On Tuesday, a witness explained that Lubanga and other commanders had child soldiers as guards in the UPC. The witness, a former commander in the UPC, also told the Court that children were expected to complete the same tasks as adults, ““If a Kadogo (child soldier) finishes his training, he is deployed, he is given a weapon and obviously he is going to fight.“

Defense attorney Jean-Marie Biju-Duval argued on Wednesday that individual officers, rather than commanders, were responsible for taking child soldiers. Under questioning the witness stated, “Some children were too young and you could not allow them (to join the militia).” The rest of the questioning was held in a closed session at the witness’ request.

The trial resumes on May 26th.

This post was created by Kate Davey through sourcing from the reporting of Wairagala Wakabi for lubangatrial.org