The truce that has finally brought a halt to 19 years of violence in Uganda's civil war should be a cause of celebration. Instead it has triggered a crisis for international justice, and one which has landed at the door of the European Union. For nearly two decades, Uganda's Lord;'s Resistance Army has waged one of Africa's most gruesome terror campaigns.
Led by the semi-messianic Joseph Kony, whose stated aim is to run Uganda according to the Ten Commandments, thousands have been butchered, mutilated or kidnapped and more than a million have fled. Kony's trademark is child-kidnapping. More than 10,000 youngsters have been abducted, the girls used as sexual slaves and the boys brainwashed and turned into child soldiers.
When the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Kony and four of his lieutenants for war crimes and crimes against humanity last year there were cheers from the Ugandan government. Then Kony made an offer. He would end the war if Uganda gave him immunity from war crimes. Last weekend, Uganda confirmed that it would give him that amnesty and called on the ICC to drop all charges.
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni's argument is not without merit. He says that unless the amnesty is offered, Kony may go back to war and more people will die. Peace must come before justice. Yet his decision threatens to shatter the credibility of the ICC, just as it begins to sink its teeth into its first prosecutions.
The primary mission of the ICC is not to jail war criminals, but to dissuade warlords from committing crimes in the first place. If a warlord knows that he can buy immunity simply by agreeing to stop fighting, that deterrent factor is torpedoed. Furthermore, if the ICC makes an exception for Uganda, it will face pressure to do the same for its investigations in Darfur in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ICC officials understand the problem and this week announced their refusal to consider Uganda's demand. "Those persons who bear the greatest responsibility should not go unpunished," was the blunt reply of Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. But the ICC has a problem. It has no police force and no way of arresting Kony if Uganda decides not to hand him over. Only outside pressure can do that. As the US, China, Russia and Japan have refused to join the ICC, the only body capable of exerting that pressure is the EU. Its members have joined the court en masse and they provide its political backbone.
So far, Brussels has stayed silent. So has Britain, Uganda's former colonial power, which worries that it will be labelled a warmonger if it demands Kony's arrest. This must change. The ICC can be a powerful tool for fighting the endless cycle of wars which afflict our planet. It must be supported, clearly and unambiguously, by EU governments. Uganda must be told that the only place Kony can challenge his arrest warrant is in an ICC courtroom.