Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa - PULP - University of ...

270 Chapter 12
prosecutions themselves. 142 If effectively deployed and used, it will assist
states, including the Sudan, to develop an ability to hold citizens
accountable and thereby ensure that the ICC truly becomes a court of last
resort.
3.3 The northern Uganda conflict and positive
complementarity
The northern Uganda conflict is one of the longest-running conflicts in
East Africa and has been raging for two decades. 143 The Lord’s Resistance
Army (LRA) has its origin in the Holy Spirit Movement led by Alice Auma
Lakwena, and is a combination of forces allied against the National
Resistance Movement (NRM) of President Museveni. 144 Alice promised
her soldiers powers of invincibility if they obeyed her spiritual rules.
However, the firepower of the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Force (UPDF)
defeated them at a battle near Kampala in 1987. Alice fled to Kenya and
Joseph Kony, who is said to be related to Alice, took over the remaining
soldiers and transformed it into the LRA. 145 Though some have claimed
that the LRA has no official political agenda in its war with the
government of Uganda, it succeeded in bringing economic activities in
northern Uganda to a standstill.
The LRA has for over two decades attacked civilians and undermined
the cultural values of the Acholi and other ethnicities in northern Uganda
by killing and maiming innocent civilians, raping and abducting children
and turning them into sex-slaves and ‘death squads.’ 146 The LRA allegedly
operated from Sudan and there were allegations that Sudan supported the
LRA. In return, Sudan accused Uganda of supporting the Sudan Peoples’
Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M). 147 Both the LRA and Uganda
People’s Defence Force are known to have committed several human
rights abuses during the northern Uganda conflict. 148
There have been several processes aimed at bringing an end to the
conflict in northern Uganda. The Ugandan government promulgated the
142 Burke-White (n 31 above) 53, 72.
143 T Allen Trial justice: The International Criminal Court and the Lord’s Resistance Army (2006)
25 – 27.
144 HRW ‘The scars of death: Children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in
Uganda’ 1 September 1997, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1997/09/18/scars-death
(accessed 11 August 2010) (HRW Uganda Report).
145 HRW Uganda Report 80.
146 L Keller ‘Achieving peace with justice: The International Criminal Court and Ugandan
alternative justice mechanisms’ (2008) 23 Connecticut Journal of International Law 209,
233.
147 F Nyakairu ‘Are resurgent Ugandan rebels backed by Khartoum?’ AlertNet 10
September 2009 http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/55866/2009/08/10-130728-
1.htm (accessed 10 August 2010).
148 Z Lomo and L Hovil ‘Behind the violence: The war in Northern Uganda’ (2004) 99
Institute for Security Studies Monograph 45.