Forgiving the LRA

There's a swell of opinion in Uganda that the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, should be forgiven: that the ICC is all that's standing in the way of a peaceful resolution to the conflict:

A representative for the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels has asked war victims in the north to forgive them.

"The LRA made plenty of mistakes and I ask for forgiveness for what happened to our people," visiting LRA spokesman Martin Ojul told a local radio station.

The archbishop of Gulu, the northern town where the LRA delegation is holding talks, told the BBC forgiveness is key to solving the two-decade war.

He said he does not see a role for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

During their tour of the north, the LRA delegation wants to persuade the region that their top commanders, four of whom were indicted by the ICC for war crimes two years ago, should face traditional forms of justice instead.

An estimated 1.5m people still remain in displacement camps in the north and thousands were killed during the fighting.

It's difficult to see this as anything more than a concerted effort by the LRA leadership to escape justice. Presumably the message here - we "made plenty of mistakes and I ask for forgiveness for what happened to our people" - comes direct from Joseph Kony. Not, I think it's safe to say, as a genuine expression of remorse: rather a calculated move to win support for the removal of the ICC indictments. And of course a clear sign of how weak the LRA are now. They may still be able to cause some minor problems, but effectively they're a beaten force.

No doubt it's a good omen for future hopes of peace that so many in Uganda are prepared to forgive. Certainly it's all to the good if rank and file LRA members can be reintegrated back into society, and the conflict doesn't drag on to scar future generations with score settlings and feuds. But the ICC indictments should stay. If international justice is to mean anything, people like Joseph Kony should be tried before an international court.

Here's what Nick Grono, vice president of the International Crisis Group, wrote last year:

When the interests of peace and justice conflict, there are no easy answers. In northern Uganda these issues are being starkly confronted in the ongoing peace talks between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government.

These talks are the best opportunity so far to end a vicious guerrilla war that has lasted some 20 years and has utterly devastated northern Uganda. But difficult decisions have to be made about how best to deal with perpetrators of horrendous crimes, if the talks are to succeed.

The LRA, led by its charismatic and murderous leader, Joseph Kony, has unleashed a reign of terror over the past two decades, abducting more than 25,000 boys and girls and turning them into rebel soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

Kony's declared objective is to rule the north in accordance with the Ten Commandments, as directed by the spirits that speak through him. But beyond this he has not espoused a clear political objective

The Ugandan government has responded to the LRA's campaign by unleashing its own devastation on the north, forcing over a million of the region's Acholi inhabitants to live in camps, thus condemning them to a life removed from their fertile land, with little hope for a productive future.

According to the government's own statistics, a thousand people a week on average are dying from conflict-induced disease and malnutrition. [...]

Efforts to resolve the conflict have come to naught in the past. Recently, that has all changed - in large part because the investigation by the International Criminal Court has altered the calculations of the rebel leaders.

Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Kony and four of his top commanders. This year Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti, emerged from the bush for the first time to discuss peace, in talks mediated by the government of Southern Sudan. Their first and oft-repeated demand is that the ICC prosecutions be dropped.

If one accepts that the ICC is the main obstacle to peace - itself a premature judgment - it is difficult to argue that criminal accountability and the need to establish an effective ICC to deter future war criminals should take precedence over the immediate suffering of the northern Ugandans.

On the other hand, it is inconceivable that those directly responsible for these unspeakable crimes should escape being held accountable.

This is the dilemma that must be resolved when all other solutions to the conflict have failed.

The way forward is for the ICC prosecutor to proceed with his prosecutions. He has a mandate and should not be required to make the essentially political judgment of whether the prospects of an uncertain peace should take precedence over justice.

The Security Council has a peace and security mandate, and is expressly authorized by the ICC's statute to put prosecutions on hold for a 12-month renewable period.

The talks have a long way to go, but if they reach the stage that peace is likely, the ICC prosecutions should be put on hold to give the millions in northern Uganda a chance to enjoy the peace they have thirsted after for 20 years.

Peace, though not guaranteed to last, is already there. The conflict is now effectively over. Even less reason, then, to drop the ICC indictments.

Comments

[Luis Enrique]

Mick you may be interested in this person's work:

http://chrisblattman.blogspot.com/

if you look at his research (link top left on blog) he's done lots of work about Uganda and child soldiers

[Mick H]

Thanks - looks interesting. I followed his link to an interview with a disaffected LRA leader - http://www.sundayvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=7&newsCategoryId=132&newsId=595298 - which is mainly noteworthy for how the guy comes across as just a tool, a cog in Kony's machine.