Communicating Justice

Kampala, April 19, 2008 -- The International Criminal Court faces blame for the failed signing of a final peace agreement between Uganda’s government and Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the best hope for peace yet in a brutal 20-year civil war.  LRA leader Joseph Kony failed to show up for a signing ceremony on April 13^th, insisting that ICC arrest warrants for top rebel leaders first be withdrawn. But the government says it can do nothing unless the LRA makes a firm commitment to alternative justice mechanisms. 

"We have labored to explain to the LRA again and again that we do not have the powers to withdraw the warrants of arrest,” says Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda’s internal affairs minister and leader of the government’s peace negotiating team. Rugunda says he has tried to explain that the ICC warrants cannot be withdrawn without a satisfactory justice system in place.  “We have asked them to come out of the bush, sign the agreement and get tried by the special high court division. This is the only way the ICC can be convinced that justice will indeed be done, but they have refused to listen.”

Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA. Uganda
May 2006. Photo © Stringer/AFP/Getty
Images (BBC Archives).

The ICC issued warrants of arrest against the LRA’s chief command in July 2005 for crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape and sexual slavery.  The LRA recently sent a team to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on a fact-finding mission to establish whether the warrants could be withdrawn. The ICC apparently responded by asking the government of Uganda for full information about its proposed alternative justice systems, while the Court’s outreach officer in Kampala, Maria Mabinty,  restated that the ICC warrants would remain in place unless a satisfactory, tangible justice system was put in place locally.

Mabinty denied that the ICC was a hindrance to the peace process. “I don’t believe that the ICC has blocked the process in any way,” she said in an interview. “In fact, it’s the presence of the ICC and its activities that have seen this process come this far.” Mabinty added that the government of Uganda can apply for a one-year suspension of the warrants through the UN Security Council.

Some analysts have suggested that the ICC should indeed bow to the LRA’s demands and suspend the warrants of arrest for at least a year to allow proposed alternative justice approaches a chance. These include the trial of top LRA leaders by a special High Court division, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and traditional justice systems. 

Gulu district chairman Norbert Mao has echoed this call. “This matter is now beyond the government of Uganda, because there is absolutely nothing it can do about it,” he says. “The ICC however should give a chance to our justice systems to operate. Why can’t they support the special High Court division to expend justice at internationally accepted standards instead of insisting on The Hague as the only body to carry out the trials?”

The government’s proposal for a special High Court division to try serious war-related crimes according to international standards requires that the Rome Statute of the ICC be enshrined in national law. However, this is still subject to delay. The ICC Bill 2006 is before Parliament, but Hon. Peter Nyombi, chairperson of parliament’s legal affairs committee, says it is not yet top priority. “Yes, the bill is before us,” he says, “but we have other bills to handle. It is about number three among the bills that have to be handled with urgency."

The government of Uganda has meanwhile put up a new deadline of May 1st for the rebels to sign the peace deal. Ugandans eager for peace are thus plunged into further uncertainty and fears of renewed war, as they wait to see what the LRA, the government and the ICC will do next.

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