Uganda on Wednesday welcomed the International Criminal Court's (ICC) hearing of evidence against rebel leader Joseph Kony but said real justice will only come when he is arrested and tried, News.Az reports citing Reuters.
Henry Oryem Okello, Uganda's state minister for foreign affairs in charge of international cooperation, told Xinhua by telephone that while the confirmation of charges was significant, it still fell short of delivering justice to thousands of victims of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency.
A panel of three judges at The Hague on Tuesday began a three-day hearing of evidence on 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Kony between 2003 and 2004 in northern Uganda. The proceedings are being held in absentia, as Kony has so far evaded arrest.
"This is just symbolic, and I do not think that whatever happens in The Hague will bring justice to the victims for crimes that Joseph Kony and his goons committed against the people in northern Uganda, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic," Oryem said.
"I think justice will only be served when Kony is apprehended, brought before the courts of law, tried, jailed, and locked away," he added.
Kony, indicted in July 2005, faces charges of murder, enslavement, forced marriage, rape and torture. Other charges include intentionally directing attacks against civilians, pillaging, sexual slavery, conscription of children, and the use of children in hostilities, all allegedly committed between 2003 and 2004 in northern Uganda.
The LRA fled Uganda in 2006, retreating into neighboring South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.
In May 2021, Dominic Ongwen, one of Kony's top commanders, was convicted by the ICC and sentenced to 25 years in prison on similar charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005.
