Ugandan President Yoweri Mu-seveni said rebels due to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for rape, mutilation and murder will instead face justice in Uganda at the request of their victims.
Museveni said on Tuesday that his government had agreed that members of the Lord's Resistance Army will be dealt with under domestic law, but denied that the deal was key to ending the 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda.
Joseph Kony, and four other top Lord's Resistance Army leaders have been indicted by the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, on atrocities charges.
The rebel army's fighters are notorious for cutting off the tongues and lips of civilians and abducting thousands of children, turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into fighters.
In an interview in London, Museveni said communities that suffered at the hands of the Lord's Resistance Army had requested that they face prosecution in Uganda.
He said rebels will be prosecuted under a system of traditional justice.
Other Ugandan officials have said those charged with serious crimes would be dealt with by a special unit at Uganda's High Court, and that only those accused of lesser crimes would be judged according to northern Uganda's traditional justice system, known as Mato Put.
Mato Put, which is not part of Uganda's formal legal system, is a style of mediation that involves a public apology from the offender, who must also give a payment set by local elders -- often in cattle or sheep -- to the victims, or bereaved. In return, victims agree to forgive the accused.
Some human-rights groups condemn such punishment as too lenient.
Museveni said rebels who had previously hidden in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including Kony, will face traditional justice.
"That is what we have agreed at the request of the local community. They have been mainly tormenting people in one area and it is that community which asked us to use traditional justice," Museveni said.
"What we have agreed with our people is that they should face traditional justice, which is more compensatory than a retributive system," he said.
He rejected suggestions the international community would be concerned if the Lord's Resistance Army leaders are not handed over to the ICC, saying other nations should respect the wishes of local communities.
"If that's what the community wants, then why would we insist" on a trial in the Hague, Museveni asked. "We had quite a number of these people asking us to use this method, rather than the present judicial system, which is more retributive."
Museveni also said Uganda will not host any permanent US military base as part of the new US military command for Africa.
US President George W. Bush said the US is expected to eventually establish a new African base.
"It would be difficult for us to host a base for anybody," Museveni said. "The only thing you can do is short term cooperation ... in case they are engaged in helping Africans."
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
RSS