ICC prosecutor seeks 30-year term for Congolese warlord

ICC prosecutor seeks 30-year term for Congolese warlord

AMSTERDAM | Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, convicted by the International Criminal Court in its first ever ruling, should be sentenced to 30 years in prison for using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Lubanga was found guilty of abducting boys and girls under the age of 15 and forcing them to fight in a five-year jungle war that killed some 60,000 people in the east of the country around the turn of the century.

"Children were trained by terror. They were trained to kill and to rape. The children were launched into battle zones where they were instructed to kill everyone regardless of whether they were men, women, or children," ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a statement, demanding the court's maximum sentence of 30 years.

The International Criminal Court convicted the 51-year-old militia leader in March but did not decide on a sentence at the time.

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