Juliet Harty Hatanga, the Deputy Registrar of the ICD told Uganda Radio Network in an interview the judgment in the case will be a landmark for the court which has been handling the trial for over a decade.
Former Lord’s Resistance Army
(LRA) rebel commander Thomas Kwoyelo alias Latoni will know his fate on Tuesday as the International Crimes Division (ICD) of the High Court delivers verdict on the case in which he is accused of committing war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
The verdict will be delivered at the Gulu High Court circuit in the Northern Uganda City of Gulu by a trial panel of
judges consisting of Justices Michael Elubu, Duncan Gaswaga, Stephen Mubiru,
and Andrew Bashaija. It comes more than a decade after
Kwoyelo was captured on March 3, 2009, by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces
(UPDF) soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Juliet Harty Hatanga, the Deputy Registrar
of the ICD told Uganda Radio Network in an interview the judgment in the
case will be a landmark for the court which has been handling the trial for
over a decade. Hatanga however says while the
victims have been waiting for justice for more than a decade since the case
began, it’s premature for her to anticipate the outcome of the verdict but
called on them to have hope.
“The hope for them is to wait
patiently for the final verdict because no one knows what it is. You can't make
promises because it could turn out like football or any other way, what if it
turns out that he is not guilty?
Adding “So we can’t make
promises, it's just for them to wait and believe that the prosecution and the
defense counsels have done their best,” says Hatanga. She says the case presented
numerous financial challenges for the court which for the first time took on
the trial of a high-profile suspect domestically.
Hatanga however is hopeful
that the conclusion of Kwoyelo’s trial will set a new Jurisprudence for Africa
in the domestic trial of war crimes and crimes against humanity. “For the first time in Africa,
this is the first case in its nature, and we are set to bring new Jurisprudence
to the country and Africa. There has been this talk that everyone has to go to
the International Criminal Court (ICC) but Uganda has the competence, the
judges are there, and we can try cases of this nature,” she said.
Kwoyelo’s trial commenced in the
High Court of Uganda sitting at Gulu on November 12, 2018. The 49-year-old is battling 78
counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed between
1993 and 2005 in Kilak County, Present day Amuru district.
The charges relate to murder,
kidnapping with intent to murder, pillaging, aggravated robbery, cruel
treatment, enslavement, torture, rape, and outrages upon personal dignity.
We Will Welcome the Court’s Ruling
The family of Kwoyelo has however
expressed mixed feelings ahead of the Tuesday verdict. His eldest son, Moses Rackara, a
resident of Amuru District says they are pleased with the stage the court has
reached in the trial of their father albeit with challenges it encountered over the
years.
Rackara says as a family, they
await the final judgment and will welcome whatever decision the judges will
come up with on the allegations against Kwoyelo.
Luo bite
//Cue in: “Kita dong icawa…
Cue out:…dong ni coki.”//
Roselina Oyella, Kwoyelo's mother
however maintains her son was forcibly abducted at a young age and recruited
into the LRA ranks without his will. Oyella says Kwoyelo is innocent and prayed
that the court should find him innocent and set him free so that he can reunite
with his family members in Amuru District.
“Does it mean Kwoyelo is the only
one who has killed everyone in Uganda, what about other people who were in the
LRA but got released back home? My son is innocent” said Oyella.
Victim speaks out
Richard Kirom is one of the
victims of the infamous May 16, 2004, Pagak Internally Displaced People’s Camp
in Amuru District where Kwoyelo is alleged to have masterminded an attack that
left 46 people dead.
Kirom says his grass-thatched
huts were set ablaze leaving several household properties destroyed adding that
the LRA rebels also beat him up resulting in back and chest injuries which he
still suffers from to date.
He suggested that in any case
Kwoyelo is found guilty, the government should compensate the victims of the
attacks and construct a school for learners and a health facility to
rehabilitate those suffering from physical and mental injuries.
Luo bite
//Cue in: “Neno na tye…
Cue out:…I ot weng.”//
The victim's lawyer Henry Komakech Kilama estimates there approximately approximately 300 victims linked to the
case of Kwoyelo adding that 132 of them applied to voluntarily participate as
witnesses from the two case locations of Pagak and Paboo.
Since 2018 when Kwoyelo’s trial
commenced, the prosecution presented a total of 53 witnesses to pin Kwoyelo
against the charges. Equally, Kwoyelo presented four witnesses in defense in May this year and denied any wrongdoing.
Kwoyelo is the first high-ranking
LRA commander to face trial in the domestic court relating to the bloody LRA
campaigns in Northern Uganda and has been behind bars at Luzira Maximum Prison
in Kampala since 2009.
