{UAH} WHY MUSEVENI ENDED HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ICC

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Why President Museveni has ‘ended’ his relationship with ICC

Posted  Thursday, December 18  2014 at  02:00

In December 2003, President Museveni referred five LRA leaders namely Joseph Kony, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Vincent Otti to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. Two years later, the ICC after gathering its own information, indicted the notorious five who made history as the first persons to be indicted by the Hague-based international court.

The ICC was established in 2002 under the Rome Statute of 1998 to try people who had committed heinous crimes against humanity but for some reasons had escaped or evaded trial under national jurisdictions. Kony and his fellow travellers fitted perfectly in this category. Uganda couldn’t try them because it never got hold of them. Kony was always ahead of the UPDF. Referring him to the ICC meant that any signatory country to the Rome Statute could capture him and his gang wherever they were hiding and hand them over to the ICC for trial.

President Museveni’s move to involve the ICC in the hunt for Kony was hailed by many but it was also an act of desperation. The mighty UPDF had been humiliated by LRA, which continued its murderous exploits among civilians, particularly in the Acholi sub-region; giving the government a bad name. The LRA had also crossed into Sudan, DRC and later CAR but Kony eluded capture even by the US troops sent to assist in his capture. Over a period of time, most of Kony’s co-accused have either been killed or have simply disappeared and Kony has appointed new commanders and continued his murderous rampage in the region.

The NRM government succeeded in driving LRA out of northern Uganda into DRC and CAR and Kony ceased to be a Ugandan problem. Museveni lost interest in Kony and concentrated his efforts in wooing the North to the NRM and denting the Opposition’s dominance of the politics in the region. He has partially succeeded. Kony can die quietly in the jungles of the Central African Republic since he poses no direct threat to the NRM regime.

While attending the 51st Independence Day of Kenya at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi on December 12, Museveni declared that his relations with the ICC were over. He wondered why the ICC had continued to try Kenyan leaders since the African Union had agreed to “set aside criminal cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto”. His tirades against ICC and abusive language against the Western countries, calling them ‘foolish’, were shocking to say the least.

Kenyatta’s case had been withdrawn by ICC and the Kenyan President had voluntarily appeared at the Hague to answer charges, in spite of AU’s call to him not to attend. Kenyatta and his highly experienced lawyers knew very well that the ICC prosecutor, Ms Fatou Bensouda, could not force Kenyan authorities to hand over the information she needed to fix Kenyatta. Likewise, she will not get any to incriminate Ruto. President Museveni did not have to cry louder than the bereaved.

To the respected ICC prosecutor Bensonda, I give the following unsolicited advice. There is no way you can successfully prosecute a sitting African president, given the power and control he has over all institutions of government and the people who work in them. Failure to bring to book these sheltered individuals inevitably weakens the ICC, relegating it to lesser mortals or disgraced African big men, safely out of power.

You should remember that the United States made all the 34 African members of the ICC to sign bilateral agreements, exempting Americans from being referred to the ICC for understandable reasons. Unwittingly, the US planted the seeds that have diluted the authority of the ICC in the eyes of many African leaders. The ICC should also not be seen to target only Africans.

Mr Naggaga is an economist, administrator and retired ambassador.

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"