One Congo Warlord Arrested, Others Off the Hook, in Uganda and Sudan, ICC Silent on Kenya

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- The International Criminal Court's registrar Bruno Catala spoke at the UN on Thursday, bragging about the ICC's arrest of Congolese warlord Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, identified as a former leader of the National Integrationist Front (FNI), for war crimes. Inner City Press asked Catala why it took the ICC eight months from indictment until arrest, if the delay involved any negotiations with the Congolese government. Catala responded that the ICC does not negotiate. He responded similarly when asked about the immunity deal given to rebel general Laurent Nkunda in the Kivus in the DR Congo -- the ICC was not part of the negotiation of that immunity which, Catala claims, did not include war crimes or other ICC-relevant crimes.

            Catala quoted the ICC's deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that the ICC's phase of investigation in Ituri is now over, and it will turn its attention to the Kivus. But Ngudjolo's co-warlord Peter Karim is still in the Congolese Army, despite additionally having kidnapped and killed UN peacekeepers. Since Karim ultimately released some of the peacekeepers, it appears that he got some deal, that Ngudjolo has been indicted and arrested, but not Karim.

ICC indicts some but not other warlords

            Another pending deal, pushed by U.S. envoys Tim Shortly and Makita James, would have the LRA indictees turn themselves over to national justice in Uganda, thus sidestepping the ICC. Catala called the continued freedom of the LRA indictees "not a good example."

            Catala said the ICC cannot confirm that Lord's Resistance Army indictee Vincent Otti is dead, even though that has been confirmed by South Sudan's Riek Machar. Nor would he confirm that the ICC has received a complaint from Raila Odinga's ODM in Kenya. He said that attempts continue to arrest the two Sudanese indictees. Whether and how the UN Secretariat is actually raising that issue to Sudan is not clear. But the day's arrest are worth noting, for international criminal justice.

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These reports are also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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