The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued a report assessing accountability and reconciliation regarding violations of humanitarian law committed in Northern Uganda. The report, Making Peace Our Own: Victims Perceptions of Accountability, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice in Northern Uganda, highlights interviews from 1,725 victims of the 20-year war in the troubled African nation. It states that the victims hold both the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths. According to the report, “the most common forms of harm identified were murder, torture, abductions, rape, [and] mutilation …”
The Ugandan government has agreed to a domestic reconciliation process to prosecute perpetrators of the worst atrocities. It has so far refused to extradite suspects to the International Criminal Court, which has issued several demands for Ugandan officials. Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, is wanted for war crimes by the ICC, but remains at large somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ugandan government has also stated it will not use a special tribunal to prosecute abuses alleged against the Uganda People's Defence Forces, stating that courts martial proceedings effectively handle such accusations.
Domestic and mixed tribunals have been used with various degrees of success in other war crimes proceedings. The mixed tribunal system handling the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia was nearly derailed because of various stalls regarding domestic judicial requests.
The U.N. report highlights some troubling testimonies. A young boy testifies that “We were made to drink the blood of the corpses”, while a young girl who was abducted at 11, proclaims; “I was made to kill other children if they tried to escape. Then I was forced to have sex with a big man.”
Africa's worst conflicts violate internationally recognized conventions regarding humanitarian law and should be investigated according to international law. Peace talks in southern Sudan, however, have had promising results. According to the U.N. report, the peace talks represent the “best ever opportunity for a lasting peace.”
