Bukeni Waruzi of WITNESS Responds to Guilty Verdict of Former Rebel Leader Thomas Lubanga at the ICC

Video Interview Available With Bukeni's Reactions

NEW YORK, March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Long-time human rights advocate Bukeni Waruzi, Program Manager for Africa and the Middle East at WITNESS, reacted positively to the guilty verdict of former rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo announced at the International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday.

"I'm so proud today to see that the work that WITNESS and AJEDI-Ka carried out in the Congo, advocating for the rights of children not to be used as soldiers, has paid off," Bukeni said following the verdict.

More reactions from Bukeni are available in this web video: http://youtu.be/gYWOjFq1Cls

For more than 14 years, Bukeni has fought for the rights and rehabilitation of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), of which there were an estimated 30,000 children who were waiting to be demobilized from the armed forces at the end of 2003. Today, there is still an estimated 7,000 child soldiers who remain in government forces and armed groups, most of which are girls.

Prior to joining WITNESS, Bukeni ran an organization in the Eastern DRC, AJEDI-Ka, which partnered with WITNESS to produce videos on the issue of child soldiers in the country.  In 2005, WITNESS and AJEDI-Ka launched a video advocacy campaign to bring charges against Lubanga.

Several of the videos have been used as evidence against Lubanga, who was found guilty of recruiting and using children under the age of 15 for active duty on the frontlines of combat during July 2002 and December 2003. The videos are available here: http://www.witness.org/campaigns/all-campaigns/duty-protect-child-soldiers-drc

SOURCE WITNESS

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