Museveni, Zenawi named as possible war criminals
By John Stephen Katende
29th Nov 2010
Extreme right, "The accuser" Mr. Sam Akaki in Oslo
The scene was the 2010 European Social Forum conference that took place in Oslo-Norway between 19th and 21st November. There, the International Criminal Court [ICC] prosecutors became the prosecuted. The ICC, represented by its Deputy Prosecutor Mrs. Fatau Bensouda, was put on trial before the ‘court of public opinion’ and charged on several counts.
Addressing a meeting organised by the African Centre for Information and Development (ACID), FDC’s International Envoy to the UK/EU Mr. Sam Akaki, who attended in his capacity as Director of Democratic Institutions for Poverty Reduction (DIPRA), said there is a prima face case to put the ICC on trial for acting as a willing collaborators in a neo-colonial agenda.
Mr. Akaki accused the ICC of running expensive show trials of ‘actors’ in human rights abuses in an effort to protect and divert attention from the real pro-western war crimes suspects like Honsi Mubarak of Egypt, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, General Museveni of Uganda, and many others.
To prove his point, Akaki alleged that the ICC had spent billions of dollars on much-publicised but fruitless efforts to try former Liberian President Charles Taylor and Congolese warlords Thomas Lubanga and Pier Bemba. He also said huge amounts of money are still being spent in efforts to arrest top Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders and their leader Joseph Kony, as well as Sudanese President Omar el Bashir.
Akaki also asked the participants at the conference to contrast these efforts with the ICC’s total silence on both the 2002 and 2010 UN reports which indicated that both Rwandan and Ugandan troops had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during their illegal occupation of the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998-2003.
He further accused the ICC of ignoring widespread reports including a BBC news report which indicated that Congolese government troops were killing civilians, destroying property, and raping women in Eastern Congo.
With specific reference to the ICC’s efforts to arrest and prosecute top LRA leaders for alleged war crimes, Akaki turned the tables on the ICC in front conference delegates and accused it of undermining reconciliation efforts in Africa. He cited the northern Uganda peace negotiations in Juba-Southern Sudan where, as a result of the ICC’s involvement, LRA leader Joseph Kony abandoned the peace talks with the government of Uganda and fled to Central African Republic (CAR).
This was after the ICC, working hand in hand with the government of Uganda, had ignored repeated calls from among others religious leaders from northern Uganda to be allowed to promote peace and reconciliation through the traditional Acholi “Mato Oput” method.
As a direct result of that, Akaki emphasised, the LRA is not only wrecking havoc in CAR, but it is also likely to come back to Uganda after the 2011 which he says are going to be massively rigged by what he called “President Museveni’s handpicked personal Electoral Commission”.
However, while addressing a press conference in Soroti recently over reports of a possible return of insecurity to the Teso region, the Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Aronda Nyakairima said while the threats should be investigated thoroughly, “…no insurgency can ever reoccur in Teso. Kony is miles away in the jungles of Congo and will never invade Uganda”.
In her defence of the ICC on the other hand, Mrs. Bensouda, the ICC’s Deputy Prosecutor, told the conference that although the ICC has thousands of cases to investigate, it only has a miserable annual budget of $100million; the same amount which is spent daily by the western allied force on the war in Afghanistan.
She also rejected allegations that the ICC was protecting pro-western war crime suspects and invited anyone with verifiable evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses to send it to the ICC at The Hague for further investigation.
Reports from the fringes of the Oslo conference also indicate that a group of human rights activists calling themselves “The People’s Investigators” resolved to form regional groups across Africa to compile evidence of war crimes against African leaders.
According to sources at the conference, top on the list are Presidents Yaya Jammeh of The Gambia, Uganda’s Gen. Yoweri Museveni, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Mr. Meles Zenawi. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
