IJCentral: International Justice Central

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni triggered a diplomatic and political flurry when he invited Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to the Special Summit of Heads of State and Government on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa that took place in Kampala last month.  Considering that the International Criminal Court has an outstanding arrest warrant for al-Bashir, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the fact that Uganda is a signatory of the Rome Statute and obliged to arrest any person wanted by the ICC, Museveni’s invitation shows a reckless disregard for Uganda’s legal obligations.  Or is it that he thinks that the ICC is simply a political tool that he can use or ignore at his whim?  When he referred the case of the 20-year conflict of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) with the Ugandan government to the ICC (which led to arrest warrants being issued for LRA leader Joseph Kony and his top 4 commanders) the Acholi people of northern Uganda demanded that the ICC also investigate atrocities committed by Uganda government.  According to the ICC, they found that the gravest atrocities committed by Ugandan government troops occurred before ICC jurisdiction took effect in 2002.  But I learned from a key legal advisor to Museveni that he was genuinely surprised when told that in referring the LRA case to the ICC, it opened the door for him to be investigated as well, and asked “If that’s the case, why did we sign this treaty?”  Later during the Juba Peace Talks Museveni offered Kony the option of being tried in a special national court instead of being sent to the ICC, but for that to happen he would have had to convince the ICC judges that he was going to conduct a credible trial in Uganda - he didn’t seem to take that obligation into account.  And now he has invited al-Bashir to Uganda for a second time since the arrest warrant was issued - he could be playing it both ways, by seeming to welcome al-Bashir and then having the Ugandan press, human rights groups and his own government ministers decry his invitation.  Or perhaps he really thinks that the ICC is there for him to use as a political tool at his convenience - it is imperative that the ICC and its member states disabuse him of that notion, especially since he will be hosting the Review Conference of the Rome Statute next year.  Let that be an element to pressure him to study the Rome Statute and figure out what his obligations are.  President al-Bashir is taking no chances of course - he has declined both invitations by Museveni and sent his ministers instead.  Having fought a proxy war with Uganda during the 1990s when he financed and armed the Lord’s Resistance Army, I doubt that he trusts Museveni to keep his word and give him safe passage.  Ah, the never-ending intrigue of power politics in the African Great Lakes region.