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At UN, Chissano Says Council Ready to Defer to
Uganda on Kony, ICC as Well
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
June 20 -- As the Lord's Resistance
Army rampages through the Congo, Southern Sudan and the Central African
Republic, the UN's envoy to the LRA-affected areas Joaquim Chissano
briefed the
Security Council on Friday. Afterwards he told Inner City Press that
"the
Council was ready to consider any decision taken by the government of
Uganda" to suspend the indictment of the LRA's Joseph Kony by the
International Criminal Court, and put Kony on trial in Uganda instead.
Video
here,
from Minute 7:55.
Inner
City Press asked, why then has Kony not signed the peace agreement?
Chissano
said that perhaps "Kony needs clarification." Chissano said that recent
attacks in Southern Sudan and the Congo are "clearly LRA," and that
those in the Central African Republic are "probably" LRA, the
"evidence" points that way. Video here,
from Minute 3:53. Then
Chissano left the stakeout, surrounded by an entourage which did not
permit any
follow-up questions. Why is there so
little talk about the acts of the government of Uganda?
Joaquim Chissano at the UN, end game for
Joseph Kony not shown
The person
who Chissano named as representing Kony, David Matsanga, has said
"We
can use the United
Nations Security Council resolution and chapter seven to go to the UN
Security
Council, which the government of Uganda should do as a referral state,
to say
the UN Security Council, please, the warrants are a threat. Can you
remove them
from us so that general Joseph Kony and others can come and sign and
walk free
and assemble and do things? But he has said he is not going to sign an
agreement in Juba because he does not feel safe over there."
Unlike
other prosecutorial offices, the ICC appears to make a major
distinction based
on where its cases come from. If referred by a government, that
government
retains control to turn the process off and "take it home." That this
can imply impunity was not, according to Chissano, much of a
concern. Some call it double standard.
* * *
These reports are
usually 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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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718-716-3540
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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