Legal Journals

Ugandan Tribunals To Try Rebels

By rpark

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declared that rebel leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army will be tried by local Ugandan tribunals rather than handed over to the International Criminal Court.  The local court system emphasizes compensation and apologies, rather than punishment.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the five Ugandan rebel leaders after President Museveni requested the body investigate their crimes, leading some to claim that Museveni used ICC indictments as a mechanism for exerting pressure on the rebels to agree to a peace settlement.  Uganda is obliged under international law to send the accused men to the Hague for trial. The decision to try the rebels locally has “opened a rift” between African governments that believe ICC trials should be subordinate to local peace deals and reconciliation and countries which trumpet the ICC as responsible for international justice.  Museveni, asserting Uganda’s right to withdraw from the ICC process, contends that his decision is driven by the desires of the victims and the leaders of those areas affected by the conflict to use “traditional justice.”  Critics respond that Museveni’s actions undermine the credibility of the ICC and the international criminal justice system.

For the full story click here and here.

Full post as published by Harvard International Law Journal Digest on March 18, 2008 (boomark / email).