A fail test for the ICC in case of the LRA

By Steve Paterno

May 21, 2006 — The notorious and murderous Lord’s Resistance Army that operates in Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan, and out of a national park in Northern Congo seems to has the life span that it does not deserve. With its brutal activities, one could imagine it to lose popular support and attract a swift wrath of the international community to put it off once and for all. However, recent trends seem to indicate that the LRA is there to stay, which is bad news for the victims who are often civilians, women, and children.

If the history of the LRA is ever written, a generation a hundred years from now will equate it to a fiction as its historical facts and reasoning behind their existence will be difficult to account for. Half of the facts regarding the LRA seem to be myths and half of those facts do not make any sense.

Given this paradox, one cannot fully understand the LRA, but it will be imperative to analyze the parties that involve with the LRA so as to understand the LRA. The first party is the Ugandan government of Yuweri Museveni. This government has been fighting and trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the LRA for years with a miserably failed results. In its strategy, the Ugandan display all the fighting machineries at its disposal but could not claim a victory over the LRA who continues with its activities of brutalizing the civilians as usual. The Ugandan government tried that if it pursues the LRA inside Southern Sudan, it will be able to defeat the LRA, but that effort even makes the LRA more active in both Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. The Ugandan top general who was in charge of pursuing the LRA, James Kazini, promised a resignation three years ago if the LRA were not defeat. Three years have passed without the general resignation or the defeat of the LRA in sight. Sometimes, about four years ago, a Uganda Army spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza declared on BBC Focus on Africa Program the war against LRA “has been won” and if the major is asked today, one can only guess his answer. President Yuweri Museveni pledged in elections that the LRA is on its demise and he will defeat them in a matter of months, however, his pledge only won him elections but not the defeat of the LRA.

As a result of fail attempts, the case of the LRA is referred to the International Criminal Court, which indicted and issued a warrant for the arrest of the top LRA leaders who include Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, and LRA commanders Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odiambo and Dominic Ongwen. The problem with the International Criminal Court is that it has no police of its own to carry out the arrest warrant that it has issued, therefore, it relies on others, and in this case for the Ugandan government, Sudanese government, Democratic Republic of Congo government, and the U.N. peacekeeping to do the arrest.

In the case of the Ugandan government, it has already proven beyond reasonable doubt that it will not defeat the LRA in a battle or negotiate a peaceful settlement or even arrest the leaders of LRA. So, all it has to do is begs for the LRA for a negotiation while offering safety for the LRA leaderships whom it has referred for the International Criminal Court for prosecutions. Such a move by the Ugandan government can only infuriate the International Criminal Court, which issued a strong statement reminding Ugandan government of its obligation to arrest the LRA leaders as it was the one who referred the case to the International Criminal Court in the first place and the crime committed by the LRA are serious crime against humanity they can never be offered safety of any kind but safety behind the bars or execution.

With respect to the Sudanese government, there are two parts into the story. The first part is that the Sudanese government, which has its headquarters in Khartoum, is the one supporting the LRA to carry out its brutal activities. So, if anything, it should not be the obligation of the government in Khartoum to arrest the leaders of LRA, but it will be the obligation of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrant for both leaders of LRA and those in Khartoum as they are accomplished to the crimes committed by the LRA against humanity. This will not require a world-class prosecutor to investigate nor will it require a supper world jurisprudence judge to rule over a warrant for individuals involved in suc collaborative criminal activities. It is a simple and clear-cut case.

The second part to this is the ill-functioning government popularly known by acronym GOSS, which is located in Juba, Southern Sudan. This government is made up of groups who exhausted all that they have in a two-decade war where they fought the Khartoum government, fought among themselves, and negotiated with a hope to run a government of its own. This government credited itself for being experienced in negotiations and its stands on LRA is laid out in three ways which is for the LRA to negotiate, where it can help along the way given its experience, or the LRA to leave for another location or else they will fight the LRA. The LRA took the first offer by opting for a negotiation settlement. Therefore, the GOSS obligation of arresting the LRA as demanded by the International Criminal Court is not even in its list of offers to the LRA, and the International Criminal Court should have taken note of that before it could rely on GOSS to carry the arrest that the GOSS will never do or has no intention of doing so.

So, for those who want to locate the LRA leadership that include the international community members like the International Criminal Court, the journalists, the human rights activists, and anyone who want to locate the LRA leadership, they may as well contact the GOSS, the Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar Teny in particular who has meetings with the LRA leadership. One does not need a phone number or home address to locate Dr. Riak Teny from Juba. Some tribal people answer his supposed phone and it is not going to help to contact him through the phone. And he seems to be living in a tent that can be spotted easily, therefore, no need for his address. You cannot miss him while in Juba, anyhow. Anyway, after all, Joseph Kony, the LRA leader is neither elusive nor mystical that he could not be located if the Vice President of GOSS can conduct meetings with him, if the Ugandan government can offer him safety and the International Criminal Court could indict him and want for his arrest.

Coming to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is yet to establish a full control over its country for it to be able to carry an obligation of arresting anyway operating under its territory. Remember, this is the country where almost every African country had sent its troops to practice killing under chaotic situation. So, the country is indeed under chaotic situation and the LRA is not exception to enter into the Democratic Republic of Congo and practice the killing in similar manners like the troops from the other African countries

With regards to the U.N. peacekeeping, it requires something that it often time refers to as the mandate, whatever mandate means, no one really knows for facts. Only legend has it that mandate is something in New York City that they have to debate over it. The U.N. peacekeeping claims that as long as it does not has a mandate, it is not going to bother arresting anyone. Therefore, the International Criminal Court may eliminate the U.N. peacekeeping from its list of potential police to carry out the arrest warrant of the LRA leadership.

Now the situation apparently is in favor of the murderous LRA as there is no one taking the issue of the LRA seriously while the LRA is taking its activities of brutalizing civilians seriously. The victims of the LRA have to content with the grim reality that the LRA is there to stay. The hopes for the LRA victims remain in their probabilities to survive under the harshest conditions that they are subjected to. The plighting suffering of the LRA victims is left for history, and history is going to judge today’s generation leadership very harsh, as the decisions and actions they take or do not take will be viewed with contempt by the future human generations.

* Steve Paterno is a Sudanese residing in the U.S.A., and he can be reached at [email protected]