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Africa Subsaharan

Uganda: Arrest LRA rebel leaders - ICC

2007-09-08

(SomaliNet) The court Director for International Cooperation has asked the 105 state parties to enforce the warrants issued against the indicted top four Lord Resistance Army commanders, since the International Criminal Court does not have its own police to execute arrest warrants. Ms Beatrice Le Fraper du Hellen recently said the 105 state parties (members to Rome Statute) should ensure that LRA leader Joseph Kony, his deputy, Vincent Otti and top commanders, Dominic Ogwen and Okot Odiambo are arrested and surrendered to The Hague for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Those arrest warrants must be executed and enforced by Uganda, DR Congo and other 105 state parties to the Rome Statute. Kony and his commanders must be jailed,” Ms Fraper said in an interview with Daily Monitor in The Hague. Kony and his commanders face 33 counts that include abduction of civilians, murder, sexual enslavement, mutilation and forceful recruitment of children as fighters, porters and sex slaves to serve the LRA. The fifth indicted LRA commander, Raska Lukwiya, was killed in August last year in a battle with the government forces in Kitgum District. Ms Fraper said in order to speedup the arrest of the commanders, the rebels should be isolated by cutting off their financial and supply network to ensure they don’t re-arm and get food. She said there is no contradiction in the search for peace and justice in northern Uganda since the two processes are complimentary. The LRA insurgency has displaced over 1.7 million people, claimed 100,000 lives and over 75,000 children and women have been abducted.

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Africa Subsaharan

Kony hears from God. Ugandan rebels want SA to mediate

2006-08-17

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Uganda on Wednesday asked South Africa to join efforts to mediate faltering peace talks with the Ugandan government aimed at ending two decades of fighting. The announcement from LRA supremo murderer Joseph Kony, through his deputy thug, Vincent Otti, came a day after the rebels won a 72-hour break in peace talks with the government in order to mourn the death of a top commander -- and International Criminal Court fugitive -- killed by the army over the weekend. They should have more of these breaks. In a statement, Otti said South Africa has a successful track record in conflict resolution in Africa. "I, Lieutenant General Vincent Otti, deputy chairperson of the high command and second-in-command of the Lord's Resistance Army, do hereby appeal to the government of the Republic of South Africa to come and act as co-mediator," he said. He said South African mediation would complement the efforts of the government of southern Sudan in the ongoing peace talks, which are taking place in southern Sudan. Face-to-face talks are expected to resume on Friday, when the insurgents will declare their stand on accountability and reconciliation. Officials said the rebels chose South Africa in order to exert pressure on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government to be serious in efforts to end the insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than two million others. In addition, they argued that the chief mediator, southern Sudan Vice-President Riak Machar, "was not new in the Ugandan peace process," and thus there was fear of bias, according to an unnamed official. The LRA has warned that Uganda's refusal to match its unilateral truce, its insistence that the rebels disarm and surrender, as well as its death threats to top commanders are stymying the talks. Killing the top commanders does make it more difficult for them to 'negotiate'. "In order for the Juba negotiations to be meaningful, successful and binding, the [LRA] ... calls upon the government of Uganda to respond positively and declare a cessation of hostilities and respect the agenda and code of conduct agreed upon by the negotiating parties, the mediators and facilitators," Otti explained. "Please stop killing us!" The Ugandan government insists any truce agreement with the rebels will be at the end of the peace process, arguing that the insurgents would take advantage of a cessation of hostilities to regroup, rearm and recruit new fighters. What's the word in Arabic for that, um .. um .. oh yeah .. hudna. Over the weekend, the army said it had killed Major General Raska Lukwiya in northern Uganda. On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Ugandan army said troops killed four rebels, including a commander allegedly involved in last year's slaying of a British tourist in northern Uganda. Army spokesperson Lieutenant Chris Magezi said Reagan Akena, a junior LRA commander, and three fighters were killed in an ambush on Monday in Amuru district. "[Akena] was responsible for the killing of Steve Wills, the British tourist who was killed in Murchison Falls Park in November," the spokesperson said. Excellent! Who put the starch in the army's shorts?

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Africa Horn

Ugandan army says troops kill wanted rebel

2006-08-14

KAMPALA - Uganda’s military has killed a senior northern rebel wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, a spokesman said on Sunday. Raska Lukwiya was one of five commanders from the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) named by the new world court in its first arrest warrants in October. ‘We got him yesterday in Kitgum district after he staged an ambush on Friday night. Lukwiya is dead,’ a Ugandan army spokesman said by telephone. He said the body had been identified by former rebels. An LRA spokesman said he could not confirm if Lukwiya was dead. Experts were cautious, saying the Ugandan military has often claimed to have killed top LRA fighters who are later found alive. In October, it said another ICC target, Dominic Ongwen, had been killed in northern Uganda. Last month, the ICC said Ongwen was alive and trying to join LRA chief Joseph Kony in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Sorta like Belushi in the Rasputin skit ... ‘Mistakes are made, but weigh them against the accuracies,’ Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told a news conference in Uganda’s capital Kampala, referring to the capture of several LRA officers in recent months. The ICC has charged Lukwiya with four counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including enslavement, attacking civilians and pillaging. An Interpol ‘red notice’ for his arrest issued in June includes a rare, grainy photograph of the pudgy middle-aged commander wearing a camouflage uniform and green beret.

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Africa: Central

25 LRA iced in Uganda

2004-02-05

THE Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has killed 25 Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, including two aides to LRA commander Rasca Lukwiya, reports Ali Mao. Addressing a press conference recently, the Lira-based 5th Division army spokesperson, 2nd Lt. Chris Magezi, said the rebels were killed during a joint air and ground troop operation in Pader district over the weekend. "Charles! Fire up the plane!" "Hokay, boss!" Magezi identified the aides as Lieutenant Okure and Lt. Okot who were killed by the 45th and 77th infantry battalion. Surely he means "people from" the two battalions? Or are they shot to shreds? Actually, that's the more comforting thought... He said 10 rebels were killed at Omot and 13 others killed in Opyelo village on the Lira-Pader border. Magezi said the army rescued 16 formerly abducted people, recovered a radio antenna and a compass. "Now that it is the dry season and the grass is burnt down, we shall pursue these do not to take advantage of the extended amnesty," he said. Just make sure that you don’t stop until you reach Sudan ...

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