Marriage of convenience

Justice: The United States is at times finding the International Criminal Court useful and worthy of support, but it still hasn't fallen in love with the UN body | Jamie Dean

Nearly six years after its establishment, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to begin its first trial next month in The Hague, Netherlands.

The independent court established by dozens of United Nations (UN) members will try former Democratic Republic of Congo rebel leader Thomas Lubanga for war crimes stemming from a bloody ethnic conflict that left as many as 60,000 people dead over four years.

The court has formally charged Lubanga, 46, with abducting children under the age of 16 and forcing them to fight for his Union of Congolese Patriots in a war waged over control of the gold-rich Ituri region of northeast Congo. War observers say Lubanga also masterminded the massacre of 400 people, and that the 1999-2003 fighting left hundreds of thousands homeless.