/ 12 July 2006

ICC urged to quash war-crimes indictments

A senior Ugandan official on Wednesday urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to quash its war-crimes indictments against the leaders of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in a bid to encourage the rebels into peace talks with the government in Kampala.

The peace talks had been due to start in southern Sudan on Wednesday but they have been delayed for at least 24 hours while the Sudanese mediator tries to convince the rebels to send more senior negotiators.

Security Minister Amama Mbabazi visited the tribunal in The Hague to explain his government’s controversial offer of amnesty to elusive LRA supremo Joseph Kony, which it says provides the best hope for a peaceful settlement to northern Uganda’s brutal two-decade conflict.

”He is in The Hague to explain our position and brief the court about the [peace] talks mediated by the southern Sudan government,” said the head of the government’s media centre, Robert Kabushenga.

”He will tell them about the progress of the talks and it will be upon this that the ICC will make a decision,” he said.

Kony and four senior LRA commanders were indicted for war crimes and other atrocities by the ICC last year at Kampala’s request. But earlier this month Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni offered them amnesty if the peace talks succeed.

The court, the world’s first permanent war-crimes tribunal, has reacted coolly. It has reminded Uganda that, as a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC, it has an obligation to turn over the indictees for prosecution.

Mbabazi arrived in The Netherlands on Tuesday as the chief mediator in the peace talks announced the start of negotiations would be delayed while he sought clarification on the composition of the rebel delegation.

Mediator Riek Machar, the vice-president of southern Sudan’s autonomous government, is currently on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the top LRA leadership is based, to convince the rebels to send top officers to the negotiations.

Uganda wants senior commanders, including possibly Kony himself and deputy Vincent Otti, to attend the talks in Juba, the provisional capital of southern Sudan.

”We want senior people, especially from the combat wing, not those people from the diaspora,” said Paddy Ankunda, spokesperson for the eight-member Ugandan delegation. ”When we get that we shall board the next flight [to Juba] because we are ready [for talks].”

But the LRA has been non-committal thus far, despite Kampala’s offer of an amnesty. The ICC indictments and Interpol international arrest warrants against the LRA leadership are believed to be the main reason for their reluctance to appear.

On Monday, Uganda announced that it would ask the ICC to quash its indictments and suggested that if a peace deal could be signed, Kony and other rebel leaders could face justice through a traditional reconciliation process.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took over leadership of a regional rebellion in 1988 in a bid to oust Museveni.

The LRA purports to be fighting to replace Museveni’s government with one based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. But it has become better known for atrocities, particularly the kidnapping of an estimated 25 000 children, mostly girls who have been made sex slaves and boys enlisted as fighters. — Sapa-AFP