clean (pun intended).
How does that make us any better than them?
An eye for an eye eventually leaves everyone blind.
In all fairness, he did much, much worse than simply kill someone in an act of questionable justice.
Getting referred to the ICC requires so much evidence of wrongdoing, it's pretty much a conviction in and of itself.
wow...people see a horrible evil person that goes around selling child sex slaves, murdering babies, and having his soldiers raping CHILDREN finally get held accountable, and all you can freaking say is "now they just need to get bush, cheney, hahaha"
that is just...i don't even have words to describe how moronic that is.
you have this guy, in the Congo, slaughtering whole villages and commiting unthinkable, atrocious, violent crimes (raping BABIES for god's sake!) and that's all you can even say?
i have one question:
what in the HELL is wrong with you??!!!
Well, better late than never.
you can not even imagine the hell this man has caused. to even try and compare him to any former american president or vice president is really disturbingly stupid.
i know our politicians are evil, through and through.
but these political leaders in africa, THAT'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL. how can you not see that?
can you see Bush, Obama, Cheney, ANY of them drugging children and forcing them to murder their parents? selling baby girls as sex slaves to trade for weapons, drugs, etc.? raping babies in front of their mothers?
i'm not looking for a slimely little quip. i am asking you honestly. and of course, the answer is NO.
It would be nice to see him face the same fate as his victims suffered.
How can you even compare what this scum has done to the people of his country to our country's leaders? I don't see that any of them have conscripted children for war orraped women, children and babies at will. This man was pure evil! While our leaders may have an evil streak they are at least human. I agree with you Lizzaayy.
Does any one know when the Hague war crimes court will be talking with Bush and Chaney????????? OH! I forgot Bush lawyers says they were not war crilmes. To bad the congo warlord didn't have Bush's lawyer.
yeah because Cheney and Bush raped babies and sold child sex slaves, drugged children then had them murder their parents, slaughtered whole villages dozens and dozens and dozens of times.
you sir, are an imbecile.
there is no way you will ever even be able to compare the crimes committed by former american leaders to the atrocities and sheer volume of horrific dehumanizing slaughter of the african people by their own presidents, tyrants, and dictators.
by the way, ALL american politicians have been criminals one way or another. yet i see you omitted any democrats from your short, close minded list.
how bout you take your head OUT of your ass?
Justice(?)
The international court has been very sloooooooow, but I am glad they finally got this conviction, and wish them luck and speed in the future.
Too bad it took so long - wheels of justice need to speed it up a bit.
If you are going to sucker people into the "humane" treatment of criminals by not executing them, can you at least put them in a prison where they have no chance of reaching a "natural" death through old age? People (Governments without a pair) waste so much money housing, feeding and treating people that are no longer of any use outside a prison cell. Just put a bullet in their head and drop them in the jungle for the animals to dispose of. Not like this guy deserves to be treated kindly after what he's done.