----- Original Message ----- 
From: Chris Opoka-Okumu 
To: UPC UPC ; [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 6:56 AM
Subject: Museveni rejects World Court UPDF probe


      Museveni rejects World Court UPDF probe 
      By Badru D. Mulumba 
      March 5, 2004

            KAMPALA - President Yoweri Museveni last night rejected calls for the International Criminal Court to investigate both the Joseph Kony rebels and the UPDF for alleged war crimes during the 18-year old rebel insurgency. 
            He, however, urged anyone with key accusations against the UPDF to lodge their own complaint with the world court - just like he did with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.

            "This story, I have heard it from [Archbishop John Baptist] Odama. He is saying that Kony is committing crimes; The UPDF is committing crimes. Why don't you investigate both to find out if they are both committing crimes, then tubaleke [we ignore everything]," Museveni told journalists at the International Conference Centre yesterday.

            "We have gone to the ICC and said Kony is a criminal and we have our evidence. If Mr Odama has evidence that the UPDF is criminal, then let him go and accuse us," he said.

            "But he [Odama] is saying that so and so killed; and so and so also killed. Let's cancel out," he added.

            "If you know of any one saying that, he is a supporter of the terrorists," he said.

            Odama is the chairperson of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) - a group trying to spark dialogue to end the war.

            Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch first made the calls for the world court to investigate all sides in the rebellion as soon as the ICC prosecutor accepted Museveni's request to probe Kony for war crimes.

            Donors allied to Sudan

            Museveni also rejected accusations that the UPDF recruits child soldiers. He repeated accusations that the donors' alliance with Sudan and their refusal to increase defence spending perpetuated the war.

            "In fact, they are sort of allies with Sudan," he said. He added that since the donors 'allowed us' to spend more on defence, there are now results to show."

            The army, he said has wiped out 503 LRA in Teso, and 320 in Lango-Acholi since January and freed 444 abductees.

            He blamed some parents for lying about their children's age, just to get them in the army ranks to earn a salary.

            A chilling exhibition of about 40 of Kony's child soldiers, some as young as seven years, rescued after the Barlonyo attack preceded the press conference. 

            One boy told of how he was given a gun to carry, raising fears of what might happen to child soldiers if the peace talks fail.

            Museveni, however, said the army usually attacks rebels from the flanks. The children are usually in the middle, which, he said, allows them to escape.

            Barlonyo illegal 

            Explaining the Barlonyo attack in which up to 200 people could have been massacred, Museveni said that the camp was illegal.

            It was built around a military detach that should not have a population around it. "They [detach] are not supposed to guard an IDP," he said.

            "Therefore, Barlonyo was due to the laxity of the officials involved - the army and the Local Defence Unit," he said.

            Museveni was flanked by the Minister for the presidency Kirunda Kivejinja and Information minister Nsaba Buturo.

            Sebutinde report

            Museveni also said that he has left Finance Minister Gerald Ssendaula to decide the fate of the Justice Julia Sebutinde report. Sebutinde led an inquiry into corruption in the Uganda Revenue Authority. She handed the report to president Museveni last month. But Museveni said he has not read it yet.

            "I am not able to tell who is telling the truth or who is telling the lies," he said.
           


      © 2004 The Monitor Publications

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