Uganda: Domestic War Crimes Court to Try Rebel Chief

Bill Oketch

24 May 2011

Lira — Trial of a former senior Lord’s Resistance Army commander, Col. Thomas Kwoyelo, starts at the War Crimes Division of the High Court soon.

The War Crimes Division was set up in 2008 in Kampala to try individuals accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda. The former LRA fighter is being tried locally because he was not among the top five LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court for dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the north, some two decades ago.

Those wanted by The Hague-based court include LRA chief Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Raska Lukwiya. Otti is presumed dead while Lukwiya was gunned down by the UPDF in 2006.

Captured in CAR

Kwoyelo, the former commander of the LRA’s sania brigade, was captured on February 3, 2009, by the joint forces of Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan in a jungle in Central African Republic. He was remanded to Gulu Central Prison in 2009 before his case was transferred to the War Crimes Division of the High Court after villagers threatened to overrun the prison to lynch him. Kwoyelo faces 12 counts of charges that include intent to murder, according to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Richard Butera.

According to Rajab Adams Makmot, an advocate for the High Court, Kwoyelo’s trial delayed because the country lacked the necessary manpower to prosecute war crimes. “We waited for the domestication of the ICC. And it was only domesticated recently before the Assembly of States Party in Kampala,” Mr Makmot said.

DPP Butera told Daily Monitor that the country was in the final stages of starting the proceedings against Kwoyelo, who has been on remand for two-and-half years. He said the proceedings will be announced soon as all preparations have been completed.

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