Amnesty and Peace groups urge ICC to probe government army too

The human rights group Amnesty International has joined local peace groups operating in northern Uganda in calling for even-handedness in any International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into war crimes committed during the 18-year civil war. In a press statement released on Monday, Amnesty warned that "any court investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda must be part of a comprehensive plan to end impunity for all such crimes, regardless of which side committed them and of the level of the perpetrator". The Acholi Religious Leader’s Peace Initiative (ARLPI) – a group trying to instigate dialogue to end the war – added in a statement released the same day that "taking the indictment to its last consequences, would the government of Uganda also consider taking the Sudanese government to the ICC, since we believe [that] for many years they armed, trained and sheltered the LRA [Lord's Resistance Army] in its territory and gave them the means to commit their crimes?" But the ARLPI rejected any calls for a probe at this stage, reiterating their concerns in a statement issued by Father Carlos Rodriguez, a chief ARLPI negotiator. "The issuing of such international arrest warrants would practically close once and for all the path to peaceful negotiation as a means to end this long war, crushing whatever little progress has been made during these years," the statement said. Rodriguez listed examples of peace deals which have only been possible because crimes against humanity were overlooked in order to get warring factions to the negotiating table. "Why is it that such a high-ranking war criminal as Radovan Karadzic has never been arrested even though his whereabouts are well known?," he asked. "Because nobody from the international community wants to put Bosnia’s fragile peace process at stake." Also on the ARLPI’s list of perpetrators of war crimes being granted immunity for peace were the government of Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the actors in Burundi’s conflict, Liberia’s rebels and South Africa’s apartheid rulers, who the ARPLI said, instead of being prosecuted, were put through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission granting forgiveness and enabling the country to unite. Amnesty urged that the probe go ahead, pointing out that it would most likely lead to a widening of the inquiry to include war crimes committed by Ugandan army soldiers. "The Rome Statute requires that the Prosecutor shall act independently and that no member of his office shall seek or act on instructions from any external source. Amnesty International urges Uganda to cooperate fully with the Court in connection with any investigation or prosecution," it said. Rodriguez said the probe was premature. "The LRA has showed such a brutality that any objections to their leaders’ possible prosecution appears without any consideration for moral values," he told IRIN. "That is not the point. That reality shows that this war refuses to go away and we will never convince the leaders of a rebel movement [to stop] and at the same time tell them that if they so, they will appear in court to be prosecuted."