Who is Thomas Kwoyelo, Ugandan LRA rebel commander on trial for war crimes? | Lord’s Resistance Army News

Uganda’s excessive court docket will on Tuesday ship judgement on the case of Thomas Kwoyelo, a former commander of the rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), after greater than 15 years of delay.

Kwoyelo is being tried by the worldwide crimes division of the court docket primarily based in northern Gulu metropolis, a area on the centre of a decades-long riot.

It’s the primary time Uganda has tried an LRA member, making this a historic second for the nation.

Homicide, rape, intent to kill and several other different war crimes make up the 78 counts of fees towards Kwoyelo, who has denied the claims.

The trial is going down amid a number of controversies: some have advocated for Kwoyelo’s launch primarily based on how lengthy he was held in pre-trial detention by the Ugandan authorities, and primarily based on the truth that others have confronted amnesty. However others, together with victims, say Kwoyelo was concerned in killings and torture, and may face justice.

Right here’s all you’ll want to learn about Kwoyelo’s trial and the LRA militia group:

Who is Thomas Kwoyelo?

Kwoyelo, believed to be in his fifties, was a low-level commander of the LRA, tasked with caring for the militia’s injured members, in line with his testimony.

He was compelled to affix the LRA in 1987, after the group’s members kidnapped him on his solution to college at age 12, on the peak of the rebel battle. He went on to grow to be a senior commander, utilizing the alias Latoni, and overseeing the remedy of wounded fighters.

In 2009, Kwoyelo was captured within the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo throughout a raid by regional forces. The LRA rebels had been compelled out of northern Uganda into DRC, and different neighbouring international locations a number of years earlier due to the Ugandan army’s offensives on the group. Kwoyelo was introduced again to the nation, having sustained a bullet wound to the abdomen.

He then spent the subsequent 14 years in jail because the prosecution put the case towards him collectively. Analysts say the complexity of the crimes, together with delays from COVID-19, contributed to the prolonged delay because the case was repeatedly postponed.

Kwoyelo is accused of homicide, rape, kidnapping with intent to homicide, pillaging, aggravated theft, merciless remedy, torture and different war crimes.

Defence lead lawyer Caleb Akala has persistently pleaded Kwoyelo’s innocence, arguing that he was himself a baby sufferer of the LRA. Nevertheless, in line with witnesses and court docket paperwork, Kwoyelo led a number of LRA incursions and was concerned in killings.

“All attacks by the LRA which took place in Kilak County, Amuru District between 1987 and 2005, the subject of charges in this indictment, were either commanded by him or were carried out with his full knowledge and authority,” one doc learn.

A file image taken on November 12, 2006, of then-leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Joseph Kony [Stuart Price/AFP]

Who is Joseph Kony and what is the LRA?

Joseph Kony based the LRA in 1984, as a rebel group aiming to overthrow longtime Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. On the time, the Ugandan civil war had simply ended with Museveni ousting the federal government in energy, and a collection of rebel teams from Uganda’s Acholi northern tribe rose to problem his rule.

As a former altar boy, Kony claimed to be a religious medium, and aimed to create a Christian state primarily based on the ten biblical commandments. His military terrorised northern Uganda and his members have been infamous for reducing off individuals’s limbs of their assaults.

Kony additionally targeted on youngsters: he ordered the kidnapping of tens of hundreds of kids that LRA members used as intercourse slaves or youngster troopers. Some 66,000 of the kids he kidnapped went on to grow to be troopers, in line with some accounts. LRA preventing resulted within the displacement and mutilation of hundreds of civilians, in line with Human Rights Watch. Some two million individuals have been displaced throughout northern Uganda, and in northeastern DRC, as a result of group’s terror actions.

In 2003 after the Worldwide Felony Courtroom was based, the Ugandan authorities referred Kony’s case, together with that of 4 different LRA commanders to the court docket. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony in 2005. In line with the court docket, Kony is suspected of 36 counts of war crimes and crimes towards humanity, allegedly dedicated between at the least July 1, 2002 and December 31, 2005, in northern Uganda.

The circumstances towards Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, and Vincent Otti have been terminated, as these males have handed away.

In 2021, fourth member Dominic Ongwen turned the primary LRA commander to be sentenced by the ICC. He was sentenced to 25 years in a Norwegian jail, on 61 counts of war crimes and crimes towards humanity.

LRA troopers throughout peace negotiations between the LRA and Ugandan non secular and cultural leaders in Ri-Kwangba, southern Sudan, in 2008 [File: Africa24 Media/Reuters]

Amnesty and peace talks

In 2000, the Ugandan authorities provided amnesty to members of the group who wished to give up, with many former youngster troopers selecting to return house. Nevertheless, the group’s riot remained energetic.

The LRA’s preventing in Uganda was largely diminished after Ugandan forces pushed the group into elements of the Central African Republic, DRC, Sudan, and South Sudan in 2006.

Amid the offensives, Kony agreed to ceasefire talks mediated by southern Sudanese leaders in Juba. However the talks fell aside in 2008 after Kony refused an amnesty provide, arguing that he didn’t commit atrocities.

The LRA is designated as a terror group by the United Nations, the USA, the UK and the European Union. Kony has remained in hiding because the ICC arrest warrant was issued. His whereabouts are nonetheless unknown. The military has reportedly shrunk from about 3,000 males to about 100.

In March, the ICC mentioned it could strive Kony in absentia from October 2024.

Perpetrator and sufferer?

In northern Uganda, the place Kony’s LRA operated, a number of of the group’s former members surrendered after the 2000 amnesty and now dwell freely in the neighborhood, as Al Jazeera reported in February 2024.

Nevertheless, others, such because the UN excessive commissioner for human rights, have kicked again towards the amnesty coverage, saying it stands in the best way of prosecuting war crimes.

Some in Gulu say Kwoyelo, too, must be granted amnesty.

“Our children are innocent because they were forcefully conscripted into combat,” Okello Okuna, a spokesperson for Ker Kwaro Acholi, a standard kingdom in Gulu, advised Al Jazeera in February.

Kwoyelo’s defence crew additionally has argued that he was a baby when he was kidnapped and was a sufferer, too. Defence lawyer Charles Dalton Opwonya mentioned the federal government “failed to protect” the previous rebel. “He was abducted as a child and trained,” he beforehand advised Al Jazeera.

However victims who alleged Kwoyelo killed their members of the family have pushed for his sentencing.

“He was a rude person and a fighter,” a sufferer who was born in LRA captivity recognized solely as Jackline advised Al Jazeera in February, including that Kwoyelo killed her father for failing to comply with orders.

Rights teams, such because the Ugandan Avocats sans Frontiers, identified that holding Kwoyelo in detention for greater than a decade muddles the case for the prosecution.

Human Rights Watch in January urged the court docket to hurry up the case and guarantee justice for Kwoyelo’s victims.