The Weekly Observer (Kampala)
Ishaa Amiza Otto
3 December 2008
"Justice delayed is justice denied". Should we be arguing whether or not to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes around the world, especially in Africa, or should we just bring them to justice in order to deter others from doing the same?
Several crimes against humanity have been committed and yet many more continue to occur under the watch of the super powers, human rights bodies and the international community, while the perpetrators enjoy blanket amnesty and because of political arguments for and against prosecution, get away with it.
It is not only a shame to the international community but total negligence on the part of the world to allow suspected criminals to enjoy freedoms at the expense of their victims' blood and their relatives' pain.
Ethnic cleansing, genocide and other crimes against humanity perpetrated by governments in power and rebels campaigning to bring them down, should never be ignored or condoned. Therefore it is only fair to have the suspects brought to account in a perceived neutral court, in this case, the International Criminal Court.
The creation of concentration camps or internally displaced peoples camps and the genocides committed in Rwanda, Serbia, Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, DRC, Sudan's Darfur, Liberia and Tibet, to mention but a few, under the watch of the UN and the other human rights bodies are unacceptable cannot go unchallenged.
In all these countries, three grave abuses of human rights and crimes against humanity have been registered: ethnic cleansing, forceful concentration of people into camps and the mass execution of innocent civilians which have run hand in hand with other war related crimes like rape and torture.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague, with its slow pace, has tried to bring to justice war criminals in former Yugoslavia and this saw the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and some of their top generals hauled before the court.
Liberia's Charles Taylor is before this court while some of his aides are still at large. The Rwandan genocide trial in Arusha, Tanzania, besides attempting to prosecute some of the Hutu authors of the Rwandan genocide has still failed to bring to book many others still at large, not to mention the top leaders of the current regime headed by Gen. Paul Kagame who shouldn't have escaped prosecution either.
In my view, governments that deliberately failed to protect people under their protection or directly participated in the criminal acts should not escape this initiative if the victims of the numerous crimes are to receive justice and have confidence in the ICC. It will therefore only be convincing and fair that the individuals who oversaw the 20 years of genocide in Northern Uganda, committed both by LRA on the one hand and UPDF on the other, should face international justice.
It is imperative for the ICC to speed up its attempts to bring these criminals to book before they find ways of perpetuating their freedom and impunity. However, little has so far been done by the international community to move in that direction.
The attempts by government, civil society, the victims and the international community to end the 22-year civil war in Northern Uganda through the Juba peace talks should not be an excuse for the war criminals to escape justice. They must be prosecuted both in the local and international courts depending on the magnitude of crimes committed. The traditional justice systems/courts being advocated for can only handle domestic and usual crimes, not crimes against humanity!
I therefore urge the Chief ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, to push for the arrest and prosecution of Kony and his top commanders and I call upon all citizens of Uganda, both resident in the country and those living abroad, and also all peace loving people of the world to support this effort.
I further urge Mr Ocampo to include Gen. Museveni and his commanders on his prosecution list, because they either
watched while our people were being butchered or commanded the UPDF in the orchestration of some of the killings and the committing of other crimes against humanity during the 20 years of the LRA war in Northern Uganda. The Sudanese government of Gen. Omar El Bashir and his henchmen, together with the Darfurian rebels must also answer for crimes against humanity.
All peace loving friends of Uganda, within and without, should rally support for justice for the victims of war in northern Uganda to be done.
That is the only way to save this world from any future heinous crimes. Let's support the ICC for justice to prevail.
Ishaa Amiza Otto, The author is a Member of Parliament representing Oyam South
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Weekly Observer. 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.
