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Hello Mr President
By David Ouma Balikowa |
The ‘good politics’ of Kony and The Hague
Feb 6, 2004
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An American friend recently wrote to me and as he often does, throwing in a remark about Uganda’s politics. He wrote: “I notice [President Yoweri] Museveni has given up on [Joseph] Kony. He called in the International Court to do the dirty work. A good global political move, but nationally discouraging for the northerners.” I find the remark “good global political move” intriguing. Let’s imagine the International Criminal Court (ICC) finds the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Kony guilty of the obvious atrocities. That would be a “good global political” score for Museveni. The entire world will know he’s dealing with a criminal. This fact would to a great extent obscure the realities and the political underpinnings of the grinding war in the North. The second, and perhaps greatest, challenge then would be how to apprehend Kony. The common assumption is that the ICC would then compel the Sudan government on whose soil Kony is presumed to be, to hand him over for justice to take its normal course. That would automatically get the matter back into the vicious cycle that has dogged the politics of the Kony war. Sudan will – and with ample evidence – argue that they ceased to support Kony and have more than once invited the Ugandan army to occupy the areas where Kony is said to be operating from. If the Ugandan army – which Museveni boasts of being the best in Africa — has failed to nab him and his fighters, the Sudan would not be expected to perform miracles. The world last year also heard from Uganda’s own mouth that the Sudanese army and its citizens, for allowing the Ugandan army into southern Sudan, became a target of Kony’s attacks. Or was it meant to be mere propaganda? Not surprising, as the ICC named the prosecutor (Ms Christine Chung) against Kony, the Ugandan army was reported announcing that they would be going back into the Sudan to try once again to finish off kony. The attempt to hand Sudan the “dirty” job of handing over Kony, would most likely spark off another round of blame and counter blame between Kampala and Khartoum. Depending on how the international community reacts, Uganda would capitalise on the slightest opportunity to apportion blame on Sudan for failing to apprehend Kony. Never mind that they (UPDF) too were allowed into southern Sudan on several occasions to apprehend Kony but failed. It would simply be “good global politics” for Uganda to do that – in the circumstances. Faced with that quagmire, the logical step would then be to invite the United Nations forces to finish the “dirty job” by hunting Kony down. This is likely to bounce the Kony matter into the political belly of the war and the other attendant issues. For quite some time, desperate northern Uganda has appealed to the Government and the international community to compel the UN to intervene in the Kony war without much response. Government always responded that the UPDF army had the capacity to defeat Kony without any outside help. The country has been waiting for a whole 17 or so years without seeing any end to the region’s most tragic war. Also at one time, our wise leaders argued that the UN force —likely to be composed of soldiers from say Europe or the US — would be no better match to Kony than the “resilient” UPDF soldiers. Of course if the UN came in to implement an ICC agenda, Museveni would be most obliged to accept. Besides helping him defeat Kony without necessarily pricking Uganda’s constipated political underbelly, it is also “good global politics.” But the timing could spoil things. A UN force in northern Uganda; the raging third term debate; and the transition to political pluralism may not dispense the concoction Museveni is desperately looking for. There is all the chance that a UN force would open up a Pandora’s box. First, will be the question as to whether the UN is coming to simply apprehend Kony or try to resolve a bloody grinding war – a war some will argue Museveni has deliberately avoided to resolve peacefully and through “democratic means”. People will try to draw the attention of the UN to the fact that there is an armed conflict. Armed conflicts are often executed by two parties, in this case the LRA and UPDF. The Government will say Kony. But some people will most likely say both Kony and the UPDF. Reports by Human Rights Watch stretching 15 years back will be called in. There will also be the un-resolvable propaganda on both sides that the world will never make sense of. Remember in situations of war, truth is often the first casualty! Whoever kept the international community away from this war all this agonising long will discover the disservice they did to the country and the process of justice. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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