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International court to begin work International court in first case
(about 4 hours later)
The world's first permanent international criminal court is due to formally begin work. The only permanent international war crimes court is due to open its first hearing, in the case of a Democratic Republic of Congo militia leader.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has been established to try war crimes. Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are to decide whether Thomas Lubanga should stand trial for allegedly recruiting child soldiers.
The first case will see pre-trial hearings against a militia leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thomas Lubanga. The four-year DR Congo conflict led to an estimated four million deaths.
He is accused of conscripting child soldiers and using them in the brutal war in the north-east of the country. The US strongly opposed the creation of the ICC, fearing the political prosecution of its soldiers.
The conflict there manifests itself as a tribal war, but its root cause is the criminal mining of the region's gold and other minerals. This is very important both for international justice and justice for the Congolese people Anneke Van WoudenbergHuman Rights Watch The ICC was designed to end the need for the various ad hoc war crimes courts which have recently been established, including the chambers created to deal with war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda.
US opposition Mr Lubanga, 45, led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in DR Congo's north-eastern Ituri district, where fighting continued long after the official end of the five-year war in 2003.
The ICC was designed to end the need for the various ad hoc war crimes courts which have recently been established, including the chambers created to deal with war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda. Death threats
But the ICC has had its detractors. The US was a vocal critic, fearing that the court could prosecute American soldiers around the world for political reasons. The prosecution says he visited a training camp for his mostly ethnic Hema forces, which included children as young as 10, preparing to battle their Lendu rivals.
More recently, however, the US did not object when the United Nations Security Council referred atrocities committed in Sudan to the ICC. "Whilst encouraging them, they [Mr Lubanga and his deputy] also threatened that they would be killed if they attempted to flee the camp," the prosecution statement says, reports the AFP news agency.
DR Congo's child soldiers The child soldiers were later instructed "to kill all Lendu including men, women and children", the statement says, based on testimony from six children.
He denies three charges of war crimes.
His lawyers say he was trying to end the conflict and is being punished by the international community for refusing to give mining concessions in areas he controlled to foreign firms.
The BBC's Mark Doyle says the conflict in Ituri manifests itself as an ethnic war, but its root cause is the criminal mining of the region's gold and other minerals.
Mr Lubanga's pre-trial is set to last three weeks.
The pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the first hearings of the ICC, but it says the case against Mr Lubanga is far too narrow in its scope.The pressure group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed the first hearings of the ICC, but it says the case against Mr Lubanga is far too narrow in its scope.
HRW says some 60,000 civilians have been slaughtered in north-eastern Ituri province by various rebel groups, and that they should all be investigated, as should government officials from Congo and others who may be implicated from neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda. "This is very important both for international justice and justice for the Congolese people," HRW researcher Anneke Van Woudenberg told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
HRW says some 60,000 civilians have been slaughtered in Ituri province by various rebel groups, and that they should all be investigated, as should government officials from DR Congo and others who may be implicated from neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda.
Despite US opposition to the ICC, it did not object when the United Nations Security Council referred atrocities committed in Sudan's Darfur there.