THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Prosecutors and judges celebrated the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court's founding document Thursday, but behind the scenes there was turmoil.

The initial case to go before the world's first permanent war crimes court was scuttled this week before it could begin as judges ordered the release of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga. The judges made the ruling after determining prosecutors had withheld information that could help Lubanga's defense.

They gave the prosecution five days to salvage the case. Lubanga remains in a Dutch jail while prosecutors draw up their appeal of the release order.

“There is no doubt the court has faced challenges,” Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said in a speech to hundreds of dignitaries, including Dutch Princess Maxima. “We only need to read this week's newspapers about the case against Mr. Lubanga to comprehend the magnitude of some of them.”

Lubanga was due to go on trial June 23 on charges of recruiting child soldiers and sending them to kill and be killed in ethnic conflicts in the Ituri region of eastern Congo in 2002-2003.

The case, which tests the right to protect informants in conflict areas against a defendant's right to scrutinize his accusers, has highlighted tensions built into the founding document – the Rome Statute – that is 10 years old this month. It has sparked fears that similar crises could disrupt other cases.

One provision of the statute allows prosecutors to enter into far-reaching confidentiality agreements with people or organizations who provide evidence to the court. Another provision obligates prosecutors to disclose such material to the defense if it could help acquit a suspect.

“You have a cornerstone right to a fair trial, which the trial chamber demonstrated its commitment to,” said Richard Dicker of New York-based Human Rights Watch, referring to the order to halt Lubanga's trial.

“You have the provision ... that allows the prosecutor to gather information granting confidentiality. If that information contains material that may be exculpatory, the prosecutor of course is under an obligation to disclose that to the defense. Therein lies the tension,” Dicker added.

He said that in the early days of the court's work, prosecutors “overreached” in using the provision allowing them to gather evidence under confidentiality agreements.

Sylvia Steiner, a judge in another case before the court focusing on war crimes allegations against two other Congolese warlords, agreed.

In a ruling last month, she wrote that prosecutors were not using confidentiality agreements as a last resort to get their hands on evidence in Congo, but were “extensively gathering documents under such provision.”

What is surprising about the boilover in the Lubanga case is that it was caused by the United Nations, one of the court's strongest backers.

The United Nations gave prosecutors many documents only on the condition they remain confidential. An offer by the U.N. to allow the judges to look through the documents in the presence of a U.N. official has been rejected by the presiding judge as unworkable.

The U.N.'s insistence on confidentiality stems from the fact that most of the information comes from its peacekeepers in Congo, a force that remains in the country and could face recriminations for helping prosecutors.

While the dispute has cast a pall over this week's celebrations, observers expect it to blow over and that Lubanga will stand trial.

“The U.N. knows the stakes are far too high not to try very hard to come up with an acceptable compromise with the judges,” said Michael Scharf, a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who has studied the international war crimes tribunals.

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters he expects to present a U.N. compromise within two weeks, but conceded Lubanga's trial is likely to be held up by some three months.

In some welcome good news for the court Thursday, former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba was extradited from Belgium to stand trial on charges of responsibility for rape and murder. He is the fourth suspect in the court's custody.