Here is another and very interesting take on whether LRA's members should be tried by the International Criminal Court. The author thinks they shouldn't as the punishment would be too light to fit their crime.
The Monitor (Kampala)
October 24, 2006
- Opinion -
Jude Ogik
I have read opinions on, and heard discussions about, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the Juba peace talks and whether the four LRA
ICC indictees, namely Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Dominic Ongwen and Okot Odhiambo should be pardoned under the Acholi alternative justice system known as the Mato Oput or be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and be dealt with under the Rome Statute.
While many issues in regard to whether or not the LRA indictees will
end up at The Hague still remain, one is outstanding: the point which requires that a domestic law must be enacted in Uganda in order that the ratified Statute can be operationalised in Uganda. Without such a law,
the whole process of trying the indictees at the ICC may be in balance.
My posit is that, that aside the whole prospect of punishing the said
LRA indictees at the ICC - if they end up there, will not bring justice to the victims of their crimes back in the north and other parts of Uganda, because in my opinion the punishments will not be commensurate to the crimes they have allegedly committed over the years in Uganda during the conflict.
The Rome Statute deals with three broad types of crimes which include: War crimes, Crime against Humanity and Genocide. While the law stipulates life imprisonment as the maximum punishment, in Uganda, the Penal Code Act provides for death as the maximum punishment for the offence of murder. The death penalty provision in law is one that still makes a lot of
sense to the Africans, especially Ugandans, although some activists
have unsuccessfully tried to have it removed from the statute books
of this country.
Punishment for the LRA indictees will only give the perpetrators
of these crimes a chance to be relocated to The Hague, thereafter
to be tried in a country in which they are not known and will
therefore not face up to the people (society) whom they wronged.
After the trial, the indictees if found guilty will only end up
in prisons whose conditions are better than what is obtaining in
the camps in which the majority of people in Acholi, Teso and Lango
now live in.
If this position is explained to a victim of the LRA atrocities,
the idea will most likely be detestable or very undesirable at the
very least.
Besides that, imprisonment in those countries allows one to
undertake studies while in prison, so we should not be surprised if
in the future we might have a Dr (Ph.D), Retired General Joseph Kony lecturing on Peace and Conflict resolution at Gulu or Makerere University on his return from gaol, which might even be shorter than the maximum period since parole is put into consideration.
With this possible but still hypothetical academic achievement
juxtaposed against the majority of the victims and affected communities where people have failed to have a chance of obtaining
a proper or any education at all for their children because the LRA could not let them, one begins to see the unfairness of it all.
It is a rather disturbing thought to know that Kony stands the possibility of not facing death as a punishment, a thing he meted
out on his victims with so much ease. It is even more frustrating
that in the process of serving a sentence handed down, if at all,
by the ICC he would be living in conditions better than the
ordinary Acholi who is struggling to live in a camp up in the
north and north-Eastern parts of this country. Like said earlier,
he could actually get an education along the way.
With the above in mind, Kony and his fellow indictees should
rather be pardoned, and let us all agree that there is no punishment enough to pay for the crimes the LRA are suspected of having
committed against the people in Uganda while in the bush.
Let us let them live with the guilt for the rest of their lives,
while facing up to the victims of their crimes on a daily basis
and having to come to the reality of what they did over the
last over 20 years in the bush.
Therefore, an adapted version of Mato Oput minus the spiritual/ritualistic overtones is the best solution here,
where the LRA will have to face up to the truth while meeting the
communities in Acholi and other areas to confess their "sins".
A sort of truth-telling exercise where they will hear responses
about how wrong they were in no uncertain terms. I know the LRA will
not be impressed by such candid criticism of their candidate, especially since they cannot put up a credible defence of their actions.
This, I believe, will be punishment enough for the alleged crimes commited under Kony and his fellow indictees' watch.