ICC urged to drop LRA charges
2006-07-12 15:16
Kampala - Uganda's security minister was at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Wednesday to urge it to drop war crimes indictments against leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which the capital feared could jeopardise peace talks.
Amama Mbabazi travelled to The Hague on Tuesday to explain an offer of amnesty to wanted LRA chief Joseph Kony and his top lieutenants, who were this week due to begin peace talks with the government in Kampala.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said earlier this month that Kony would be granted "total amnesty" in an effort to accelerate the talks, aimed at ending northern Uganda's brutal, two-decade war
ICC indicted Kony
Robert Kabushenga of the government's media centre said: "Mbabazi is in The Hague to explain our position and brief the court about the talks mediated by the southern Sudan government.
"He will tell them about the progress of the talks and it will be upon this that the ICC will make a decision." The ICC indicted Kony and four senior LRA commanders last year at Kampala's request.
After Museveni made his amnesty offer, the court - the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal - reacted by reminding Uganda of its obligation to turn over the indictees for prosecution.
LRA 'had been non-committal'
Ugandan officials said they wanted senior commanders, including possibly Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti, to attend the talks in Juba, the provisional capital of southern Sudan, but the LRA had been non-committal thus far.
The ICC indictments and Interpol international arrest notices against them were believed to be the main reason for their reluctance to appear.
Peace talks had been scheduled to start on Wednesday. But chief mediator Riek Machar, the vice-president of southern Sudan's autonomous government, said on Tuesday that they would be delayed by at least 24 hours as he sought clarification on the rebel delegation.
Kony could face justice
Machar was on the border of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the top LRA leadership was holed up, to convince the rebels to send top officers to the negotiations.
On Monday, Uganda announced that it would seek the quashing of the ICC indictments and suggested that if a peace deal could be signed, Kony and other rebel leaders could face justice before a traditional reconciliation process.
Tens of thousands of people had been killed and some two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion in 1988 in a bid to oust Museveni.
The LRA purported to be fighting to replace Museveni's government with one based on the Biblical 10 Commandments, but had become better known for atrocities, particularly kidnapping an estimated 25 000 children, mostly girls who had been made sex slaves and boys enlisted as fighters.