New peace bid with LRA won't deter quest for justice - ICC

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has insisted that new efforts to engage Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in peace talks will not impede the arrest and prosecution of the indicted rebel leaders. Francisca Sumay, a public information officer from the chief prosecutor's office at the ICC, told IRIN by phone from The Hague that the court expected the three countries affected by LRA activities to take up their obligation to implement the arrest warrants issued against five LRA leaders. "The governments of Uganda, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo are obligated to give effect to the arrest warrants, and we are confident that they will honour their joint commitment to do so," Sumay said, citing Article 86 of the Rome Statute, which states that "State parties shall ... cooperate fully with the Court in its investigation and prosecution of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court." Although Sudan was not a party to the statute, it had reached an agreement with the ICC to collaborate with it and arrest Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony and four of his commanders wanted for crimes against humanity, she said. According to Ugandan media, the ICC chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, dismissed recent attempts to negotiate a political deal, saying Kony was simply trying to "buy time" like he had done in the past. Ocampo insisted it was important to bring the rebel leaders to justice for the atrocities they had committed against innocent people during the 20-year conflict. Just weeks ago, the International Criminal Police Organisation, Interpol, issued its first notices in 184 countries for the LRA leaders. Kony is wanted by the Hague-based court along with Raska Lukwiya, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen to answer to charges of crimes against humanity. The spokesman of the court, Ernest Sagaga, said the ICC did not know who would participate in the LRA peace talks the south Sudan leadership, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), has been trying to broker. "We do not know who will attend the talks," Sagaga said when asked whether Kampala was free to send a delegation to the talks. Church rout for talks The Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) - a multidenominational Christian faith organisation - and the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) have urged Uganda to embrace the initiative by Salva Kiir, first vice-president of Sudan, to mediate in the northern Uganda conflict. In a joint statement issued on Monday, the churches called upon the leadership of the LRA to take advantage of the forum offered by the government of southern Sudan to seek a negotiated solution to the conflict. The councils urged the African Union to offer diplomatic and other support to the southern government to enable it to successfully accomplish its mediation role. "We appeal to the international community to support the mediation effort by the government of southern Sudan," they said. The joint statement - signed by UJCC executive secretary Canon Grace Kaiso and the NSCC acting executive secretary, the Rev Peter Tibi, in Kampala - said the conflict in northern Uganda was "one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent times … During the past 20 years, the people affected by the conflict have lived under a state of siege and have witnessed extreme violence, including killings, torture, rape and abductions, mainly as a result of the activities of the LRA rebels." Almost two million people have been displaced by the conflict and currently live in squalid conditions in camps throughout the region. The conflict has also spilled into south Sudan and the DRC. On Sunday evening, gunmen, identified by local residents as LRA fighters, killed nine people in an attack on the Gumba area on the east bank of the Nile and a few miles from the city centre of the south Sudanese capital, Juba. In a statement on Tuesday, however, the LRA high command "categorically denied" any involvement in the attack.