Warlord sentenced to prison for recruiting child soldiers

The recruitment of kids to fight wars is not new, but prosecuting someone who does this is very new. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend to lock of adults who take advantage of kids to do their dirty work with guns or for sex. The Guardian:

The international criminal court has handed down its first sentence, jailing for 14 years a Congolese warlord who recruited and used child soldiers.

Thomas Lubanga was found guilty in March of abducting boys and girls under the age of 15 and forcing them to fight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern Ituri region in 2002-2003.

Lubanga, 51, is the first person convicted by the permanent war crimes tribunal.

The prosecution had asked for a "severe sentence" of 30 years. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, then chief prosecutor, said it was seeking the punishment "in the name of each child recruited, in the name of the Ituri region".