19 February 2008
Kampala — The Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have signed a landmark agreement on how to deal with war crimes committed during the 21-year insurgency in northern Uganda.
The agreement was signed late on Monday in the southern Sudanese capital Juba, where talks have been going on for 19 months.
"We have agreed that severe crimes committed by the LRA during the war will be tried under a special division of the High Court in Uganda," said government spokesman Capt. Chris Magezi.
The agreement said the special court division would also facilitate the protection and participation of witnesses, victims, women and children.
"Less severe crimes can be dealt with using Mato Oput (traditional Acholi reconciliation mechanism) or even junior courts," Magezi said.
The LRA said it was happy with the document. "This is a very good development," said LRA team leader David Nyekorach Matsanga.
"It stops the LRA from being taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and will subject them to traditional justice and other laws of Uganda."
But Magezi said it did not necessarily mean that the international indictments against Joseph Kony and two of his top commanders would be lifted.
"The agreement does not in any way alienate the ICC. On the contrary, it promotes the principle of complementarity of national and international justice systems."
The chief mediator, South Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar, said by signing the agreement, both parties had expressed their commitment to justice and reconciliation, the conditions for lasting peace.
The agreement was also welcomed by Human Rights Watch, an international rights body.
"What is significant is that the parties agreed to a specific plan to try the most serious crimes," said Richard Dicker, the international justice programme chief. On the ICC issue, he said it was up to the judges to decide if the national trials were sufficient.
"Given the ICC's jurisdiction over crimes in northern Uganda and Uganda's obligations as a party to the ICC, the court will determine whether a domestic trial is an adequate alternative to prosecution."
The agreement requires the Government to establish a unit for carrying out investigations and prosecutions.
The Director of Public Prosecutions will have overall control of the criminal investigations and of the prosecutions.
Investigations will seek to identify individuals who planned or carried out "widespread, systematic or serious attacks against civilians".
The Government should also arrange to compensate the victims.
Meanwhile, the LRA negotiators have come up with new demands, mainly aimed at shielding them from prosecution, giving them political power and money.
According to the LRA document on implementation of the protocol, the negotiators want at least five ministers in key cabinet positions, five ambassadors, two commissioners and 20 senior positions in Government.
They further want the Government to sponsor yearly 50 children from each of the conflict districts at university level, of which five are to be nominated by the LRA.
They further demand that the Government facilitates and finances the return of political leaders of the LRA and any member of the negotiation team currently living abroad.
"(Government) shall not victimise, arrest, detain or in any way mistreat such a person on his or her return by virtue of his or her association with the LRA," the LRA document reads.
In addition, the Government, in consultation with the mediator, should "in recognition of all the LRA delegates and their efforts in brokering peace, provide a golden handshake in cash and kind to be agreed on in the final peace agreement".
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