Congo warlord pleads not guilty at ICC

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga says he's not guilty of war crimes in the first such case heard at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Lubanga, accused of using children as soldiers in his Union of Congolese Patriots in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeast region and of recruiting and commanding a militia that committed atrocities during a conflict in which tens of thousands of people were killed, pleaded not guilty Monday, CNN reported.

"Lubanga's armed group recruited, trained and used hundreds of young children to kill, pillage and rape," CNN quoted ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo saying as the trial opened. "The children still suffer the consequences of Lubanga's crimes. They cannot forget what they saw, what they suffered, what they did."

The court was created by the 1998 Rome Statute but did not begin its work until after it was ratified by 120 countries. It did not come into being until 2002 and can only prosecute crimes committed since then.

Lubanga, who was taken into the court's custody in March 2006, is accused of committing the crimes in 2002 and 2003.

The trial is the result of six years of work by Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina.