Global Politics
UGANDA: LRA REBEL LEADER JOSEPH KONY’S TRIAL ABOUT – ICC COORDINATOR
Calls for trial bothsie
“We are still treating Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army commander innocent until proven guilty.For 19 years we have failed to arrest and let him appear before the International Criminal Court,”- Maria Mabinty Kamara, ICC Outreach Coordinator for East Africa.
On 28 February, 1987, Joseph Kony started his long journey to become rebel leader with 28 youths, including the current councilor three of Odek Sub County, Kinyera Lakoch, former student of Sir Samuel Baker Secondary School.
They began marching towards Lalogi from Kona Agula at 2:00 p.m. On reaching Lalogi, Joseph Kony predicted that they would be welcomed from there by some former Uganda Army soldiers who would join them with two guns.
They spent the night in Lalogi. FromLalogiKony told his followers, which was swelling in numbers, that they would walk 30 miles northward to Cwero, and his group will be welcome by more people including Major Apia, and Captain Lukwir. Like a snowball, Kony kept gathering his rebel force.
File Photo
Maria Mabinty Kamara, ICC East Africa Coordinator (Courtesy photo)
GULU CITY-Wednesday, MAY 29, 2024.
By Livingstone Okumu Langol
Maria Mabinty Kamara, International Criminal Court (ICC) Outreach Coordinator for the East African country based in Kampala Uganda’s Capital has declared that the court is looking for a suitable lawyer to represent Joseph Kony, the hitherto elusive leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army who is known to have started his rebellion against the Government of Uganda since 1987 and still hiding in the Central African Republic or Sudan.
“This interest is being negotiated, we are looking for lawyers to represent Joseph Kony, and once the lawyers are got, we shall announce as we presume that Joseph Kony has a right (for representation) as an innocent person,” Kamara said.
The Black Star News in a phone interview posed a question to Maria Kamara, as to why the issue of representation of Joseph Kony to stand trial at the ICC is being mooted now despite the fact that he has been elusive since 2005 when the ICC indicted him.
Maria Kamara responded that on May 4th 2024,the ICC decided that in the meantime, even though Kony has not yet been caught the preparation to try him should go ahead including securing a lawyer to represent him at the ICC court.
The Black Star News Correspondent asked Maria Kamara to comment on the reported near capture of the rebel leader by the Russian mercenary Wagner Group and if the ICC had a hand in that operation but she responded that the ICC is not dealing with any military group, or mercenary seeking the arrest of Joseph Kony.
“The ICC is working with state parties, and international communities and is not behind the latest attack (by Wagner Group) against Joseph Kony in the Central African Republic as reported in the media,” said Kamara.
However, she stated that confirming counts charges against Joseph Kony is scheduled for 15th, October 2024 regardless of whether or not Kony appears in the ICC court.“We presume that Kony is innocent and has rights to representation,” Kamara emphasized.
Uganda Government says let Joseph Kony give accountability
The Government Media Spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo, when contacted for comment said he supports the move by the ICC. “Uganda will have no problems because we are the ones who took him to ICC. “If Joseph Kony will be accountable (for the crimes he committed), it would be okay,” Ofwono Opondo commented.
Odong Christopher,a motor cycle taxi operator in Gulu City in his reaction about the ICC sponsoring a lawyer to represent Joseph Kony said this can happen, but wondered if the lawyer would ultimately survive Kony’s numerous enemies.“I don’t think the lawyer who is going to represent Joseph Kony will be safe,” he mused.
On 6th May, 2024, the Registry of the ICC published a call for expression of interest for counsel for Mr. Joseph Kony in absentia. The deadline for applications was 16thMay 2024, according to the advertisement.
Meanwhile on 4thMarch 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber II issued a decision on the Prosecutor’s request to hold a confirmation of charges (“Confirmation hearing”) in the case against Joseph Kony in the suspect’s absence should he not appear, and set the date for this hearing to commence on 15thOctober 2024.
The Chamber instructed the ICC Registry to make its best efforts to inform Joseph Kony that a confirmation hearing in absentia will take place on 15thOctober 2024. And to commence the process of selection of counsel to represent the rights and interests of Joseph Kony during the confirmation process and confirmation hearing.
