Tuesday, 23 March 2010- Defence Witness 23: "I am here to help you to clarify things because we do not like dishonesty."
The Prosecution challenges the eleventh defence witness´s testimony. Witness 23, who claimed to be registered as a demobilised fighter, seems to have lied to the CONADER officers, the national program for disarmament, demobilisation and reinsertion of ex-combatants. According to the Prosecution, Witness 23 assumed the identity of another individual to receive some money and demobilisation card from the CONADER offices. The document was issued in April 2005.
Witness 23 met the Defence lawyers before coming to The Hague to testify. "I limited myself to telling them the things I have full knowledge of. Those are things that are concrete, things that can be proven. Because right from childhood, I have always believed in the truth."
"Well in fact, you did not tell the truth to CONADER, did you?" asks Mr. Sachdeva. "After the war in Ituri, there was a lot of suffering. We did not even have food to eat. And so if the opportunity presented itself, well I was told that I could go there, show the card and get stuff. So I went there. If I´d had resources at the time, means to live on, I wouldn't have done that. I did it because of the suffering that we were experiencing after the war," explains the witness.
"So really, you like to speak the truth but if an opportunity presents itself, you lie?" insists Mr. Sachdeva. "Well, you should not try to compare what happened there at that particular point in time with what happens in court. In court you have to speak the truth," the witness explains.
The Prosecution is convinced that Witness 23 never revealed to the UN Development Program or CONADER that he lied to them. "All those people don't know about things that were lies and I have come here to clarify things for you. I have no vested interests. I am not trying to get anything out of this. If I am here, it is quite simply to help you to clarify things because we do not like dishonesty. Many Christians don't like things that are dishonest. That is how I am because it was dishonesty that has caused so much of the suffering that we suffered at the time and the savage brutality. All of that was the result of dishonesty."
Witness 23 has given his testimony almost entirely in private session.
During the morning session, the Lubanga Defence team has addressed the Chamber again to express concerns about the interview that Béatrice Le Fraper du Hellen, Head of the Jurisdiction Complementarity and Cooperation Division of the Office of the Prosecutor, gave to the press a week ago. She said: "Mr. Lubanga is making signs to the audience. He is smiling; he is doing a lot of body language - it is very terrifying for the children to testify in front of him." In the Defence´s view, these are serious allegations that are "not acceptable on the part of the Prosecution."
"We are talking about the dignity of Thomas Lubanga," says Defence Counsel Mr. Biju-Duval. In his view, his client has been portrayed "cruelly and unfairly." "This is a serious matter. It cannot be seen as a minor error," he says. "The attitude of the OTP is part of a deliberate policy: the OTP has decided to ignore what is happening during the trial sessions."
But there is another quote that irked the Lubanga Defence team and the judges: "Nothing is going to happen. Mr. Lubanga is going away for a long time," said Ms. Fraper du Hellen. The Defence believes these words do not express a wish to attain the truth but "a desire of elimination." "The Prosecution is using means which are not appropriate. Propaganda is being used," says the Counsel. "The dignity of the accused in this trial must be reestablished."
The Chamber ordered the Prosecution to provide the full transcript of the interview. However, there is no such transcript, because there is no tape recording. The Deputy Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, tells the Chamber that the intern who was supposed to record the interview had experienced technical problems. Now they must rely on the journalist´s transcript. Judge Fulford asks the OTP to contact the journalist as soon as possible.
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