Higher stakes for Uganda’s LRA

By Steve Paterno

June 5, 2006 — At long last, one will say for the first time the usual low profiled issue of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has acquired some prominence on international scene-bringing into the forefront to the international communities the resolutions of the LRA’s longed ignored problems. The stakes in arresting and prosecuting the leaders of LRA by the international communities, the International Criminal Court in particular, is increasingly getting higher. Meanwhile the efforts by the autonomous government of the Southern Sudan to appease the LRA in defiance of the international communities’ Protocols are gaining momentum. This seemingly awkward situation set the newly created autonomous government of the Southern Sudan and the international communities in a collision course.

For two decades, the LRA has been accused of killing, kidnapping, rapping, torturing, and looting of the civilian populations. The victims of LRA stretch into three different countries of Uganda, Sudan, and Congo. And the victims are not just limited to the nationals of those countries but also include the humanitarian aid workers who operate in those countries. The violence acts of LRA have already killed up to tens of thousands of civilians with many more dying of diseases and malnutrition as a direct result of LRA’s activities. Thousands of civilians are estimated to be kidnapped, and approximately over thirty thousand of those kidnapped are alleged to be the children. Little school girls make the bulk of the LRA’s rapped victims. The chopping and hacking of its victims’ body parts becomes LRA’s trademark in torturing adventure. Looting, vandalizing and burning of properties defined LRA’s means of survivals. The LRA’s brutal activities have forced nearly two million of civilians off their homes to live in displaced camps, street corners and public spaces in larger towns. Despite all these horrible facts, the issue of the LRA remained a low profile in the international communities circle and drew little to no media coverage. It is only until recently that the issue begins to take a different shape.

In the year 2003, by the virtue of its membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC), Uganda was able to make a referral of the horrific criminal violations of the LRA’s to be investigated and prosecuted by the ICC. After finishing its investigation and compiling strong case against the LRA’s leadership, the ICC delayed in making public any indictment with the hope of giving peace a chance as the 2004 peace talks was promising to end the conflict peacefully. However, the peace that was supposed to be signed between the Ugandan government and the LRA in the end of 2004 was stalled in a last minute hitches. The LRA’s chief negotiator, brigadier Sam Kolo, surrendered to the Ugandan government dashing out all the hopes of imminent peace deal. His defection also dealt an embarrassing defeat to the LRA leadership. As a result, the business resumed as normal with many more killing, kidnapping, rapping, torturing, and looting inflicted among the civilians population in the years that followed.

Then in October of 2005, the ICC went ahead in unsealing its indictment of five LRA leaders who include Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, and LRA commanders Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odiambo, and Dominic Ongwen. (Brigadier Dominic Ongwen is reported to have been killed in a combat operation that involved the Ugandan People Defense Force (UPDF) in year 2005). This indictment put an end into any negotiation with LRA as it calls on immediate arrest of those leaders of the LRA. Nonetheless, the ICC has no military or police of its own to enforce its arrest warrant. Instead, it relies on its member states and others to carry out its arrest warrant. In this case, it has served both of the countries that the LRA is operating in with a warrant to arrest the indicted leaders of the LRA. Of those countries, Sudan is not a member that ratified the charters of ICC, but yet it made a commitment to the ICC to comply with the arrest warrant to arrest the indicted leaders of LRA.

However, recent development indicates that the autonomous government of Southern Sudan is in no way complying with the ICC arrest warrant. It has thus far conducted several negotiations with the LRA leaders, provided the LRA with food supplies, issued the LRA with stacks of cash money, and designated an area for LRA to roam freely in an effort to secure long term peace mediation between the LRA and the Ugandan government. The authorities in the government of Southern Sudan are completely ignoring the ICC arrest warrant. The Vice President of Southern Sudan, Riak Machar called the ICC’s justice as “European Justice” and that the South Sudan is not the “police of the world” to carryout an international arrest warrants. The president of the South Sudan who is also the vice president of the Sudan, Salva Kiir, said, “the laws Kony broke are not European laws, they are our laws.” Therefore, the ICC should have no saying.

But what the authorities of the Southern Sudan government are not aware of is that the president of Uganda, Yuweri Museveni, who is not from European, was the one who referred the issued of the LRA to the ICC to be investigated and prosecuted. So, if the ICC operates under Europeans laws, President Museveni should not have referred the case there in the first place. The other thing that they are also not aware of is that the ICC membership is not made up of exclusive Europeans for the ICC’s jurisdiction to be classified as “European Justice.” The Sudanese neighboring countries like Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo just to name few are members of ICC, and Sudan can also be a member if it wishes to join, and even the aspiring country of Southern Sudan can become a member once it is a sovereign state and willing to join. And more importantly, what these authorities in Southern Sudan are not aware of is that in today’s globalize world, those who commit crimes against humanity must not escape unaccounted for the actions they committed regardless of what part of the world they come from or what side of the conflict they are involved in. global justice must follow the perpetrators of global crimes wherever they may be.

As the Southern government of Sudan remains defiance in the face of international communities, a different party entered into play, and it is the Interpol, which has just joined the hunt for the LRA leadership on behalf of the ICC. The Interpol came in with international law enforcement experience of over eighty years in preventing and combating international crimes. With its 184 member states, Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization. Interpol objective is to facilitate the cooperation of international police across the borders where even diplomatic relationship is non existence. It supports all those authorities whose missions are to prevent and combat international crime through the spirit of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

With its extensive international law enforcement experience, effective coordinated efforts and its integrated global communication system, the Interpol has largely been successful in apprehending its suspected subjects from around the globe. However, its successes in apprehending the LRA’s suspected leaders are remained to be seen given the lack of compliance from the Southern Sudan government and other risk factors that may make the suspects unreachable.

Also the showdown between the government of Southern Sudan who appeases the LRA and the international communities, who are in favor of handing the LRA leaders over for prosecutions, is the unfolding development that has to be watched with interest. Whether the government of Southern Sudan is weak and not capable of arresting the LRA leaders and resorts in desperation to be in such unique and awkward position as it has been accused by others or it has other options in dealing with the LRA without appeasement is something that remains to be judged as the time goes by. Whatever the future outcome may unfold, whether there will be peace agreement that guarantees amnesty to the leaders of LRA or there will be a continuous conflict, the LRA leaders will never escape the long arm of international justice given the horrendous crimes they have committed.

General Augusto Pinochet who ruled Chile with iron fist could not defend himself even the argument that he is not fit to stand trial on the ground of his illness could not prevent him from prosecutions. The person who oversaw Yugoslavia disintegrated into chaos and poverty, President Slobodan Milosevic, has to account for crimes he committed even if it means he has to die in the prison like the way he did. Sadam Hussein who equated himself to some mystical historical figures and ruled Iraq with terror for decades has to under go prosecutions even if he stills believe that he is the elected president of Iraq while he is behind the bar. The African flamboyant president of Liberia, Charles Taylor could only escape justice temporarily, and money cannot guarantee his escape even in a country like Nigeria where bribery is the rule of law. So justice could be awaiting the LRA leaders and it is just a matter of time before justice takes its toll on them. Their fates is just like those leaders who thought they could escape justice but ending up facing it.

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