One warlord down... - Telegraph Of all the hazards that African warlords confront while waging campaigns of nihilistic violence, they could once safely discount the possibility of facing justice. A small part of that solace died yesterday when Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese rebel leader, was convicted by the International Criminal Court of recruiting child soldiers. A chamber in The Hague, far removed from Lubanga's chosen killing grounds in the remote green hills of eastern Congo, saw a wicked man held answerable for his sins. That is the good news. The downside is that the ICC has been up and running for almost a decade, costing £750 million, and yesterday's conviction was its first. It came almost exactly six years after Lubanga's arrival in The Hague, making this case a textbook example of cumbersome, foot-dragging international justice. Meanwhile, there remain plenty of reasons for the world's most odious citizens to sleep soundly in their beds. Joseph Kony, the murderous leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, is still at large in central Africa despite being the ICC's first indictee and the target of a vociferous internet campaign. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has successfully combined the roles of head of state and indicted war criminal, remaining securely in power and beyond the ICC's reach. And critics point out that a court that relies on the Security Council for referrals will inevitably be vulnerable to charges of politicised "victors" justice." For all his dogged persistence, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC's Argentinian chief prosecutor, has occasionally shot himself in the foot. His slapdash approach towards prosecuting Lubanga came within an ace of having the warlord acquitted on a technicality. But any moment of accountability is better than none. In this largely justice-free world, half a step forward is better than none at all.