ICC needs reasons to drop Kony case, says Ssebutinde

Uganda must convince the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it has the special machinery to investigate and prosecute the indicted LRA leaders before it can be allowed to try Kony, Justice Julia Ssebutinde has said.

Ssebutinde, a judge in the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, yesterday said the Government could not just ask the ICC to drop charges against Kony.

Kony and his top commanders have been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ssebutinde was delivering a paper on the 10 years of the Rome Statute under which the ICC was created.

This was during the second annual Abu Mayanja memorial lecture at the Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday.

The theme of the lecture was “Celebrating 10 years of the Rome Statute 1998-2008; Does Uganda have reason to join the party?”

In April, Kony refused to sign the final peace accord in Juba, saying he wanted clarification on his fate as far as the indictments were concerned.

According to Ssebutinde, the ICC cannot just let Uganda drop the case before it is convinced that there will be justice. Besides, it is not up to Uganda alone to drop the charges, she said.

“A lot of lobbying and diplomatic footwork on the part of Uganda must be done,” Ssebutinde said. “The Government has to convince the UN Security Council and the pre-trial chamber that dropping the indictments is in the interest of justice.”

Uganda, Ssebutinde said, referred the case to the ICC after failing to apprehend Kony.

She explained that the ICC ordered an investigation and was convinced that there was cause to handle the case.

Therefore, she said, Uganda cannot just drop the case the way the Director of Public Prosecutions does in national jurisdictions.

Uganda, the judge added, needed to make a special legislation for that, equip the special court and enhance and facilitate the investigative machinery, specifically to handle that case.

“All these must be in place in order to convince the ICC to drop the case.”

Even if the ICC accepted to drop the indictments, apprehending Kony is still a challenge, Ssebutinde said.

The former Solicitor General, Peter Kabatsi, said Uganda had reason to celebrate the creation of the ICC because of its past.
“Given our history of skulls in Namanve, Luweero and in the North, Uganda should celebrate. People cannot escape justice, go abroad or be protected by authorities here.”

Source: www.newvision.co.ug