Milton Olupot
28 October 2008
Kampala — THE International Criminal Court (ICC) is to conduct a pre-trial to determine if it should try rebel chief Joseph Kony or let Uganda's High Court do so.
The ICC appointed Jens Dieckmann to defend Kony and his commanders in the pre-trial.
The Lord's Resistance Army leader and his generals, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, were in 2005 indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Otti, however, is believed to have been executed by Kony earlier this year.
The Government, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and Dieckmann have been invited to submit views on the trial by November 10, ICC said in a statement yesterday.
Accordingly, the victims should present their observations on this question to the judges, the statement added.
"In order to help victims to present their observations, the judges have also requested the Office of Public Counsel for Victims of the ICC to submit observations on their behalf."
The decision to have a pre-trial was made on October 21, after the judges received information on the Agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation between the Government and the rebels signed on June 29 last year.
The agreement provide for the establishment of a special division of the High Court of Uganda to try individuals alleged to have committed serious crimes during the northern conflict.
The Government engaged the LRA in peace negotiations in July 2006 and an agreement was reached earlier this year with the LRA.
Kony, however, has never signed the agreement and is holed up near the DR Congo border with Sudan.
The ICC has also requested Congo to provide it with information by November 17, 2008, about how far it has gone to arrest the rebel leaders.
The requests for their arrest or surrender were submitted to Congo on September 27, 2005, after Uganda said the LRA had for more than three years been based in Garamba National Park in Congo.
The Rome Statute empowers the ICC to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes only if national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.
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