LRA rebels and government officials have finally agreed on principles for handling accountability and reconciliation for offenses committed during Uganda's civil conflict
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government have reached an agreement and are one step closer to ending Uganda's 20-year civil war. The pact, which was signed late on June 29, addresses the troublesome issue of accountability and reconciliation for war crimes committed during the country's conflict.
This development is the third topic on a five-point agenda and considered to be the "make or break point," according to what Captain Barigye Ba-Hoku, the Ugandan delegation spokesman, told the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN).
Talks began last July in Juba, southern Sudan, when Joseph Kony, the LRA's leader and self-proclaimed mystic, announced that he wanted to negotiate a peace. But the outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants for the LRA's leadership have hindered progress in Juba, with the LRA quitting talks several times. Discussions have been disrupted several times but mediators say that this deal is a key step to ending the country's ongoing problems, which have resulted in the displacement of almost two million people.
"There's nothing we signed that explicitly deals with punishment," head of the LRA delegation in Sudan, Martin Ojul, told Reuters news by telephone. "It is trying to find a way of dealing with war crimes locally. We don't see the ICC as appropriate."
The agreement will integrate both the formal Ugandan legal system and local Acholi traditional rituals designed to address accountability of crimes committed by the LRA and Ugandan forces. The BBC reports that rebels feel it is more appropriate to use Ugandan courts rather than the sending the accused to the ICC in the Netherlands.
A cleansing ceremony known as mato oput is one of the most common forms of justice in the Uganda's Acholi region but practices from other communities will also be included in the accountability and reconciliation agreement. Rights groups, however, have pointed out that this decision condones impunity.
LRA and the ICC
At the behest of Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, the ICC issued warrants in 2005 for the arrest of the LRA's top five commanders including its leader, the self-proclaimed mystic, Joseph Kony. Kony and his deputies have been hiding in the bush in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), refusing to join the talks for fear of being arrested.
The LRA leaders are accused of the abduction of thousands of children as well as widespread rape, murder, torture, sexual slavery and enlisting of children as soldiers . Kony alone is accused of 33 war crimes and crimes against humanity and the ICC warrants were the first issued by the Hague-based institution since its inception in 2002. The rebels, however, feel that the ICC's case is unfair because it does not recognize the government's brutality.
