Advocacy and peace groups raise concerns over LRA prosecution

The child rights group, Save the Children, has warned that the children in northern Uganda may suffer most if the International Criminal Court (ICC) decides to prosecute Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels for war crimes, unless questions of child protection are raised before it proceeds to investigate the rebels. In a statement issued last week, the organisation said that since "children are by far the main witnesses (and victims)" of war crimes committed by the LRA, the LRA leadership "might apply even more strict discipline to prevent witnesses from escaping". "They could also easily convince the children that they will be subject to prosecution by the ICC if they do so. In other words, their hold and control over the child hostages can be increased, as well as the risks to children associated with escaping from LRA," the statement said. Save the Children said it was concerned to ensure that children were exempted from prosecution, lest they became more attractive targets for abduction. Even when they did successfully escape, their lives would be even more endangered because of the crimes they had witnessed, it added. "In general, we find that it is extremely challenging to impart clear information to war-torn communities in ways which will be properly understood by the majority and not converted into damaging rumours which lead to even more suspicion and distrust," Save the Children said. Meanwhile, commenting on Uganda's amnesty law for the rebels, Sheik Musa Khalil, the chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), a group working to try and start peace talks between the government and the rebels, said any attempts to doctor the law so that it excluded the rebel leaders would be a disaster for peace in northern Uganda. "Rebels could commit even more atrocities out of fear, leading to a further escalation of violence in which abducted children always risk being caught in the crossfire, he said in a statement issued over the weekend. "Without an amnesty for instigators of rebellion, it will be impossible for those of us still engaged in luring the LRA leadership into peace talks with the government to do so. It will close the door to [talks], as it has been the case in most conflicts worldwide," he added. The LRA say they are fighting to topple the government and rule Uganda according to the Biblical Ten Commandments, but their operations have mostly targeted civilians – burning and looting villages, butchering people, ambushing vehicles and abducting thousands of children to carry loot and be forcibly recruited into their ranks.