Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army [LRA], a guerrilla group engaged in a violent campaign to establish a theocratic government in Uganda. The LRA is accused of committing murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, and forcing children to participate in hostilities.

The LRA has allegedly kidnapped an estimated 20,000 children for use as soldiers or sex slaves. Girls are allegedly given as "wives" to military commanders- the higher the post, the more "wives" are given. Kony himself is reputed to have 60 "wives." Reports have been heard about boys used as decoys and targets, often sent unarmed to the front lines when the LRA is fighting the Ugandan army. Recruits are allegedly brutally tortured for resisting the LRA, and punishments include having their noses, lips and ears cut off. Victims have also talked about being made to eat their own flesh. Kony is accused of ritually sacrificing children and forcing child soldiers to boil and eat their parents' flesh.

One victim of Kony's brutality recalls: "They arrested many ... Two men were tied and forced onto the ground where their heads were joined together. The rebels tried to force me to pick up a log and hit their heads but I refused so one came for me with a knife and cut off my left ear... For a long time, the rebels took turns at beating us men with hot metal, and raping the girls... They then cut off my right ear and my nose... They returned to me at some point and re-tied me before chopping off my lips... My wounds had begun to rot...I insulted their commander in the hope that in revenge he would kill me... He just ordered his soldiers to cut off my hands. They did... One of [the female abductees] had been killed and another had had her breast cut off."

The LRA was formed in 1987 and is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government- one of the longest-running conflicts in Africa. Kony leads the LRA, and proclaims himself to be a "spokesperson" of God and a spirit medium of the Holy Spirit. He claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments. "Yes, we are fighting for Ten Commandments, is it bad? It is not against human rights. And that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, that commandment was given by God." Kony has told reporters that he would not be willing to stand trial at the ICC because he had not done anything wrong. When asked about the child soldiers he had enlisted, he responded, "We don't have any children. We only have combatants."

On October 6, 2005, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony, along with four other members of the LRA. There are 33 charges against him, including 12 counts of crimes against humanity (murder, enslavement, sexual enslavement and rape) and 21 counts of war crimes (including murder, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, pillaging, inducing rape, and forced enlisting of children into the rebel ranks).

Raska Lukwiya

Raska Lukwiya was the third highest ranking leader in the Lord's Resistance Army. He was killed on August 12, 2006 when fighting with the Uganda People's Defense Force while peace negotiations were underway. Lukwiya's name has officially been removed from case list of the ICC.

ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said: "Lukwiya functioned as army commander in early 2004, a period during which the LRA was perpetrating its most deadly attacks upon the civilian population of northern Uganda." Lukwiya was charged with enslavement, a crime against humanity, as well as war crimes inclduing cruel treatment of civilians, attacking civilians and pillaging.

Dominic Ongwen

Dominic Ongwen was the Brigade Commander of the Sinia Brigade of the Lord's Resistance Army. As head of one of the four LRA brigades, Ongwen was a member of the "Control Altar" of the LRA that directs military strategy. Ongwen is the lowest ranking of the five LRA leaders for whom the ICC has issued a warrant. He is charged with seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Ongwen allegedly participated in a violent campaign against civilians in 2002. During this massacre, around 2,200 people were killed and 3,000 others were abducted. Villages and refugee camps were destroyed and plundered. Child soldiers were forcibly recruited and girls were used as sex slaves.

Ongwen was reported killed in October 2005 and was confirmed dead by LRA commanders. However, in July 2006, the ICC reported that he was still alive after genetic fingerprinting of the body confirmed that it was not Ongwen who died. In October 2007, Ongwen and his wife were featured in a film "Picking Up the Pieces," which gave further proof that he was still alive.

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is a former rebel leader from the DRC. He founded and led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UCP) and was a key player in the ethnic conflict of the Ituri region. On March 17, 2006, Lubanga became the first person ever arrested under a warrant issued by the ICC. His trial began on January 26, 2009.

Human Rights Watch has accused the UPC, under Lubanga's leadership, of "ethnic massacres, murder, torture, rape and mutilation, as well as the recruitment of child soldiers." The UPC allegedly killed 800 civilians on the basis of ethnicity between November 2002 and June 2003. During February and March of 2003, the UPC killed at least 350 civilians and forced 60,000 to flee their homes by destroying 26 villages in one area. It is also reported the Lubanga has about 3,000 child soldiers working for him between the ages of 8 and 15.

Witnesses of Lubanga's crimes have recounted his savagery. During the ICC trial, a former child soldier of Lubanga's militia said he was often beaten, whipped, and forced to stare at the sun. He would do everything his commander said, including beating people and arresting or kidnapping children to get money from their parents. He also had to get girls, sometimes around 15 years of age, with whom the commander wanted to have sex. Another former child soldier serving Lubanga's army said that commanders would order recruits to rape. He said, "Yes, I raped once." The girl's parents and other villagers witnessed the rape, and "the military chiefs [in the UPC] were aware [of the rape]... There was no reaction from them." This witness was recruited when he was about 13 years old. Soldiers followed him to his home: "[they] asked my parents to shut up, [and that] if they said anything, they would be killed." Once recruited, "if you commit a violation, a close friend of yours will kill you," he said. The witness saw such executions.

