UPDF must face world court â€" MP

Sep 01, 2008

NWOYA county MP Simon Oyet has said if justice is to prevail in Uganda, both the LRA and the UPDF commanders who committed war crimes must face the courts of law.

By Hillary Nsambu
and Ann Mugisa


NWOYA county MP Simon Oyet has said if justice is to prevail in Uganda, both the LRA and the UPDF commanders who committed war crimes must face the courts of law.

“In the interests of the victims of the northern war, both parties must be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to account for war crimes and crimes against humanity in order to bring meaningful and sustainable peace in the region,” the youthful MP said.

Oyet said it would not be meaningful to focus only on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders headed by Joseph Kony when some UPDF commanders also committed atrocities against the people of northern Uganda.

Oyet was on Thursday addressing magistrates and court registrars on a topic entitled “community perspectives on the role of the ICC in northern Uganda”.

The two-day symposium was organised by the Uganda Coalition and the Uganda Judicial Officers Association.

The Deputy Chief Justice, Laetitia Mukasa-Kikonyogo, opened the workshop at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel, Entebbe.

Oyet said the war victims were questioning the moral authority of the ICC, given the fact that its mandate starts only in 2002.

“The year 2002 leaves a lot of gap for the war crimes that were committed before that year. Most of the crimes committed before that time were by the Government forces,” Oyet said.

The MP asserted that before 2002, many people died at the hands of the then National Resistance Army (NRA), while women were raped and girls were defiled.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});