Uganda: Amnesty Act without amnesty

After twelve years, Uganda’s Amnesty Act guaranteeing a blanket pardon for rebels has quietly expired. The government says the measure is meant to target ‘high ranking’ militants of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Critics fear that it will also discourage lower ranking rebels from laying down their weapons.
By Mark Schenkel, Kampala
The Amnesty Act, put in place in 2000 as a renewable measure to encourage rebels to come out of the bush, lapsed on 23 May. Internal Affairs minister Hilary Onek only extended the sections that deal with the settling and integration of former rebels, state-owned newspaper New Vision reported Monday.
Those involved acknowledged to RNW that the part dealing with the actual amnesty was, for the first time, not renewed.
The government move - which didn’t require parliamentary approval - means that no rebel can any longer count on an automatic pardon. Anyone who is captured or who surrenders now has to go through Uganda’s judicial process. Since 2000, an estimated 13,000 LRA militants have been pardoned according to Uganda’s Amnesty Commission.
Closing the window
The expiration of the Amnesty Act seems to put an end to discussions over whether LRA leader Joseph Kony could be pardoned if he is ever caught. Some legal observers have stated that Kony, despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, may be eligible for amnesty.
Chances also seem to be evaporating for Ceaser Acellam, a high-ranking LRA commander who surrendered to the Ugandan army earlier this month. Acellam had not yet applied for amnesty.
Up until last week, various Ugandan authorities were quoted as saying that the entire Act would be renewed.
Government officials deny that the decision to let the centerpiece expire was taken at the last minute to make sure that ‘big fish’ Acellam would not benefit. The Amnesty Commission had previously declared that Acellam was in fact entitled to amnesty.
“Acellam has nothing to do with it,” said James Baba, State Minister for Internal Affairs and the deputy of Hilary Onek.
According to Baba, the decision was made because the Amnesty Act “conflicted” with international legal obligations. In 2010, Uganda implemented the Rome Statute, which according to many experts, overrules national amnesty provisions.
Uganda’s public prosecutor has been increasingly vocal about his intent to prosecute rather than pardon LRA fighters. Donor countries and international human rights organizations have been advocating this, too, especially since the LRA was pushed out of Uganda six years ago.
Since 2008, Uganda’s High Court has a special war crimes division meant to deal with LRA rebels.
Amnesty over retribution
Stephen Olaa of Uganda’s Refugee Law Project fears that the new rules will discourage LRA rebels from surrendering. An estimated few hundred militants are still active in Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.
“Surveys show that most Northern Ugandans back amnesty,” Olaa says. “They believe it can bring back relatives who were often abducted as children.”
But state minister Baba says, “Uganda’s public prosecutors are very reasonable. I am sure lower ranking rebels will still receive amnesty almost automatically, after having gone through judicial review.”
Olaa urges the government to outline criteria upon which individual LRA commanders can be exempted from the amnesty while the majority of rebels can still benefit from it. Baba says parliament never gave the government the go-ahead to do so.
Olaa believes the government simply does not want to take the amnesty issue back to parliament and instead tries to push through prosecutions.
Consequences for Kwoyelo
The end of the amnesty potentially complicates the case of Thomas Kwoyelo, a mid-ranking LRA commander who was captured in Congo in 2009.
Despite rulings from both Uganda’s High Court and its Constitutional Court that he is entitled to amnesty (rulings which fly in the face of the country’s ICC commitments), Kwoyelo remains in prison.
The state wants to prosecute him as the first-ever LRA fighter before the war crimes division. The final ruling on Kwoyelo’s amnesty application is expected later this year.
But even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Kwoyelo, it is unclear if the Amnesty Commission will be allowed to issue the necessary certificate now that the Amnesty Act has been stripped of its amnesty.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” says Moses Draku, the Commission’s spokesperson.