Monday 8 January 2010- Defence Witness 16: "We planned to say Thomas Lubanga had enrolled children in the army"

Today, Ms. Samson resumes her cross examination of the seventh defence witness. "Yesterday you said you joined the UPC in order to defend your community. Did somebody ask you to do so?" asks Ms. Samson.

The witness says the hard living conditions and the tough reality of war led him to join the UPC. "There was fighting everywhere, we didn´t know where settle down," he says. A group of youngsters told him about the UPC military training camp in Mandro. "I met them on the road, we all were displaced by the war," says the witness. He decided to follow them.

Ms. Samson wants to know whether the witness has received any pressure to testify for Thomas Lubanga. "Is it true that the UPC still has supporters in Muzipela [neighborhood in Bunia]?'' she asks, referring to the witness' neighbourhood. "Is it true that in 2008 there were celebrations of Lubanga´s possible release?" she continues. According to the witness, UPC supporters can be found not only in Muzipela but also in the twelve neighborhoods in Bunia.  He says that at that time celebrations took place throughout the town. 

The Prosecution also raises the possibility that the witness was  influenced by his colleagues. The witness works as moto taxi driver in Bunia and he is a member of the Moto Taxi Association in Ituri (ATAMOI). A large number of the moto taxi drivers in Bunia are ex-militia men. "Would you agree that some of these individuals are demobilized soldiers of the UPC?" The witness agrees and adds that other people from different militias such the Lendu FNI and the Ngiti FRPI work as moto taxi drivers too.

Ms. Samson refers back to the meeting the witness had with Mr. Mbuna, the Defence investigator in Ituri. The witness said yesterday that Mr. Mbuna told him some lawyers wanted to talk to him. "They contacted me because they knew I was living with Madam X and therefore I was a soldier," . "[Mbuna] is a ´wise man' respected in your community..." says Ms. Samson, "it would be difficult for you to refuse his request, right?". "Personally I respect all my elders," replies the witness. The meeting with Lubanga´s lawyers took place in 2007. Mr. Mbuna was also present. After that, the witness says there were no further discussions with Mbuna about Madam X, the soldier of the Armeé du Peuple Congolais (APC) he met when both performed military service.

"You know someone named Kordo?" asks Ms. Samson. The witness does not seem to recognize the name.   Thomas Lubanga smiles. "Did anybody else talk to you about becoming a Defence witness?" "No, Nobody else," replies the witness. At this moment the Trial Lawyer asks to proceed in private session.

During the afternoon session, Lubanga's defence calls a new witness: Witness 16. He testifies with pseudonym and his voice and image are distorted.  "You were speaking about a meeting with Mr. X before you met the OTP investigators. What subjects you were talking about at this meeting?" asks Mr. Biju-Duval.

In that meeting, the witness explains that Mr. X said he was working with the ICC and he needed someone to testify about Thomas Lubanga. "During the meeting we planned to tell lies," says the witness. "Could you explain to us what kind of lies had to be planned with Mr. X?" asks Mr. Biju-Duval. "The lie was to say he [Thomas Lubanga] had enrolled children in the army and I myself was amongst them," replies the witness. "He said to me I had to tell the investigators that I had been a soldier... [that] I saw young children in the army and that people whom I knew were enlisted in the army."

"At any time were you a soldier in an armed group?" asks Mr. Biju-Duval. "No, not at all," says the witness. Between 2002 and 2003, the indictment period, Witness 16 was a hair dresser.

"Why did you agree to meet with the investigators to tell them lies? What was your aim?" asks Mr. Biju-Duval. "They gave me some money and I agreed to lie," he replies.  "Who gave you money?" asks the lawyer.  "Mr. X. He said I am going to leave Bunia and go to the country of the white people."

The initial meeting with the OTP investigators took place in Bunia, in a hotel called Helenic. "I was in company of Mr. X. When I met him he was drunk," says the witness. At this first encounter he wasn´t aware that these were OPT investigators. Another subsequent meeting with the Court officers took place afterwards. "A few days later Mr. X came to see me, he said the individuals who came the other day wished to meet me elsewhere, not in Bunia," explains the witness. This second meeting was in Kampala, where the witness travelled in the company of Mr. X and his wife. At the meeting there were five people who introduced themselves as  investigators of the ICC. "It was the very first time I heard that name," says the witness.  He stayed in the Ugandan capital for two weeks.

Witness 16 barely remembers the topics discussed at that meeting. "I remember that they asked me who the child soldiers that I had seen were," he says. Also what their roles were as child soldiers. But he never joined an armed group. "How was possible to lie on that matter?" asks Mr. Biju-Duval. "This is something we had planned with Mr. X," he replies.

"Did Mr. X request other individuals apart from you to fabricate lies?" asks Mr. Biju-Duval.  "I am ready to answer this question, but I´d rather to do it tomorrow because I am tired," replies the witness. His honesty and firmness amuses the Chamber and makes the participants smile.    The Judges will sit again tomorrow in the afternoon.