The International Criminal Court on Thursday confirmed charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Uganda’s fugitive warlord Joseph Kony in absentia.
Kony, leader of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, is being charged with 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, using child soldiers, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy, between 2002 and 2005, a court decision published Thursday shows.
An arrest warrant against Kony was issued in 2005, making him the ICC’s longest-standing fugitive.
Judges dismissed a request from court-appointed lawyers acting for Kony to stay a decision in the case and instead ruled Kony could be formally charged with all 39 counts put forward by the prosecution.
“The chamber finds that the prosecution’s allegation that Mr Kony issued standing orders to attack civilian settlements, kill and mistreat civilians, loot and destroy their property and abduct children and women to be integrated into the LRA is established to the relevant standard (of substantial grounds to believe),” the judges said in their ruling.
Besides the crimes allegedly committed by his subordinates, the judges said Kony could also be charged with 10 counts of crimes he is accused of committing himself directly linked to two victims who were his forced wives.
For that he faces charges of enslavement, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, torture and persecution on the grounds of age and gender.
Prosecutors welcomed the judges’ ruling and called it a crucial step in holding Kony accountable for the crimes attributed to him.
“This ensures that Joseph Kony – once arrested – can immediately face trial on these charges,” the office of the prosecutor said in a statement.
Prosecutors added that efforts to track and arrest Kony, 64, are ongoing.
Founded in the late 1980s with the aim of overthrowing the government, the LRA brutalised Ugandans under Kony’s leadership for nearly 20 years as it battled the military from bases in northern Uganda.
About 100,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to U.N. figures. The LRA has now largely been wiped out.
(Reuters)