Peace or Justice?

Stefanie Rumple/2/22/08/8:05 AM/Global Crime/Peace or Justice?

People in Uganda face a decision that many of us will never face. They must choose between peace and justice. Leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army, including Joseph Kony, its self-proclaimed prophet and mouthpiece of the Christian god, were indicted in 2005 by the International Criminal Court in the Hague. This was done at the urging of President Museveni, but now it seems he has changed his mind. President Museveni of Uganda, who has led the country since 1986, has brokered a deal with Lord’s Resistance Army leaders to have peace in exchange for attempting to try them in Uganda for war crimes rather than allowing the indictments of the ICC to stand. By the rules of the ICC, if a local court undertakes to try and punish war criminals, an ICC indictment is unnecessary and would be set aside. However, Amnesty International disparaged the plan, saying that any trial held in Uganda would be a sham trial and would not actually hold rebels accountable for their crimes. The ICC is deliberating as to whether it would recognize the validity of trials held in Uganda or whether it would continue to pursue arrest and conviction on its own.
The war crimes at issue include mutilations, rape, and abductions of children to use as soldiers. Indeed, the people of Uganda vacillate between wanting to stop the rebels’ continued violence and unwillingness to fight against abducted children, who are doubly victims of this war and perpetrators of horrors against the people, as they are forced into these actions by their abductors. The LRA originally sought to create a theocracy, a Christian nation, with the ten commandments as basis for the laws and Joseph Kony, who claims to hear the voice of god, as religious and secular leader. Now they ask for inclusion in the government, but are unwilling to run in elections or form a political party, possibly afraid of marginalization and disenfranchisement because of their ideological persuasion. While they did walk out on negotiations on Wednesday, the Ugandan government has said that this is not the first time, or even the second or third time, that they have walked out, and they are confident LRA representatives will return to the talks.
To me this raises several issues. First there is the position of Amnesty International that the trials would be a sham and would not achieve justice, thereby encouraging similar rebel groups to continue with war-time atrocities without fear of punishment. It is thought that the rebels would not be attending peace negotiations at all if not for the fear of ICC indictments. But also, there is the issue of whether a Ugandan court, with its base in the context and direct knowledge of the surrounding events, might not be better equipped to hand out actual justice, if allowed to run without interference from rebel intimidation or political pressure. Is an international body better than a local one in determining what justice is in a particular situation? Would justice not have to include some provision for the needs and desires of the rebels? As far as Uganda is concerned, they are involved in a civil war. A civil war by definition involves two or more groups who desire leadership of their country, and for reasons that each think of as valid. The LRAs methods of doing so are horrific, destructive, and unconscionable, but have been able to continue with some tacit agreement from the people because the government forces have also been guilty of atrocities, although they haven’t been charged by any international body. So would a trial court in Uganda be more capable of handing out justice? Possibly. Would they be more willing to do so? That is debatable. They want the conflict to end, and there is concern in the international community that they would allow some to escape justice in the interest of peace. However, is justice such an absolute that people should not be allowed to seek peace and an end to these atrocities by abrogating it in some way? Or would peace be lasting and effective without absolute justice being served? Would the people of Uganda ever be able to return to a normal life knowing that people who committed such crimes were allowed to walk free in their cities, their towns, perhaps working and living alongside the very people whose lips, ears, and noses they cut off, whose children they kidnapped and forced into soldiery or killed, whose mothers and sisters they may have raped, whose family members they slaughtered? Maybe we could ask the Rwandans; we in America have no frame of reference I think, it has been a long time since our own civil war.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7254856.stm
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802210736.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7254357.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7252774.stm