In March 2004, the Congolese government authorized the ICC to investigate and prosecute "crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court allegedly committed anywhere in the territory of the DRC since the entry into force of the Rome Statute, on July 1, 2002." On March 17, 2006, Congolese authorities arrested him and transferred him into ICC custody. He has been held in ICC detention since March 17, 2006.

The counts against Lubanga include the responsibility as a co-perpetrator of war crimes, consisting of: (1) Enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of 15 years into the Forces Patriotiques Pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the context of an international armed conflict from early September 2002 to June 2, 2003; (2) Enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 years into the FPLC and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the context of an armed conflict not of an international character from June 2, 2003 to August 13, 2003.

On the first day of trial, Lubanga showed no emotion when his charges were read, or when his lawyer filed his not guilty plea. Chief Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo pledged to prove that Lubanga and his men forced child soldiers to rape, kill and plunder for the FPLC. Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda explained that Lubanga exploited families by sending emissaries on recruitment campaigns to gather children.

Several former child soldiers testified during the trial, all under witness protection in private sessions. One child said that he had been beaten so badly during military training that "one of his testicles had been damaged." A witness who worked at a demobilization facitility testified that they knew of a child who had suffered trauma in his family prior to being recruited to fight, and only wanted to return home to kill his father once he was released. The witness also testified to know a child who became epileptic as a result of the loud shooting he heard during military training.

Ocampo also spoke of the treatment of the young female child soldiers: "You will hear that as soon as the girls' breasts started to grow, Lubanga's commanders could select them as their forced ‘wives' and transform them into their sexual slaves." A witness testified that the girls in the camp were forced to sleep with the commanders and were sometimes told to have an abortion if they got pregnant, despite the lack of any medical facilities to perform such a procedure. The witness testified to seeing a 14 year-old girl die after an abortion because of "complications."

The Prosecution closed its case on July 17, 2009. The Defense is scheduled to begin sometime in October 2009.

Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui

Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui was a colonel in the Congolese army and a former commander of the National Intergrationist Front and the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri. On February 6, 2008, he was arrested by the Congolese authorities and surrendered to the ICC to stand trial for six counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity. His trial is set to start on 24 November, 2009.

These charges include murder, sexual slavery, inhuman treatment, pillaging and using children under the age of fifteen to actively participate in hostilities. Between January 2002 and December 2003, an estimated 8000 civilians died and more than half a million persons were displaced from their homes in Ituri as a consequence of the armed conflict between the FNI and other armed militias in the region of Ituri. Under the command of Mathieu Chui, on February 24, 2003 approximately 200 people were murdered in Bogoro, where mainly civilian members of the Hema ethnic group were targeted.

In April 2004, the Democratic Republic of Congo referred the situation in its territory to the prosecutor of the ICC. The Prosecutor then conducted investigations to determine whether crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the Court were committed. On 6 February 2008, Ngudjolo was arrested in Kinshasa by the Congolese authorities and transferred the following day to the detention centre of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Ahmed Haroun

Ahmed Haroun incited attacks against Darfuri civilians and recruited, funded and armed the Janjaweed militia, a group of nomadic armed forces that have been fighting for resources and land allocation with sedentary populations. In August 2003, he was accused of the forcible transfer of about 20,000 civilians and pressuring displaced persons to leave their displacement camps.

On April 27, 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Haroun, accusing him of 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes, including murder, persecution, rape and torture. Sudan, which is not a member state of the Rome Statute, has refused to surrender Haroun to the ICC, saying that they have no jurisdiction.

Despite international pressure for his arrest, Haroun continues to serve as the Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs. In September 2007, the Sudanese government announced that Haroun would lead an investigation in the human rights violations in Darfur. The government also appointed him as a member of its committee overseeing the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur [UNAMID], thus influencing the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur.

Ali Kushayb

Ali Kushayb is a former senior Janjaweed commander and currently sought under an arrest warrant by the ICC. He has been accused of personally attacking and murdering civilians in 2003 and 2004, as well as ordering numerous rapes, killings, and lootings. The crimes investigated by the ICC Prosecutor took place during attacks on the villages of Kodoom, Bindisi, Mukjar, and Arawala in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004. The ICC has charged Kushayb with 504 assasinations, 20 rapes, and the forced displacement of 41,000 people. He was arrested by the Sudanese government but was not surrendered to the ICC. He was released from a Sudanese prison on October 1, 2007 and is believed to be at liberty in Sudan.