Who’s Thomas Kwoyelo, Ugandan LRA riot commander on trial for warfare crimes? | Lord’s Resistance Military Information


Uganda’s prime court docket will on Tuesday ship intelligence at the case of Thomas Kwoyelo, a former commander of the riot team, Lord’s Resistance Military (LRA), next greater than 15 years of prolong.

Kwoyelo is being attempted through the global crimes category of the court docket based totally in northern Gulu town, a pocket on the centre of a decades-long revolt.

It’s the primary week Uganda has attempted an LRA member, making this a ancient past for the rustic.

Homicide, rape, intent to explode and several other alternative warfare crimes assemble up the 78 counts of fees towards Kwoyelo, who has denied the claims.

The trial is taking park amid a number of controversies: some have advocated for Kwoyelo’s leave in response to how lengthy he used to be held in pre-trial detention through the Ugandan government, and in response to the truth that others have confronted amnesty. However others, together with sufferers, say Kwoyelo used to be desirous about killings and torture, and will have to face justice.

Right here’s all you want to find out about Kwoyelo’s trial and the LRA military team:

Who’s Thomas Kwoyelo?

Kwoyelo, believed to be in his fifties, used to be a low-level commander of the LRA, tasked with taking good care of the military’s injured participants, in step with his testimony.

He used to be compelled to tied the LRA in 1987, next the crowd’s participants kidnapped him on his solution to faculty at future 12, on the top of the riot struggle. He went directly to grow to be a senior commander, the usage of the alias Latoni, and overseeing the remedy of wounded combatants.

In 2009, Kwoyelo used to be captured within the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo all over a raid through regional forces. The LRA rebels have been compelled out of northern Uganda into DRC, and alternative neighbouring nations a couple of years previous as a result of the Ugandan army’s offensives at the team. Kwoyelo used to be introduced again to the rustic, having sustained a bullet wound to the tummy.

He after spent the nearest 14 years in jail because the prosecution put the case towards him in combination. Analysts say the complexity of the crimes, along side delays from COVID-19, contributed to the long prolong because the case used to be again and again suspension.

Kwoyelo is accused of homicide, rape, kidnapping with intent to homicide, pillaging, annoyed theft, mean remedy, torture and alternative warfare crimes.

Defence govern attorney Caleb Akala has constantly pleaded Kwoyelo’s innocence, arguing that he used to be himself a kid sufferer of the LRA. On the other hand, in step with observers and court docket paperwork, Kwoyelo led a number of LRA incursions and used to be desirous about 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 report learn.

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

Who’s Joseph Kony and what’s the LRA?

Joseph Kony based the LRA in 1984, as a riot team aiming to overthrow longtime Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. On the week, the Ugandan civil warfare had simply ended with Museveni ousting the federal government in energy, and a order of riot 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 build a Christian order in response to the ten biblical commandments. His military terrorised northern Uganda and his participants have been infamous for chopping off society’s limbs of their assaults.

Kony additionally concerned with kids: he ordered the kidnapping of tens of 1000’s of kids that LRA participants worn as intercourse slaves or kid squaddies. Some 66,000 of the kids he kidnapped went directly to grow to be squaddies, in accordance to a few accounts. LRA preventing resulted within the displacement and mutilation of 1000’s of civilians, in step with Human Rights Attend to. Some two million society have been displaced throughout northern Uganda, and in northeastern DRC, because of the crowd’s terror actions.

In 2003 next the World Legal Courtroom used to be based, the Ugandan executive referred Kony’s case, along side that of 4 alternative LRA commanders to the court docket. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony in 2005. In keeping with the court docket, Kony is suspected of 36 counts of warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity, allegedly dedicated between a minimum of July 1, 2002 and December 31, 2005, in northern Uganda.

The instances towards Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, and Vincent Otti have been terminated, as the ones males have kicked the bucket.

In 2021, fourth member Dominic Ongwen was the primary LRA commander to be sentenced through the ICC. He used to be sentenced to twenty-five years in a Norwegian jail, on 61 counts of warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity.

LRA
LRA squaddies all over bliss negotiations between the LRA and Ugandan spiritual and cultural leaders in Ri-Kwangba, southern Sudan, in 2008 [File: Africa24 Media/Reuters]

Amnesty and bliss talks

In 2000, the Ugandan executive presented amnesty to participants of the crowd who needed to give up, with many former kid squaddies opting for to go back house. On the other hand, the crowd’s revolt remained energetic.

The LRA’s preventing in Uganda used to be in large part lowered next Ugandan forces driven the crowd into portions of the Central African Republic, DRC, Sudan, and South Sudan in 2006.

Amid the offensives, Kony affirmative to ceasefire talks mediated through southern Sudanese leaders in Juba. However the talks fell aside in 2008 next Kony refused an amnesty trade in, arguing that he didn’t dedicate atrocities.

The LRA is designated as an apprehension team through the United International locations, the US, the UK and the Ecu Union. Kony has remained in hiding because the ICC arrest warrant used to be issued. His whereabouts are nonetheless unknown. The military has reportedly contracted from about 3,000 males to about 100.

In March, the ICC stated it could attempt Kony in absentia from October 2024.

Wrongdoer and sufferer?

In northern Uganda, the place Kony’s LRA operated, a number of of the crowd’s former participants surrendered next the 2000 amnesty and now reside freely within the crowd, as Al Jazeera reported in February 2024.

On the other hand some teams, such because the UN prime commissioner for human rights, have kicked again towards the amnesty coverage, pronouncing it stands in the best way of prosecuting warfare crimes.

Some in Gulu say Kwoyelo will have to be granted amnesty just like the alternative former squaddies.

“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 workforce has additionally argued that he used to be a kid when he used to be kidnapped and used to be a sufferer, too. Defence attorney Charles Dalton Opwonya stated the federal government “failed to protect” the previous riot. “He was abducted as a child and trained,” he in the past advised Al Jazeera.

However sufferers who alleged Kwoyelo killed their nation participants have driven for his sentencing.

“He was a rude person and a fighter,” a sufferer who used to be born in LRA captivity and known best as Jackline, advised Al Jazeera in February, including that Kwoyelo killed her father for failing to practice orders.

Rights teams, akin to Avocats sans Frontiers, identified that preserving Kwoyelo in detention for greater than a decade muddles the case for the prosecution.

Human Rights Attend to in January advised the court docket to hurry up the case and safeguard justice for Kwoyelo’s sufferers.

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