THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court Thursday confirmed all 39 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by fugitive Uganda warlord Joseph Kony, including murder, enslavement, rape, and torture.
The leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army spearheaded a campaign of terror across northern Uganda between July 2002 and December 2005.
Under ICC procedure, a trial would normally follow the confirmation of charges. However, the court does not allow trials in absentia, and Kony has not been seen in public since 2006.
Judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Kony was responsible for 29 charges as an “indirect co-perpetrator.”
This related to LRA attacks on a school and camps for internally displaced people and included murder, torture, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, rape, and conscripting children younger than 15.
The ICC also said Kony had a case to answer as a direct perpetrator in 10 cases related to two victims forced to be his “wives.”
These charges included enslavement, forced marriage, rape, forced pregnancy, and sexual slavery.
A former Catholic altar boy, Kony headed the feared LRA, whose insurgency against the Ugandan government saw more than 100,000 people killed and 60,000 children abducted, according to the United Nations.
His stated aim was to establish a nation based on the Bible’s 10 commandments but those who escaped told gruesome tales of the group’s brutality, being forced to hack or even bite others to death, eat human remains, and drink blood.
His last-known appearance was in 2006, when he told a Western journalist he was “not a terrorist” and that stories of LRA brutality were “propaganda.”
It is not known whether he is even still alive.
- ‘Tools of war’ -
In September, the ICC held a three-day “confirmation of charges” hearing in The Hague on the Kony case — the first-ever to be held without the suspect present.
His defense lawyer Peter Haynes argued during the hearing that the case should be frozen, as Kony had no way of challenging evidence in his absence.
The ICC judges rejected this request, they said in Thursday’s statement.
A lawyer for the victims, Sarah Pellet, laid out searing testimony of some of the atrocities suffered at the hands of the LRA.
The victims “had no choice when they were forced to watch killings. They had no choice when they were made to kill. They had no choice when their bodies were turned into tools of war,” Pellet told the court.
The court said neither party could appeal the decision until Kony had been informed — almost certainly a moot point.
The ICC prosecutor’s office said that confirming the charges was “a crucial step in holding Kony accountable for the grave crimes attributed to him.”
The office said it had an “unwavering commitment to pursuing justice for the victims of the crimes of the LRA and affected communities in northern Uganda.”
Several victims told AFP in Uganda that the confirmation of charges could not diminish the harm caused.
“ICC confirming Joseph Kony’s atrocities against us was expected, but is it erasing the suffering we suffered?,” said Angel Stella Lalam, a Kony victim who now heads the War Victims and Networking Organization based in Gulu city, the epicenter of the armed insurgency.
Lalam told AFP by phone that she was abducted as a child and only returned to her family more than a decade later.
“The confirmation of charges is cosmetic and does not address the suffering of the victims, especially when he is not in the dock and still at large,” she added.
Alex Okello, 56, a local leader in Pabbo, north of Gulu, said he wanted to see Kony actually face justice.
“The confirmation of charges against Kony is good but it’s not making us comfortable because he has not been arrested and he can kill more people,” Okello added.
