The Hague sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to 14 years in prison Tuesday for allegedly using child soldiers in a militia he headed, in a ruling hailed by human rights activists and child advocates. Lubanga's sentence — less the six years he had already spent in detention — marked the first one the International Criminal Court had ever handed down for a convicted war criminal in its 10-year history. Lubanga was accused of recruiting children for his Union of Congolese Patriots militia and sending them into battle in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was also accused by rights activists of widespread rape during that fighting, and the presiding judge criticized prosecutors for not having charged Lubanga with sexual violence as well. It remains unclear where Lubanga will serve his sentence.
