ICC judges query DR Congo on status of executing LRA warrants

October 21, 2008 (THE HAGUE) – The International Criminal Court asked the Democratic Republic of the Congo Tuesday to explain what it has done towards securing the arrest of four Ugandan rebel leaders wanted for war crimes.

At least some among the four were believed to be based in DR Congo, whose government was asked in September 2005 to arrest Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony and three others, said a court statement.

Uganda has claimed that the LRA had been based in the DR Congo for more than three years, in the Garamba National Park.

“(The court) requested today the Democratic Republic of the Congo to provide the chamber with detailed information, preferably no later than November 17, 2008 on the measures taken for the execution of the warrants,” said the court.

It said it had the right to make an adverse finding against a member state failing to cooperate and refer the matter to the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute that created the court. The assembly holds its annual meeting next month.

Earlier this month, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo renewed calls for the arrest of Kony and other LRA commanders following new attacks by the Ugandan rebel group on Congolese citizens.

The prosecutor claimed the LRA attacked villages in the Haut Uele district of the DR Congo on September 17.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Kony and three other top LRA commanders, Okot Odhiambo, Vincent Otti and Dominic Ongwen, in 2005.

They are accused of raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands.

In July, southern Sudanese lawmakers urged the ICC to defer the indictments to encourage the rebel leaders to sign a Sudan-mediated Ugandan peace agreement.

Kony has so far refused to sign the accord on the basis of the ICC arrest warrants.

A semi-literate former altar boy, Kony took charge in 1988 of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda’s ethnic Acholi minority.

Twenty years of fighting between the rebels and government forces have left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people, mainly in northern Uganda.

(AFP)