The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday filed a request to hold ‘in absentia’ a first war crimes hearing against Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan militia of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said that Kony, who was arrested in 2005, is charged with some 30 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced disappearances and attacks against civilians.
Khan lamented that although the investigation into these crimes in Uganda began in 2004 and a warrant for Kony’s arrest was issued a year later, it has not yet been served as his whereabouts are unknown, although some sources believe he may be hiding in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), or the Central African Republic (CAR).
«Mr. Kony has been trying to evade judicial proceedings in this Court for more than 17 years, despite the continuous efforts of my Office and the ICC Registry to locate and arrest him, with the help of States, international organizations and civil society actors,» he lamented.
Given the impossibility of finding him for the time being, Kham considers it a priority to move forward with the judicial proceedings against him while respecting the Rome Statute as much as possible. «In parallel, my office will intensify its efforts to arrest Mr. Kony,» he promised.
Kony, the ICC’s longest-serving suspect at large.
Should this request be approved, the ICC Chief Prosecutor is confident that it will represent a «significant milestone» for the victims of the crimes of Kony, «the longest-serving ICC suspect unaccounted for.»
«As indicated in the application, these proceedings would also provide an opportunity to present the depth of evidence supporting the allegations and allow witnesses and survivors to offer their accounts to the Tribunal,» Kham stressed.
At the same time, he stressed that if the charges are confirmed ‘in absentia’, the future trial against this warlord «could be conducted more quickly and effectively,» according to the Tribunal’s own rules.
