ICC mulling steps to shield ex-child soldiers

Category: Africa

Date Added: 4 February 2009

THE HAGUE - The International Criminal Court is examining new ways to shield child soldier witnesses from their alleged oppressors after its first-ever witness changed his testimony, the prosecutor said on Monday.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters in The Hague that judges were mulling new measures to put young witnesses in the war crimes trial of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga at ease.

"They hate to remember what they did, and in addition they are in front of Lubanga. Lubanga for them is God," said the chief prosecutor, adding that witness protection was a key challenge for the court.

The new measures may include shielding them from his view.

Lubanga, 48, has been charged with war crimes for using children under the age of 15 to fight for his militia during the five-year DR Congo civil war, which ended in 2003. He has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution's first witness in the ICC's maiden trial retracted his evidence midstream last Wednesday after telling the court he had been forcibly recruited into Lubanga's militia as a schoolboy.

Constantly under Lubanga's glare from the dock a few feet away, the youngster began displaying hesitation after less than an hour in the witness box in The Hague.

He may have also been scared by a judges' warning that he ran the risk of incriminating himself, said Moreno-Ocampo.

"These children are from Ituri. They travelled to The Hague, in winter, to this huge court with three white judges," he added.

"And then they were informed suddenly that they could be prosecuted! So the child collapsed."

He said he had asked the judges to drop the self-incrimination warning, saying the witnesses were minors when they allegedly committed crimes as members of Lubanga's militia and there was no danger of them being prosecuted in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Other measures may include hearing the testimony of ex-child soldiers in closed sessions, and the judges and lawyers discarding their intimidating robes, said the prosecutor.

"The judges are considering these issues."

Moreno-Ocampo said he was confident the first witness will return to testify at a later stage.

Source: AFP