Uganda: ICC softens on LRA rebels

(SomaliNet) International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked the Uganda government to furnish it with information on the competence of the proposed war crimes courts that would try indicted Lords Resistance Army (LRA) commanders.

A news source said the order was contained in a letter signed by the three ICC judges addressed to Ugandan Justice Ministry in capital Kampala.

The move follows a deal between the LRA and the Ugandan government to try rebel leader Joseph Kony in a special division of Uganda’s High Court.

ICC judges are now asking for information on the said courts before March 28—a date when the LRA and the government are supposed to have signed the Final Peace Agreement.

The ICC “requests the Republic of Uganda to provide the Chamber at the earliest convenience preferably no later than 28 March with detailed information on the application of the Annexure on the execution of warrants,” the letter dated February 29 said.

It demanded information on “the exact competence attributed to the special division of the High Court of Uganda…”
It also demanded information on “categories of offences and alleged perpetrators addressed by the traditional justice mechanism and other alternative justice mechanisms referred to in the Annexure.”

This is a shift by the ICC which had insisted until now that it had a credible case against Kony and his men.

Efforts to reach the Justice Ministry were futile yesterday, but the government’s chief negotiator in Juba, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda said work to establish the court was underway.

Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni told journalists in London yesterday that his government can save Kony and his group from the claws of the ICC. “We can save him because we are the ones who sought assistance from the ICC,” said the President.

President Museveni was addressing journalists at the Commonwealth Secretariat at Marlborough House yesterday. The President has been on a two-day working visit to the UK as the Chairperson of the Commonwealth. –Daily Monitor