One step forward two back: Africa war crimes justice
10 Nov 2006 16:32:38 GMT Source: Reuters
By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - One Congolese militia leader wanted for war crimes is facing justice in the Hague. But two others have gained army posts in re-integration deals. With fugitive warlords around Africa weighing their options as they try to negotiate a way out of their rebellions, the mixed messages have raised concerns among rights campaigners. They say extrajudicial deals, such as those sought by leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), encourage impunity and make resolving long-running conflicts even harder. The International Criminal Court in the Hague opened a hearing on Thursday against Thomas Lubanga, one of Democratic Republic of Congo's most feared militia leaders, in its first case since it was established in 2002. Lubanga is accused of using child soldiers: training and forcing them to kill and allowing them to be killed. But last month, the leaders of two other Congolese militia groups accused of war crimes, Peter Karim and Matthieu Ngudjolo, were appointed colonels in the national army under re-integration agreements that outraged rights campaigners. "If you make killers into colonels, it sends out a message that you can get away with it. We need to have these people arrested, not rewarded," Anneke Van Woudenberg, a Congo expert with Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. Lubanga's militia was one of several fighting over east Congo's mineral-rich Ituri district in a 1998-2003 war that created a humanitarian crisis which has killed 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease. Another Ituri militia leader, Cobra Matata, is trying to negotiate a surrender including immunity from prosecution. "Why did they only arrest Lubanga? It makes no sense. A lot of people committed war crimes in Congo's fighting," said Godefroid Mpiana of local human rights group Justice Plus. U.N. officials say making militiamen colonels will not necessarily stop them being prosecuted. "In three months, they can arrest them. Just because they're colonels won't prevent that," U.N. mission spokesman Leocadio Salmeron told Reuters in Bunia, eastern Congo. "DOUBLE-EDGED" The ICC is seeking to prosecute other African warlords, in particular five LRA leaders. These say they are willing to make peace with Uganda's government, but only if the ICC drops its charges. The LRA leaders remain in hiding on the Sudan-Congo border while peace talks continue in south Sudan between their representatives and the Ugandan government. "With Lubanga in court, the LRA will simply now insist that the indictments against them must be dropped before coming out," said Norbert Mao, a peace campaigner and chairman of Gulu district, at the epicentre of Uganda's conflict. Many analysts believe such leaders will never make peace while they risk arrest and prosecution. "They're going to think talks are a trap, like what happened to (former Liberian President) Charles Taylor," Mao said. In 2003, the Nigerian government granted exile to Taylor, now accused of war crimes, in exchange for him leaving Liberia to end the conflict there. But this year it gave him up for trial in an international court under diplomatic pressure. Taylor's fate, coupled with Lubanga's prosecution while others remain free, could make the LRA leaders wary of peace. "The ICC has been double-edged," said Paul Omach, political scientist at Kampala's Makerere university. "It made them afraid to come out, but that fear also put pressure on them to negotiate, because they can be held to account if they don't."
