President Museveni (R) supported the ICC to go for Sudan's Omar al-Bashir (L) in 2009
Also read:
'Muhoozi Project': By Installing Son, Gen. Museveni Hopes To Defer Prosecution
The day Otunnu unleashed dossier on alleged Acholi genocide
Uganda: President general of the Democratic Party Mr. Robert Mao slams ICC double standards
Mao wants Museveni probed over northern war killings
Museveni turns from ICC admirer to critic
http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25783:museveni-turns-from-icc-admirer-to-critic&catid=34:news&Itemid=114
Sunday, 09 June 2013 23:23
Emma Mutaizibwa asks how has
President Museveni moved from being a leading exponent of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) justice system to one of its harshest critics?
At the just-concluded African Union conference in
Addis Ababa to
mark 50 years of self-governance last month, emotions ran high when Heads of
State accused the ICC of targeting the African race. In the
driving seat of this pan-African jingoism and revolt towards the Western
institution was Museveni.
“ICC should tell us if they plan to detain
(Kenyan President Uhuru) Kenyatta. They should give us an explanation if he is
going to come back to Kenya
because the information we are receiving is different.
We will not agree to have him attend if the
intention is to detain him. If we don’t have a clear picture of the plans by
the International Court,
then it means our relations with them will be soured. They should treat us with
dignity,” Museveni allegedly told a closed-door meeting of leaders.
Earlier, on April 9, 2013, President Museveni
caused a stir, when he hailed Kenyans for rejecting “the blackmail of the
International Criminal Court (ICC)” by electing the indicted Uhuru Kenyatta and
running-mate William Ruto as president and vice president respectively.
But barely eight years ago, Museveni spoke a
different language. In April 2004, he appeared alongside then chief prosecutor,
Louis Moreno Ocampo, who had just announced the indictment of LRA leader Joseph
Kony and his top commanders. Then, the indictment of Kony, an epitome of
senseless brutality, largely worked in Museveni’s favour.
Defender: President Museveni says Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta should be tried in Kenya instead of Hague
Museveni was still friends with ICC, when, March
4, 2009, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state
to be indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity in the war-ravaged Darfur
region.
With the charges hovering over Bashir’s head,
Museveni saw a window of opportunity. Not only had Bashir given weaponry to the
LRA, the Khartoum
regime had spent a number of years threatening Museveni’s influence in the
region. Kony and Bashir if arrested faced years of torment at The Hague.
As a reward for Uganda’s
embrace, the ICC organized the first ever review of the Rome Statute in Kampala, where Museveni
proudly stood out as one of its leading ideologues. It is unclear when
Museveni’s views on the ICC changed. But according to Dr Philip Kasaija, an
international law lecturer at Makerere
University this flak
towards the ICC is emblematic of the opportunistic tendencies of African
leaders.
“He [Museveni] is just an opportunist. Many
African heads of state are potential indictees and, therefore, want to tread
carefully now. Part of the African leadership has used the ICC to solve its
internal problems,” told The Observer last week.
Kasaija, though, says the recent indictment of
the ‘Ocampo six’ for election violence, in Kenya’s 2007 elections appears to
have rattled several African leaders.
“African countries constitute the largest bloc at
the ICC. But since the Kenyan situation unfolded, there is fear because anyone
can be a potential candidate for The
Hague,” he argues.
Consequently the African leadership has attempted
to caricature the ICC as a lame-duck institution without credibility since
Western countries like the United
States have not ratified the ICC treaty. But
Dr Kasaija insists that the decision to ratify the ICC was voluntary.
“Sovereignty means you are independent and you
take your own decisions. Therefore, the argument that many Western countries
have not ratified the ICC treaty is superfluous,” argues Kasaija.
Kasaija adds that it was the African leaders who
endorsed the appointment of Fatou Bensouda, because ‘they wanted an African at
the ICC.’ Writing in Sunday Nation recently, Kenyan scholar Prof Makau Mutua
rejected arguments that the ICC is “race-hunting” Africans, arguing that nobody
forced African leaders to join ICC.
“It is African leaders who’ve been “hunting”
their own citizens for 50 years. And they’ve gotten away with it – until the
ICC…Perhaps they joined thinking that the ICC was like the local court in
Kibera which they could buy or silence.”
However, Kasaija says the ICC is not wholly
blameless, accusing former chief prosecutor Ocampo of playing to the whims
of politicians.
“He should not have appeared with Museveni in London during the
announcement of the Kony indictment. That showed he was not independent. Ocampo
also played to the gallery when he said that he had a watertight case against
those indicted over the Kenyan election. It’s now clear that the case is
falling apart,” Kasaija says.
Whereas there has been an argument that the ICC
indictment largely kept Kony out of Uganda’s
locales, some of the former LRA peace negotiators have viewed it as an
impediment to the total realisation of peace in northern Uganda. Some human rights experts
have also argued against the ICC justice system.
The director of Makerere Institute for Social
Research (MISR) Prof Mahmood Mamdani, during a public lecture on the Kenyan elections,
said there were better alternatives for justice and reconciliation than court
sentences.
“The judicial process tends to be a winner-take-all
process. In the court of law, you are right or wrong, innocent or guilty; both
parties cannot be guilty in a court of law. In a civil war, however, both
parties often bear some share of the guilt,” he argued.
He cited the murder of ANC anti-apartheid icon
Steve Biko whose killers were let off the hook for the purpose of
reconciliation in the rainbow nation.
Mr. Nobert Mao. PHOTO BY YUSUF MUZIRANSA
Mao wants Museveni probed over northern war killings
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/880822/-/wjplc7/-/index.html
By Robert Mwanje
Posted Wednesday, March 17 2010 at 00:00
Posted Wednesday, March 17 2010 at 00:00
In Summary
Senior Presidential Advisor on media, Mr John
Nagenda, criticised Mr Mao’s demands saying that he should realise that the
President was protecting Ugandans to fight the rebels in northern Uganda.Kampala
Democratic Party president Norbert Mao has asked the International Criminal Court [ICC] to investigate President Museveni over the northern Uganda war killings.
The developments come a day after the newly-elected Uganda People’s Congress president, Mr Olara Otunnu, called for an independent inquiry into the killings in Luweero during Mr Museveni’s fight against the UPC government between 1981 and 1985.
The Youth Right, a human rights assembly under the Inter Party Cooperation, also last month petitioned the ICC to investigate the September 2009 riots that left at least 27 people dead.
Mr Mao said; “The ICC should investigate President Museveni over the two-decades war and its atrocities. It’s not enough to investigate the Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA] when Mr Museveni is the man who has been giving orders as the commander-in-chief.”
He was speaking during a press conference in Kampala on Tuesday.
“We should not allow any acts of impunity to prevail in this country. We shall not shut our eyes to any wrong character. The ICC should not let us down,” Mr Mao said.
Civilian protection
But the Senior Presidential Advisor on media, Mr John Nagenda, criticised Mr Mao’s demands saying that he should realise that the President was protecting Ugandans to fight the rebels in northern Uganda.
“He should not make irresponsible statements. It’s as if he is putting President Museveni and Kony at the same level,” Mr Nagenda said yesterday.
In October 2005, the ICC indicted LRA leader Joseph Kony and top lieutenants for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, Mr Mao on Monday lost a travelling bag, a laptop, two flash disks and mobile phones after unknown people broke into his car at Nakasero, a Kampala suburb.
