Indictment of LRA leaders draws widespread praise

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) unsealing on Friday of arrest warrants for five Ugandan rebel leaders has been commended by the international community, with the European Union (EU) saying the move puts an end to impunity. The EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, called on countries in the region to cooperate with the court to take its first ever indictments off the ground. "I welcome this historic decision - the first ICC indictments ever - which expresses the Court's wish to put an end to the impunity in a region that suffered so much from grave human rights violations," Solana said in a statement on Friday. "The EU has supported the ICC since its early beginnings. I call upon all countries in the region to cooperate with the ICC in the execution of this decision," he added. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the indictments would "send a powerful signal around the world that those responsible for such crimes will be held accountable for their actions." "The Secretary-General calls on all states, particularly those in the region concerned, to extend their full cooperation to the ICC, including by acting expeditiously to execute the arrest warrants against the suspects, while taking seriously their responsibility to protect civilians, particularly women and children," a UN statement said on Friday. The court, based in The Hague, issued warrants for Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, who are accused of leading a brutal campaign against civilians in northern Uganda. The ICC Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said Kony would be charged with 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes including murder, inducing rape, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population and forced enlisting of children. The others face similar charges. Moreno-Ocampo said it had been concluded that "there are reasonable grounds to believe" that the five men "ordered the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court". However, there were concerns in Uganda that the indictment threatened to derail the peace process with the rebels and instead trigger an escalation in violence. "This [the issuance of the indictments] is like a blow to the peace process. The process of confidence-building has been moving well, but now the LRA will look at whoever gets in contact with them as an agent of the ICC," Archbishop Odama of northern Uganda’s Gulu Catholic Archdiocese, told IRIN recently. "We thought the peace process would yield fruits if it were given more time, but it seems there is no patience," he added. The international rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), called on both the government army and the LRA to ensure that the issuance of the warrants did not endanger the lives of children who were abducted and forced to serve as rebel combatants, other abductees still in rebel captivity, or civilians living in the vicinity of LRA forces. The director of HRW's international justice programme, Richard Dicker, said the arrest warrants "opened the door for justice to be done", and called on the court to investigate abuses by the government army. "The ICC must also look into abuses committed by the Ugandan army," Dicker said. "If the court finds that these crimes don't fall within its limited mandate, it should make its findings available to the Ugandan authorities so that they can bring the perpetrators to justice. In doing so, the court must also be mindful of the security and confidentiality of its sources." The LRA took over the leadership of a northern Ugandan rebellion in 1988, two years into a conflict fuelled by the perceived economic marginalisation of the region by government of President Yoweri Museveni. The rebel group is, however, best known for its bloody attacks on civilians of whom thousands have been killed and 1.4 million forced to live in camps across the region. The group is also known for abducting children to serve as rebel fighters or sex slaves to rebel commanders. The ICC has, since 2004, been investigating war crimes committed in the conflict between the LRA and the government in northern Uganda. The probe pertains to crimes committed since July 2002, when the court came into force. It specifically targets those who bear the greatest responsibility for crimes committed in the war.