NEWS- The Court in Uganda has found a former commander of the rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Thomas Kwoyelo guilty on multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Tuesday, after more than 15 years of court proceedings.
Kwoyelo was tried by the international crimes division of the high court based in northern Gulu city, a region at the centre of a decades-long rebellion and the case was the first time Uganda had tried an LRA member, making this a historic moment for the country.
The Presiding Judge ruled that Kwoyelo was found guilty of 44 offences, including murder and rape, and not guilty of three counts of murder, while thirty-one alternate offences were dismissed.
The trial took place amid several controversies after some people had advocated for Kwoyelo’s release based on how long he was held in pre-trial detention by the Ugandan authorities, and based on the fact that others have faced amnesty, but others, including victims, said Kwoyelo was involved in killings and torture, and should therefore face justice.
WHO IS THOMAS KWOYELO?
According to his testimony, Kwoyelo, who believed to be in his 50s, was a low-level commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony and was tasked with caring for the militia’s injured members.
Kwoyelo told court that he was forced to join the Lord’s Resistance Army in 1987, after the group’s members abducted him on his way to school when he was 12 years old at the peak of the rebel conflict.
He went on to become a Senior Commander, using the name of Latoni, and overseeing the treatment of wounded fighters, but in 2009, he was captured in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo during a raid by regional forces.
The Lords Resistance Army rebels had been forced out of northern Uganda into Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and other neighboring countries a few years earlier because of the Ugandan military’s offensives on the group.
After his arrest, Kwoyelo was brought back to Uganda having sustained a bullet wound to the stomach and he then spent the next 14 years in prison as the prosecution put the case against him together.
Analysts say the complexity of the crimes, along with delays from COVID-19, contributed to the lengthy delay as the case was repeatedly postponed.
