ICC Indictments on LRA Members

1.4 million people live in squalid camps because of the Lord's Resistance Army. Their futures would be better served if the ICC dropped warrants for five LRA members.

In August, the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) agreed to a truce in Juba, Sudan which was seen as the first step towards a peace agreement that will put an end to two decades of conflict. As part of the cessation of hostilities, LRA fighters were to assemble at two Sudanese camps as the peace talks continued. But the LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, has made it clear that he and his fighters refuse to sign any accord until the outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants on five LRA members are dropped. Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, has said that he does not want to discuss the ICC warrants until Kony signs a peace deal. Barely a year after being issued, many view the ICC warrants as the greatest obstacle to peace in northern Uganda.

Last weekend, Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, held a 10-minute meeting in the jungle with Kony hoping to convince him to release women and children belonging to the LRA. Kony would not comply but told Egeland that he does not feel secure in his jungle hideout, constantly fearing attacks from the Ugandan army. As long as Kony does not feel secure, the whole of Acholiland in northern Uganda remains insecure and the truce will always be tenuous. Meanwhile, there are 1.4 million people still living in cramped and sordid Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps - a security measure established by the Ugandan government to protect Acholis from the brutal exploits of the LRA during their frequent raids.

The Juba peace talks may be the last chance for these two sides to reach any agreement that will lead to peace. While Kony refuses to cooperate, while the ICC stands firm on their indictments and while Yoweri Museveni postpones decisions, the 1.4 million IDPs can try to guess whether or not their government and the ICC care more about their humanitarian crisis or about how to mete justice out to Joseph Kony et al. If peace and security are the ends, it should not matter that a murderous madman and four of his henchmen are allowed to go free. This may sound like an appalling suggestion but when the indictments are the only things preventing further misery for 1.4 million people crowded into makeshift living conditions (and further bloodshed, almost certainly), it may be worth strong consideration. But that depends on whether or not the ICC's definition of justice is what a man deserves for his past crimes or what a community deserves for their future.