{UAH} ACT 2000

MUSEVENI'S AMNESTY Vs ICC INDICTMENT

At the height of the northern Uganda insurgency, in 2000 the Museveni regime initiated an amnesty law that came to be known as the Amnesty Act 2000. It aimed at granting immunity from punishment for all those who were involved in warlike activities against his regime if they abandoned and renounced rebellion. It covered all those who were involved in rebellion from 26th Jan 1986 when the Museveni regime came to
 power. S.3 (I) covers not only those involved in actual combat but also those collaborating with combatants by aiding and abetting. S.3 (II) exonerates all those involved (both combatants and their civilian collaborators) from punishment in form of criminal proceedings. Though it was meant to be a tool for encouraging defections from the LRA, other armed groups like ADF, PRA were later to benefit from the same. The Act is designed in such a way that it expires after every two years subject to renewal.  Prior to this law, some insurgents would either surrender or be captured while civilian collaborators would be arrested by security operatives but their fate would be determined by the goodwill of Museveni who would either pardon or just let them to rot in prolonged detention without trial.

Though the Act does not mention the involvement of security services in the amnesty process, behind the curtains it is the intelligence services that have been determining who benefits from amnesty or not. While defections from the LRA were mainly of lower cadres who had been victims of kidnap and possessed no vital intelligence information, the challenge came about when it came to ADF, PRA and LRA top commanders. The regime has been using the amnesty law to silence any efforts to seek compensation accruing from prolonged detentions without trial. Political detainees are always told to apply for amnesty if they are to regain their freedom hence no suing for damages. Such conditional amnesty is often construed by security services as a way of obtaining confessions yet the Act does not mention that as a requirement. For the innocent potential applicants who intend to use the amnesty only as a way of regaining their freedom find themselves in an awkward position. 

Around 2002 the army forcefully removed treason suspects from Gulu Prison and detained them in a military barracks. In the process, one of the detaienes was shot dead by the army before moving them to different prisons while pressurising them  into applying for amnesty. The army's Division Commander Brig. Otema told some of them point blank thus: "You will stay in jail as long as Museveni is still in power unless you apply for amnesty." entire group had to apply for amnesty in order to regain their freedom. Around the same time the regime ratified the Rome statute and referred five of the top LRA commanders to the ICC and they were indicted by the same court in 2005.  In 2006 as Museveni was disparately looking for a way of victimising his main political rival Dr. Besigye, Police chief Kayihura and then Minister Hope Mwesigye coordinated efforts to have some of the PRA suspects then detained in Makindye Barracks apply for amnesty on condition that they were to implicate Dr. Besigye over treasonous allegations. The applicants tricked them by accepting but when they were granted amnesty and forced to implicate Dr Besigye before the assembled press, they refused and they were detained in a safe house until Parliament had to intervene. Among all the PRA group its only Capt Amon Byarugaba who stood his ground and refused to apply for amnesty thus its now twelve years and he is still detained without trial in Makindye barracks.

The above setback to the regime's designs prompted the regime to move parliament in 2006 to amend the Amnesty Act by introducing a provision that empowered the Minister of Internal Affairs with approval of Parliament to exclude certain individual applicants from benefiting from amnesty. The setback was cemented by the likes of LRA senior commanders like Brig Keneth Banya and Sam Kolo benefiting from amnesty. Museveni's concern was how to deal with these senior LRA officers if they opted to be intergrated into his army because since 1986 top ranks and command positions were a preserve of his home boys courtesy of 'historical reasons'. In the same efforts, in 2008 the regime initiated the creation of the International War Crimes Division of the High Court to try certain individuals whom they intended to exclude from benefiting from amnesty.

 In 2008 another LRA top commander Thomas Kwoyelo was captured and he immediately applied for amnesty under the Amnesty Act. In 2011 he was indicted before the war crimes division of the High Court but he appealed against his trial to the Supreme Court. The Principal State Attorney Patricia Mutesi submitted that the Amnesty Act promotes rebellion and urged the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional. However, in 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that Thomas Kwoyelo qualified for and should be granted amnesty and released from prison. The regime defied that order of the highest court in the land and Kwoyelo continues to relinguish in detention without trial. In 2012 as another top LRA commander Achellam was surrendering, the regime moved to amend the Act by striking out Part II that afforded blanket amnesty. It argued that amnesty was to be availed only to lower and middle cadres who denounced rebellion and not top leaders.As earlier mentioned Museveni is worried of these senior LRA commanders joining his personal army.

Owing to pressure from religious, traditional and local leaders from northern Uganda, the blanket amnesty provision was reinstated in 2013 and the entire Act was renewed for another two years ending in May 2015. All this controversy came amidst Museveni's U-turn on the ICC by ridiculing it that is was targeting African leaders; the latest outburst being in December 2014 thus: African states should quit the ICC because it unfairly targets Africans."  In January 2015 another of LRA's top commander Dominic Ongwen surrendered and he hoped to benefit from amnesty under the Amnesty Act. Ongwen's surrender came at a time when Museveni is courting the northern region more especially Acholis to bolster his ruling clique that is threatened by internal cracks. He immediately jumped into the Ongwen surrender by assuring him of a pardon in the hope that he would please the Acholis. Ongwen himself revealed this in Obbo on 9th January 2015 thus: "The President has agreed to forgive me since I surrendered on my own." The revelation generated alot of mixed reaction and the Minister of Defence issued a statement to the effect that government had been considering whether to hand him to the ICC or to bring him home. Eventually Museveni gave in and Ongwen was handed over to the ICC.

In order to hoodwink the Acholis, the Museveni regime has offered to avail and FUND a strong defence team for Ongwen during the trial. The Acting Foreign Affairs Minister argued that Ongwen was abducted when he was still a minor, aged 10 against his will. He grew up in the the hands of the rebels with no choice but to go by their instructions. This development is no surprise because even when Minister Mike Mukula was sent to prison over theft of public money, Museveni paid millions for his legal fees. However, the Acholi community who have always advocated for traditional justice methods (Mato Oput) felt let down by Museveni when he handed over Ongwen to the ICC for trial. In return they have threatened to spill the beans by pushing for the indictment of other players like the NRA in war crimes during the northern Uganda conflict. Its this NRA's role in atrocities in the northern Uganda and the Congo that Museveni fears most hence his hatred for the ICC. In all, Dominic Ongwen may get justice from the ICC before Museveni determines Thomas Kwoyelo's fate.

Therefore, Museveni's amnesty was a political tool that initially targeted LRA lower cadre defectors only to be overtaken by events. At its inception, he had not envisieged a situation where other more organised individuals and groups would come up. It has always been managed by Museveni through his intelligence agencies and the Amnesty Commission is just a figurehead that only issues certificates and resettlement packages upon instructions by Museveni.  The recent return of Gen Ssejusa without being arrested for treason and joined to his former Aides who are facing treason charges in which he is the key suspect, is backed by this Museveni amnesty. Museveni is just buying time with Ssejusa as he studies the political temperature before requiring Ssejusa and his Aides to apply for amnesty. Under which law did Museveni assume powers of pardoning suspects???????????

INFORMATION IS POWER.

Posted by Uganda - A Change of Guards! a

Viele GruBe

Robukui

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