Human Rights Watch has described the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo as an important stage in efforts to establish responsibility for the use of children in military operations.

Lubanga is the former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia, who operated in the Ituri district of northeastern Congo. He is charged with enlisting and conscripting children under the age of fifteen as soldiers, and using them to participate actively in combat between September 2002 and August 2003. Forces under his command also carried out the killing, rape and torture of thousands of civilians throughout Ituri, although to date the ICC has not charged him or any other UPC member with such crimes.

The Ituri conflict and others in eastern Congo highlight the participation of non-Congolese forces; especially those from Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. The governments of these countries provided political and military support to Congolese armed groups, despite evidence of their widespread violations of international humanitarian law.  ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo has stated that he will bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious crimes.

Bosco Ntaganda, who worked closely with Lubanga as chief of military operations for the UPC has also been charged with war crimes by the ICC but remains at large. He is currently serving as the military chief of staff for the CNDP, a rebel group collaborating with the Congolese and Rwandan national armies in military operations against a Rwandan armed group in eastern Congo.

On November 4 and 5 2008, CDNP troops under Ntaganda’s command killed an estimated 150 people in the town of Kiwanja, one of the worst massacres in North Kivu in the past two years. In early January Ntaganda claimed he was taking over leadership of the CNDP from its former head Laurent Nkunda. He has recently joined forces with the Congolese national army in the fight against the FDLR, a Rwandan armed group. It is clear that Ntaganda is not a viable partner for the Congolese (or any other) government, and as a war crimes suspect should be arrested and not heralded as a ‘partner for peace’.