Matek
'Kony' is becoming harder to lose
Nume
Ochan Otim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Ochan Otim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
>PRESS RELEASE
>
>
>AI Index: AFR 59/008/2004 (Public)
>News Service No: 289
>16 November 2004
>
>Uganda: Government cannot prevent the International Criminal Court from
>investigating crimes
>
>Amnesty International is concerned about reported statements by government
>officials suggesting that crimes against humanity and war crimes committed
>in Northern Uganda would be addressed in traditional reconciliation
>procedures, rather than in fair trials before independent and impartial
>courts in accordance with international law and standards.
>
>"Uganda cannot 'withdraw' its referral, in January 2004, to the Prosecutor
>of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the situation in the northern
>part of the country," the organization dec lared today.
>
>Yesterday, 15 November 2004, the New Vision newspaper, which is believed to
>be close to the government, reported that President Museveni stated that
>leaders of the Lord�s Resistance Army (LRA), which has been engaged in an
>internal armed conflict with the government for more than two decades, could
>cease fighting and "engage in internal reconciliation mechanisms put in
>place by the Acholi community such as mataput or blood settlement". He added
>that if this were to occur, "[t]he state could withdraw its case [in the
>ICC]". Similar statements have been made by Information Minister and
>government spokesperson, Nsaba Buturo, on the same day.
>
>Uganda referred the situation in the northern part of the county to the ICC
>Prosecutor in December 2003. The referral was made public on 29 January 2004
>pursuant to Article 14 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
>Co urt (Rome Statute), which permits state parties to that treaty to "refer
>to the Prosecutor a situation in which one or more crimes within the
>jurisdiction of the Court appear to have been committed". On 29 July 2004,
>the ICC Prosecutor announced that he had opened an investigation into crimes
>against humanity and war crimes committed in that region since 1 July 2002.
>
>The reported statement by President Museveni that he intended that members
>of the LRA, which include some of those most responsible for crimes against
>humanity and war crimes, participate in traditional reconciliation
>procedures instead of facing investigation and possible prosecution in
>Ugandan courts further confirms that Uganda is neither able nor willing
>genuinely to investigate and prosecute such crimes, whether committed by LRA
>members or by members of government forces.
>
>"The ICC Prosecutor should today make cle ar publicly that he intends to
>continue to investigate vigorously the crimes against humanity and war
>crimes committed by all sides in northern Uganda. Yielding to pressure from
>the state that referred the situation to stop the investigation would
>neither be in the interests of justice nor in the long-term interests of
>peace and reconciliation," urged Erwin Van Der Borght, Deputy Director of
>the Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
>
>
>Background
>There is not a scrap of evidence in the drafting history or in commentaries
>by leading international law experts on the Rome Statute suggesting that
>once a state party has referred a situation that it can "withdraw" the
>referral. As soon as the situation has been referred, the ICC has
>jurisdiction and the state cannot "withdraw" its referral. Under Article 86
>of the Rome Statute it then has the absolute duty to "cooperate fully with
>the Court in its investigation and prosecution of crimes within the
>jurisdiction of the Court".
>
>For nearly two decades, with complete impunity, members of the LRA have
>committed arbitrary killings, maimings, abductions, forced recruitment and
>use of children as soldiers and, in particular, using them as sex slaves.
>Members of government forces have been responsible for forcing children
>returning from the LRA, voluntarily or as a consequence of military action,
>to join government armed forces to the fight against the LRA, as well as the
>massive forcible displacement of civilians and other crimes against humanity
>and war crimes. Most of these crimes committed are covered by a national
>amnesty law that prevents prosecutions in Ugandan courts.
>
>Traditional reconciliation measures do not involve judicial determinations
>of innocence or guilt, effectively ensure that the f ull truth about crimes
>will be known or provide victims or their families with full reparations. In
>the face of the continuing failure of Uganda to investigate and prosecute
>these crimes, the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction under Article 17 of the
>Rome Statute over all crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in
>the northern part of the country, regardless whether they were committed by
>members of the LRA or of government forces.
>
>The reported statement of President Museveni recalls his previous effort in
>July 2004 to prevent any investigation by the ICC Prosecutor of crimes
>against humanity and war crimes reportedly being committed by members of
>Ugandan armed forces in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the
>Congo (DRC). On that occasion, he wrote to the United Nations
>Secretary-General suggesting that the DRC should "suspend the activities of
>the international criminal court until the peace process in Ituri and DRC in
>general is irreversible."
>
>
>Public Document
>****************************************
>For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
>London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
>Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
>http://www.amnesty.org
>
>For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org
Ochan Otim
NB: I hope you will find time to read and sign a petition to stop the
Northern Uganda carnage
at: http://www.petitiononline.com/savacoli/petition.html
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