Uganda: "The problem always seems to be, we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet."

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

                                                         Thomas Kwoyelo when he was still with the LRA (Monitor)
Kwoyelo pleads for clemency
FORMER Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, has appealed to President Yoweri Museveni for pardon over atrocities he committed against the people of northern Uganda.

My gut feeling is no way, this guy needs to pay and pay big time. Human Rights Watch reported at his capture and arrest.

" In August 2010, Kwoyelo was charged with violations of Uganda's 1964 Geneva Conventions Act, including the grave breaches of willful killing, taking hostages, and extensive destruction of property in the Amuru and Gulu districts of northern Uganda."

Lets remember that these are only crimes committed in Uganda.  Kwoyelo was apprehended in the DR Congo and has committed crimes there as well. But then we have this from of all places The New Yorker. 

".... Thomas Kwoyelo is intimately acquainted with him. Kony once tied Kwoyelo to a tree, and, in a near-incoherent rant, accused him of betrayal and threatened to kill him. That was in 2007. The L.R.A. had murdered Kwoyelo’s father, kidnapped him as a young boy, and then indoctrinated him into the ranks of the rebel group by forcing him to kill friends and relatives." 

That is about as good as it gets with regard to mitigation.

Kwoyelo, currently remanded at Luzira Maximum Security Prison, was charged with 53 counts of crimes against humanity in connection with the over two-decade bloody war that claimed thousands of lives as well as loss of property in the region.

I don't think Kwoyelo is eligible to be considered for amnesty, again from Human Rights Watch. 

" Amnesties for crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity run counter to international law and practice, which rejects impunity for the gravest crimes. International and hybrid international-national war crimes courts outside Uganda have rejected amnesties for serious crimes."

But and it is a big " but ".

" Some critics of the International Crimes Division have claimed that the fact that Kwoyelo has not been granted amnesty and is to be prosecuted is politically motivated, given that so many other LRA commanders have benefited from the domestic amnesty. For example, the former LRA high-ranking commanders Brigadier Kenneth Banya and Brigadier Sam Kolo Otto, as well as Lt Col. Opio Makasi, who served as the LRA director of operations, have all received amnesty under the act over the last several years. Several other LRA members who applied for amnesty were not prosecuted and instead joined the Ugandan army to fight the LRA."

There is also another big " but " hanging over Kwoyelo. Again from The New Yorker.

" As they had with thousands of other seized L.R.A. fighters and defectors, the Ugandan army offered Kwoyelo a seemingly fair bargain: give them information on the L.R.A.’s whereabouts and strategy, and receive amnesty in return. But Kwoyelo, who was in a shell-shocked stupor, refused to coöperate, and only applied for amnesty six months later, after being persuaded by his family. By then it was too late."

It is an exercise in swings and roundabouts, but at some point I think the concept Natural Justice must become a factor. The celebrated English jurist Lord Denning put it thus; 

"Justice must be rooted in confidence and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: 'The judge was biased'." 

I admit I may be extending the Natural Justice concept to breaking point but expecting people to make rational decisions when they are in Kwoyelo's situation is unrealistic. Shell shock is a condition that was recognised first in WWI.

" Shell shock is the reaction of some soldiers in World War I to the trauma of battle. It is a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced a helplessness appearing variously as panic and being scared, or flight, an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk. "Simply put, after even the most obedient soldier had enough shells rain down on him, without any means of fighting back, he often lost all self control."

Right-minded people might well reasonably conclude there is not a lot of fairness happening in this case.

In a recent interview with New Vision, Kwoyelo said: “Having undergone various rehabilitation programmes, I have realised my past mistakes like any other Ugandan who erred. I pray that the President gives me a second chance in life.”

Sometimes, not very often, I really feel for Museveni and this is one of those times. That Kwoyelo is not facing a hangman's noose might well be considered as getting a second chance. According to Human Rights Watch the penalties he faces are:

" The maximum penalty under Uganda's Geneva Conventions Act for the grave breaches of willful killing is life imprisonment. The maximum penalty for the other crimes is 14 years in prison. The trial will be the first for war crimes under the Geneva Conventions Act since it was passed in 1964." 

Kwoyelo, who is currently on a peace making and reconciliation programme, said he has benefited from the course and pledged to practice what he has learnt because it calls for reconciliation with God and the society he wronged.

“I am willing to work with the Government at all cost. Once considered for clemency, I swear never to go back to rebel activities,” he said.

