Uganda står i et stort dilemma: Man har omsider fanget den berygtede militsleder, Joseph Konys, næstkommanderende, men tusinder af frafaldne medlemmer af “Herrens Modstandshær” har fået amnesti siden 2000.
KAMPALA, 17 May 2012 (IRIN): The arrest of a senior Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander has reignited debate in Uganda about what to do with alleged war criminals: let them go, to encourage other rebels to surrender; or prosecute them in the name of accountability (blive stillet til ansvar) and justice.
LRA commander Caesar Acellam Otto, along with other senior LRA commanders, “is responsible for the most egregious (afskyvækkende) violations committed against children in the central African region”, according Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
Acellam was captured by the Uganda army in the Central African Republic (CAR) on 12 May.
“I am encouraged by the capture of one of the worst perpetrators of child rights violations, and hope that the Ugandan authorities would not apply amnesty but instead bring him to justice,” said Coomaraswamy.
Uganda’s Amnesty Act of 2000 provides amnesty for any LRA rebel combatants who abandon the group and renounce (afsværger) involvement in the war.
13.000 LRA combatants granted amnesty
However, the Act does not apply to LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his top commanders who were indicted (tiltalt) in 2005 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
About 13.000 LRA combatants have been granted amnesty since 2000, according to the Amnesty Commission’s records.
Opinion on the way forward is divided: “It should not be a blanket (generel) amnesty to whoever is captured. His case as a person needs more thorough examination and should be judged on merit,” Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda’s minister for information, communication and technology, said.
Rugunda headed the government team in peace talks with the LRA, which produced several detailed agreements but, because of Kony’s repeated prevarications (udflugter), no final comprehensive accord was ever signed.
Acellam said in Nzara, South Sudan, on 13 May that he would apply for amnesty, Uganda’s state-owned New Vision newspaper reported.
“The Ugandan government passed a bill in Parliament of blanket amnesty. So all rebels who left the bush before me were granted amnesty. Why not me? Why should I fear?” said Acellam, who was captured along with his wife, child and a 12-year-old CAR girl.
Acellam’s fate will be decided by the Ministry of Justice at an appropriate time, according to Uganda’s military spokesperson Col Felix Kulayigye.
“We captured him. He is a prisoner of war,” he said.
Stop-gap legislation?
According to Samuel Opio, a human rights lawyer in Kampala, the Amnesty Act is stop-gap (midlertidig) legislation favouring only the combatants. “We need to have a comprehensive (omfattende) law that deals with victims issues,” he said.
In northern Uganda’s Acholi region, which was worst affected by the LRA insurgency, survivors and their families want Acellam tried at the High Court’s International Crimes Division .
“These are criminals. Acellam knows that he committed crimes. He must pay for his crimes and atrocities,” said Winfred Laker, a resident of Mucwini in the northern Ugandan district of Kitgum.
Laker’s sister was shot and killed in an LRA ambush, along the Gulu-Kitgum road in 2003.
“All people who were responsible for committing atrocities in northern Uganda must be tried and punished. There should be no room for impunity (straffrihed),” she said.
Arthur Okot who lost a limb in a land mine explosion in Gulu in 2001, said:
“This is a time for accountability. I do not support this issue of forgiving these LRA commanders. They have to face the court for the atrocities and crimes they committed in the region for the past two decades…”
“Acellam must answer for all the people that they [the LRA] murdered. He was chief of military intelligence”, noted he.
Court’s jurisdiction constrained
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http://irinnews.org/Report/95168/SECURITY-LRA-nurtures-the-next-generation-of-child-soldiers
