Kampala, Uganda | AFP | One of Africa’s longest-surviving rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has terrorised parts of central Africa for 30 years. Its leaders are violent pariahs and fugitives from international justice, hunted by US special forces and African armies. Founder Joseph Kony remains on the loose, …
Read More »Uganda rebel Ongwen: victim turned killer
Kampala, Uganda | AFP | Abducted by gunmen as a 10-year-old boy on his way to school, Dominic Ongwen rose to become one of the most feared commanders in Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The former child soldier, now in his early 40s, goes on trial before the International …
Read More »What is at stake in ICC trial of LRA’s Ongwen?
Trial to open of former child soldier turned LRA warlord The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Dominic Ongwen, the former child soldier who became a Lord’s Resistance Army warlord, will go before war crimes judges on Tuesday in a trial which presents the International Criminal Court with its “most difficult …
Read More »Cloud hangs over ICC as Ongwen trial starts Dec 6
The trial in the case of Dominic Ongwen, a top commander of Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, is scheduled to open at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, December 6 – 2016. The Prosecutor versus Ongwen case will be before Trial Chamber IX of the ICC, composed of presiding Judge …
Read More »Russia withdraws signature from ICC founding statute
Moscow, RUSSIAN FEDERATION | AFP | Russia said Wednesday it is formally withdrawing its signature from the founding statute of the International Criminal Court, saying the tribunal has failed to live up to the hopes of the international community. Russia in 2000 signed the Rome Statute setting up the ICC, …
Read More »ICC: US may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | US military forces and the CIA may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan through the “cruel and violent” interrogation of detainees mostly between 2003-2004, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Monday. There was a “reasonable basis to believe that, in the …
Read More »COMMENT: ICC is the best protection for Africa’s leaders
COMMENT: By Martin M. Lwanga Politics in Africa tends to be a zero sum game where the losers need an ICC to protect their rights The recent decision by the President of Burundi, Peirre Nkurunziza, to sign legislation enabling Burundi to withdrawal from International Court Criminal Court (ICC), followed by …
Read More »Kenyatta in Sudan as African decisions loom on ICC
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta began a two-day visit to Sudan on Saturday, just days after Khartoum issued a call to all African countries to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Sudan has urged African members to quit the Hague-based ICC which it said was a …
Read More »Prosecutor Bensouda vows to press on despite Africa ICC withdrawals
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has described decisions by three African countries to withdraw as a “setback”, as she vowed that the tribunal will continue its work on the continent. “You could expect a setback as the ICC started to make more progress,” …
Read More »ANALYSIS: ICC ‘bias’ handy cover-up for African detractors
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Complex diverse political agendas are driving African nations to quit the International Criminal Court, with leaders seeking to cloak the move by reigniting age-old anger at the West, analysts say. Gambia’s announcement that it would be the third country to withdraw from the court …
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