Kwoyelo has been to hell and back and this report indicates he has acknowledged the wrong he has done, that must be a factor in his favour. Then we have the bigger picture. What is Uganda trying as a nation to achieve with its amnesty laws. Matthew Kane in The Jurist argues:

" Kwoyelo has been accused of horrific crimes, yet many similarly situated were granted amnesty based on a policy that is favorably viewed by a majority of Ugandan citizens and which has helped bring the conflict in northern Uganda to an end. While Coomaraswamy argues that prosecution would "send a strong message to the LRA leadership that they will be held accountable for their actions," such a message could clearly lead to the continuation and extension of hostilities. Similar concerns arise regarding the ICC's potential intervention, with some Ugandans suggesting that the ICC is the reason that a complete resolution has not come to fruition. Indeed, Kwoyelo's year-long incommunicado detention and continued indefinite confinement, now approaching the four-year mark, would seemingly discourage rebels from surrendering to authorities. "

Kwoyelo is not Kony. He is a victim of Kony. Given that Uganda has fools such as  Lango Paramount Chief, Yosam Odur who seems to think Kony is worthy of rehabilitation not to mention neighbours such as Central African Republic president Michel Djotodia who seem to be prepared to feed him Kwoyelo would seem to be fairly hard done by.

On January 25, 2011, Kwoyelo appeared before the High Court in Kampala, which ordered the Amnesty Commission and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to grant him a certificate of amnesty and release him.

The state, however, argued that the DPP could not recommend the issuance of a certificate of amnesty because Kwoyelo had other grave crimes such as rape and murder.

The court said the alleged crimes forwarded by the DPP could have been committed when Kwoyelo was a rebel and, therefore, he could not be denied amnesty basing on such crimes.

It is a mess. I would grant him amnesty. 

Helen Mayelle who works with many L.R.A. returnees stated The New Yorker “The real war will be recovering from this whole war,” . Kwoyelo has suffered enough it is time to focus on the real bastard behind all this Joseph Kony and for him there can be no forgiveness.  In September I blogged

" I am sure that the Ugandan army will stop looking for Kony on the day they kill him and that day can't come soon enough."

Africa. " God's" Gunmen A few less please.

Al Jazeera reports

African Union hunts Uganda rebel group

AU force to co-ordinate soldiers from regional armies hunting Lord's Resistance Army, but troops still lack resources.

                 The forces lead by self-styled mystique leader Joseph Kony are believed to be dwindling [AP]

An African Union (AU) backed force has officially assumed command of operations against Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), officials said.

Major Alex Ahabyona, an intelligence officer for LRA leader Joseph Kony operation, said the ceremony to launch the move took place on Tuesday in the South Sudanese town of Nzara.

Good this guy need to face justice for his many crimes. The world needs a few less of these 
" Gunmen of God " along with a few less movie and cartoon creators. 

But officials say a scarcity of resources and unresolved disagreements over troop deployments still pose major impediments.

The AU force aims to co-ordinate soldiers already hunting LRA from Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

Remember this is the same AU that thinks it can sort out the mess in the eastern DR Congo

Led by Kony, a self-styled mystique leader, the LRA has been waging a brutal campaign of abductions, rapes and defilement in a lightly governed remote patch of jungle straddling the borders of the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan since it was ejected from Northern Uganda in 2005.

The LRA's notoriety was cast in a global spotlight earlier this year after a controversial video highlighting its brutality became an instant internet sensation and was viewed by tens of millions of people.

Lets not forget what this Man Kony is accused of. Since 1987, Kony is believed to have recruited between 60,000 and 100,000 child soldiers and displaced around 2 million people 


At a command handover ceremony in Yambio, AU's special envoy on the LRA, Francisco Madeira, said the DRC had still not contributed troops but some commitments had been made and said the force required assistance to help it function properly.
"We need more support, I don't have to elaborate on these because my predecessor has done this so well. We need support in terms of means of transport, communication, medicine, combat rations and uniforms for the troops tracking the LRA. This is particularly important and critical and most urgent for the central African troops who handed over their contingent despite the challenges facing them," Madeira said.

I suspect the DR Congo is already over stretched trying to deal with the Rwandan backed insurgency in the eastern DR Congo.

In hiding
Although all the regional armies have been involved in fighting the LRA, it is the Ugandan army that has pursued him up to the Central African Republic, where he is currently believed to be hiding.
At the same ceremony, Uganda's defence minister, Chrispus Kiyonga, said there were still disagreements over areas of operation by troops from different countries.
"We are yet to fully agree on how this troops will operate because now they are going to be one force, a regional task force with its commander," Kiyonga said.

Seriously these guys criticise the UN for being disorganised.

"There are two concepts: There are people who think that the SPLA [Sudan People Liberation Army] should only work on the side of Sudan, that the army of the Central African Republic should only work there [within its own borders] ... but there is the other concept that some of us support, [which is] that once there is one unified force, co-ordinated force then it should go wherever Kony is. We think that way, it will be more effective."

It would be far more effective but will it happen ?

Kiyonga said the latest intelligence indicated LRA was now down to 200 guns and that the entire group was numbering about 500 people including women and children in rebel captivity.
Barack Obama, the US president, injected momentum in anti-LRA efforts last October when he sent 100 Special Forces to help provide intelligence and training support to the regional armies.

Kony can run but he can not hide.