Will Ocampo deliver to LRA victims?

Gulu.

Fifty-five year-old Mary Achan stands deep in thought on the porch of her ot lum (grass thatched house), taking shelter from the drizzles but as well, seemingly enthralled by the merry making in her community.

The former ICC prosecutor, Mr Luis Moreno Ocampo, has paid a courtesy visit to Lokodi Village, Bungatira Sub-county, approximately 15 kilometres, north of Gulu town, and the welcome is euphoric.

Even the drizzles cannot stop the choir of women in their 30s and 40s, clad in pleats of traditional attire with tracings of the colours of the national flag, from putting up a spirited performance for the visitors.

“I get the illusion that my husband is crying for me up from heaven every time rain falls,” teary eyed Achan whispers to a colleague and I who have run to the porch to seek refuge from the rain.
Her husband was one of the ‘45’ people butchered in May 2004 in the area; infants hurled in fire razing huts, women and men who could not run were hacked and teenage children taken along.

“We were living in a camp here when it all happened. Soldiers had forced us into the camp, saying it is the only way they are able to protect us, but they never did.” She narrates, “I don’t know where they were during the attack but I saw them the following day.”

Every resident here who was present during the time of the attack, has a heart-rending story to tell of the torment and misery of the LRA insurgency that lasted two decades.
In fact, this is what Mr Ocampo, who left the International Criminal Court (ICC) in June 2012 after a 10-year stint, has come to emphasise: “Reconciliation, Forgiveness, Storytelling and Healing.”

But how?
Residents express exasperation of abandonment and neglect by government ever since the guns went silent in 2006. No access to clean water, no schools, no health facilities and deplorable state of roads.

“Some people in government and the army profited from this war very much,” one elder exclaimed, “And we also hear on radio how the same people eat money from donors for development projects intended here, so where do we start to forgive and reconcile?”

But Mr Ocampo says forgiveness is crucial “and there is need to embark on storytelling because it will help communities share experiences and allow integration of those who feel left out. Kony is an Acholi, but the troubles he started affected the Acholi, Langi and Teso people. Leaders in all communities should create a storytelling exercise.”

In Orit Parish, Agweng Sub-county, Lira District, where his tour, organised by Invisible Children, a charity organisation committed to bringing a permanent end to rebel leader, Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, DRC and Central African Republic started, he pledged to renew investigations into the 2004 Barlonyo massacres (where more than 300 people were allegedly killed by rebels) and offer legal counsel to victims at the world’s first permanent war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands.

“I know you are doing much better now (than you were) 10 years ago,” he remarked, but, “I have got something to offer you. I would like to be your lawyer. You can formally appoint me as your lawyer and will organise a team of people who will come and document very well what happened.”
The survivors indicated that they want a truth-telling commission established to ascertain who did what and where.
More than 30,000 people are believed to have died during the conflict (waged between 1986 and 2006) and more than 2 million people displaced. Kony is also believed to have abducted and conscripted more than 30,000 children, several of whom have died.

The Acholi Paramount Chief, Rwot David Onen Acana, holds a similar view, ‘to forgive and forget’ adding, “All along, we have considered the commission comprising of all other communities because we believe that since the problem started with us (Kony is Acholi), we should be taking the lead.”

“More attention is being paid to us yet we share the same pain with people from Teso and Lango,” Rwot Acana said at his Palace. “We feel we should take the lead in reconciliation and we’ll embark on an exercise of storytelling as the best way possible.”
Ocampo insists that the idea of reconciliation through storytelling “worked for the people of Palestine” after years of long conflict with Israel.

The other contentious issue has been on the kind of justice Kony should face. Rwot Acana, other clan elders and victims/survivors are of a view that justice for Kony would be a dish best served home the same way Rwanda is doing for the genocide perpetrators.

“Why should one take him abroad to face justice when he will have a good life?” an elder wondered.
The Court established by the 1998 Rome Statute has jurisdiction over four major international crimes; aggression, war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Kony and his deputies were indicted in 2005 for crimes against humanity.
But Ocampo admitted he received several complaints against Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) personnel racketeering some crimes during the conflict but notable was “the concentration of people in camps” where they were exposed to ‘rebel’ attacks.

“Action will be taken at an appropriate time,” he said, adding that perhaps Ms Fatou Besounda, the current lead prosecutor, will pick up the case.
In his letter early this year requesting for mercy, Kony appealed to the ICC to turn the pinhole camera on President Museveni and members of his army.

Uganda remains a signatory to the Rome Statute, despite President Museveni’s repeated attacks against the Court, claiming it is witch-hunting only Africans.
The statute constituted a Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) mandated “to implement Court-ordered reparations awards against a convicted person when directed by the Court to do so” and “general assistance to provide victims with physical rehabilitation”.

LRA survivors are eligible for the package but first, Kony must be arrested and delivered to The Hague and assessments conducted thereafter.

Eligibility is defined in the framework of the four major international crimes; war crimes, genocide, aggression and crimes against humanity the Court handles.
“The people of Northern Uganda can apply for the fund once Kony is arrested and brought to justice.”
Victims also want compensation from government for the suffering they endured.

Lokodi Local Council chairperson Gibson Okullu, says: “If government compensated victims of the Kyadondo bombings (in 2010), why not us?”

Victims and survivors welcome the acknowledgements so far, but in the Acholi culture, reconciliation is not convincingly complete without symbolic reparations. President Museveni has on several occasions expressed government readiness to offer compensation but they hope “it is not political propaganda”.

Speaking recently at the National Resistance Movement day fete to mark 28 years in power, Mr Museveni acknowledged the military did commit some crimes in the north and north eastern regions during the insurgency and hinted on “inquiry” into the matter.

“Several people come here and promise all sorts of things which never come but we believe he [Ocampo] is different,” one elder, Stephen Ojok, notes.
Mr Ocampo is currently an International advocate based in New York. His critics here say he does more talking than acting so there is nothing new to expect. Will he disprove them?

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