Uganda: World Lawyers’ body calls for the arrest and prosecution of Kony
By Solomon Muyita of the Monitor
Kampala, April 24, 2008 -- The International Bar Association [IBA] has issued a call to arrest and prosecute Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony and his top commanders in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The lawyers' world body, which wants the Ugandan government to enforce the arrest warrant against the rebels, has also asked Sudan and other neighbouring countries to refrain from providing a safe haven to the LRA.
IBA insists that Joseph Kony and his group need to be tried, as indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The body wants the international community to pressurise the Ugandan government to comply with its obligation to cooperate with the ICC.
The calls comes in the wake of Kony’s failure to sign the historic Juba peace agreement, which he says is due to his continuing fear that he may be surrendered to the ICC in The Hague.
Monitor media group in Kampala, Uganda, shows
Joseph Kony of the LRA (2nd left). Photo © STRINGER/
AFP/Getty Images (BBC Archives).
IBA said that without Kony’s signature on the peace agreement, President Yoweri Museveni could no longer request that the ICC withdraw the arrest warrants on grounds that it was likely to jeopardise the peace deal.
"The victims of the egregious atrocity perpetrated against innocent civilians in Northern Uganda can no longer await the effluxion of time before justice is done," said Mark Ellis, IBA Executive Director.
"Peace agreement or not, the warrants issued by the ICC must be respected and enforced by the Government of Uganda. The priority of President Museveni must now be accountability on behalf of the victims."
The body called on the UN Security Council and the entire international community to put pressure on Uganda to enforce the outstanding arrest warrants against Kony and his commanders.
IBA said that the entire peace process is likely to be derailed if reports about the suspected death of indicted LRA leader Okot Odhiambo remain unconfirmed.
On the proposed set up of a Special Division of the Ugandan High Court for the trial players in the northern Uganda war for their atrocities, alongside use of the traditional justice mechanisms, IBA said government's guarantees to ensure adherence to international fair trial standards and adequate penalties are not convincing.
Last month, the Judges of Pre-Trial Chamber II to which the cases of Kony and the other LRA leaders are assigned requested the Ugandan Government for detailed information regarding competences of the said Special Court.
"While efforts by the Ugandan Government to create a Special Division of the High Court are laudable, there is still no credible indication that the Ugandan justice system presently has the capacity to try Joseph Kony and the other LRA leaders according to internationally acceptable standards," said Justice Richard Goldstone.
"The absence of specific provisions in the annexure to the peace agreement which guarantee adherence to international fair trial standards and appropriate sentences without amnesties is cause for concern. The requirements of the Rome Statute for deferral to national proceedings would not be satisfied."
Justice Goldstone is co-chair of the IBA Human Rights Institute and former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
IBA said President Museveni's government should concentrate on rigorously enforcing arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and the other indictees in keeping with Uganda's obligation under the Rome Statute to cooperate with the Court."
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