In setting this hearing date, the Chamber took into consideration that Defense counsel will require sufficient time for his or her preparation in the suspect’s absence, due to the scope of the prosecution’s allegedly labeled against LRA warlord.
The Registrar of the Hague-based court, Osvaldo Zavala Giler while in Uganda states that if the charges against Joseph Kony are confirmed, it could quicken the commencement of the case, observing that 19 years ago the ICC issued warrant of arrest against Joseph Kony of war crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape, sexual slavery, using child soldiers.
In October 2006, the ICC announced that arrest warrant has been issued for five members of the Lord’s Resistance Army for crimes against humanity following a sealed indictment, and on the next day Uganda Defense Minister, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, revealed that the warrants include Kony, his Deputy Vincent Otti, and LRA commanders Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, and Dominic Ongwen. None of those, except Domonic Ongwen has since been captured, sentenced and is facing jail term in Norway.
Who is Joseph Kony?
Joseph Kony according to most published documents was born in 1961, to Aluzi Obol, of Palaro Odek clan.The mother, Mrs. Oting Obol hailed from Lukwor clan in Awere Sub county. However, according to the record from Odek Primary School, Joseph Kony was born in 1964, and he enrolled for his primary education in 1973 nine years later.
Ochen Oket, his former classmate said when he registered in 1973, in Primary One Class; they were enrolled on the same day, at the beginning of the first term.
Opira Casimiro, the former headmaster of Odek Primary School, who was the headmaster when Joseph Kony studied during his headship, also acknowledged that Kony’s record indicate that he was born in 1964.
The former headteacher informed Black Star Correspondent before he passed on in 2020 that Joseph Kony, during his school time, was a school time keeper and also served as an Alter boy at St. Peter Catholic church. He informed that Kony sat for his Primary Leaving Examination in 1984 at Odek Primary School.
Joseph Kony was also reported to be a prominent Larakaraka traditional courtship dancer belonging to Agwengtina group of Palaro.He was reputed as an excellent singer among his peers.
Joseph Kony was reported to have briefly joined Uganda Local Militia at Labwordwong Agago Sub county, in then Kitgum District in 1985 where he seemed to have mastered some military field craft.
In December 1986, Joseph Kony married his first wife, Acan Rose Odoch, who hails from Kal Orimo, Lalogi Kona Agula village, Odek Sub county, the marriage took place in Oyarotonge village, from the aunt of his wife, because Acan’s father, Odoch Abayotoo was on the run, being accused as National Resistance Movement collaborator, according to an old man from the village.
They had one child, who later died, before Joseph Kony waged war against the Museveni government on the ground that Museveni led forces was an occupational force that invaded Acholi Sub-region to wipe the Acholi ethnic group.
Kony is said to be a cousin to the late Auma Alice Lakwena, another rebel leader of an outfit that preceded Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. The late Lakwena’s mother and Kony’s mother are known to be paternal cousins.
How a previous Alter Boy morphed into a Rebel Leader
By January 1987, word was moving around in Palaro Odek parish that Joseph Kony was planning to join the group of Alice AumaLakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement (HSM).
A source told Black Star Correspondent that one day while Kony was going to bathe at Odek stream, he reportedly met three people adorning white robes. The three men stopped him and gave him the message that he should start a rebellion since invaders (NRA forces) wanted to wipe the Acholi ethnic group.
Kony would later start his own group working through spirit mediums, ultimately absorbing fighters of his cousin Alice Auma Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement and that of another rebel outfit, the Uganda People’s Democratic Army (UPDA) led by the late Commander Brig. Odong Latek.
Those who schooled with him described him as a nearly 6ft,rather aloof but humble person, with piercing eyes in a slender body. Nobody expected him to morph up into a feared soldier having served the church with piousness and humility as an Alter boy. Kony was later to claim that he was a messenger sent by God to liberate the Acholi but with a growing ambition that ultimately extended to the capture of the whole Uganda.
28 February, 1987 marked the journey of Joseph Kony from Kona Agula to Lalogi to Cwero where like a snowball, he kept on gathering more forces that traversed the whole of Northern Uganda and ultimately took him to South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the Central African Republic and Sudan and still not yet wiped out despite pursuit by various forces both internal and external including the USA army and the mercenary Russian Wagner Group.
