ICC should delay pursuing Uganda rebels-Machar

June 20, 2006 (JUBA, Sudan) — A global war crimes court that wants to prosecute Uganda’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels should wait for a peace deal before pursuing justice, south Sudan’s vice-president said.

Riek Machar told Reuters on Tuesday the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) should publicly endorse his government’s peace initiative with the LRA.

Machar has led efforts by the south Sudanese government to mediate an end to the 19-year uprising in northern Uganda by the LRA, which has staged attacks from bases in neighbouring Sudan since the mid-1990s.

“If the ICC came out to say that they would give the peace process a chance before the legal process is done, then we would resolve the conflict in the region,” Machar said, speaking in his office in the southern capital Juba.

“If they did that, they would give the peace process a big boost, it would assist the Ugandan government to boldly say ‘we are going to negotiate’,” he said.

The ICC unsealed arrest warrants for LRA leader Joseph Kony, who claims mystical inspiration for his rebellion, and his four top commanders in October, detailing various counts including murder, sexual enslavement and rape.

The warrants divided opinion in Kony’s native northern Uganda, where civic and religious groups feared they would make it harder to convince LRA commanders to stop fighting.

Numerous attempts to broker an end to the conflict have failed, but Machar said Kony’s willingness to meet him — the first time the elusive rebel has met mediators for years — showed he was serious.

“There was no initiative that has gone to this level,” Machar said. “I think he wants to reach to a peaceful settlement to the conflict.”

WARRANTS

Machar met Kony on May 3 and June 11 near Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the rebels established positions last year, widening the threat posed to regional security by their insurgency.

The ICC has reiterated that governments in the region have a duty to arrest their suspects. Kony has evaded repeated attempts to capture him by Uganda’s army.

Diplomats and regional security sources say the LRA killed eight Guatamalen troops from the U.N. mission in Congo who took part in an attempt in January to arrest Kony’s deputy, Vincent Otti, also wanted by the ICC.

Machar stopped short of calling for the warrants to be withdrawn.

“We are a vehicle to mediate a peaceful settlement. With a peaceful settlement the environment would have been set for the ICC to trigger off the legal process,” he said.

Machar said Switzerland had agreed to support his initiative, adding the Netherlands and Italy also appeared ready to assist.

Kony started one of several rebel groups formed in northern Uganda after President Yoweri Museveni seized power in 1986 by overthrowing army generals from the region.

The group has failed to articulate a clear political programme, but LRA delegates from northern Uganda’s diaspora community in London and Nairobi arrived in Juba this month, hoping to negotiate with the Ugandan government.

Uganda’s envoy in Juba said after meeting Machar on Tuesday that he was confident Kampala would send representatives for talks, though it was not clear when.

(Reuters)