Paul Amoru
8 September 2008
Entebbe — The local war crimes tribunal being set up along the lines of the International Criminal Court will have jurisdiction to try foreign presidents forcing law makers to ask what would happen to President Yoweri Museveni's own constitutional immunity from prosecution.
Daily Monitor has learnt that resolving the legal dilemma is threatening to delay the domestication of the ICC statute through a bill in parliament which would eventually give birth to the court. The bill is already four years late. On Friday the some members of a committee said it wouldn't be passed it affects Mr Museveni's immunity.
"Presidential immunity is absolute in our national law, but this ICC Statute does not recognise it, Mr Chairman, how do I deal with that?" Kampala MP Erias Lukwago asked at a meeting organised by the Uganda Coalition on the ICC- a body advocating the dispersal of the courts standards. Mr John Francis Onyango who is coordinating UCICC said the coalition will fight on to ensure that the Bill goes through Parliament.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Whatever it takes to get Museveni and his gang out of the office is fine with many Ugandans. With all the corruption, the lies, the political oppression, human rights abuses, and the suffocating politics of patronage, who really wants this governement ? They should have been gone long time ago except for the fact that Museveni is above the law. Because he is not accountable to no one he can do whatever he wants and his criminal gangs knows he can "save" them from political trouble anytime he wants. Changing the constitution might help but then agian so can Museveni change the constitution. The reason he is still in power is that he bribed that rubber stamp circus of a parliament to amend the constitution by removing the presidential term limits. Do whatever it takes, otherwise Uganda is toast. Uganda was in the similar spot when dictator Amin was buffooning around. Museveni and his gang think they cleverer that all the suffering Ugandans but never say never. Try something.