The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The International Crimes Division (ICD) Deputy Registrar, Stella Beatrice Atingu has admitted the trial of former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, is slow due to lack of funding.
The former LRA warlord is facing 93 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Crimes Division of the High Court and has been in custody since 2009.
In July this year, Kwoyelo was scheduled to appear for his trial hearing at the ICD sitting at Gulu High Court.
On Monday, Atingu revealed that the trial hearing couldn’t be convened in the last quarter of July due to lack of funding. She was speaking to the press on the resumption of Kwoyelo’s trial hearing at the Gulu High Court in Gulu City.
Atingu acknowledged that the trial of Kwoyelo has dragged on since 2010, owing to a number of factors amongst them an appeal lodged in the appeals and Supreme court in 2010, the outbreak of COVID-19 and limited funding.
“The pretrial only started in 2017 and lasted only about two years and the trial begun in late 2018, and then 2019 and 2020 we had COVID-19. In 2022, we have tried all this time to come in a quarter but in the last quarter, we didn’t come because we weren’t facilitated well enough,” says Atingu.
She however notes that the resumption of the trial hearing in Gulu this time will take three weeks to compensate for the last quarter in which the trial didn’t happen.
Charles Kamuli, the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions and lead prosecutor in Kwoyelo’s case, also reiterated that the limited funding to the ICD has had an impact on the progress of the trial.
“Our biggest challenge has been the funding, last quarter we weren’t here because the money didn’t come. This is a big case with a lot of players, it has four judges, four prosecutors, four defense attorneys, huge court staff, those doing IT, to come here we need to plan well and have the money in time,” he told URN in an interview.
He however noted that already 33 state witnesses out of 120 lined up, have testified against Kwoyelo and is optimistic that by the end of next year if resources permitted, they will conclude cross examination of state witnesses.
Kamuli says the case being the first in Africa and particularly Uganda, the team is learning a lot of new ideas on how to proceed with it and ensure justice is delivered to the victims of the war.
“We have had a lot of challenges but we have picked very good lessons probably in the next trials of Jamil Mukulu and Rwenzururu King Charles Mumbere, we will do better because we have learnt a lot of issues how to move fast, how to protect witnesses and use technology,” says Kamuli.
Evans Ochieng, Kwoyelo’s defense attorney notes that they are concerned on the manners in which their client’s case is being handled citing that he has been in remand for over a decade with the trial being concluded.
“We think justice is being delayed for him and that delay is impacting on him because he is in prison and he doesn’t know whether he is a convict and when he is coming out of jail,” says Ochieng. He prayed to court to ensure justice is served expeditiously to their client.
The trial hearing started before four judges of the ICD led by Justice Michael Elubu, Stephen Mubiru, Duncan Gasgwaga, and Dr. Andrew Bashaija, an alternate judge and also head of the ICD. The state during the trial hearing session presented the 34th prosecution witness named H38 for her protection.
The 39-year-old mother of six narrated the horrors of her abduction by the LRA rebels on the evening of May 16th, 2004 from Pagak Internally Displaced People’s Camp-IDP in Amuru district in which her six-month old baby was killed by the rebels.
Kwoyelo is accused of sexual violence, murder, hostage-taking and kidnapping, robbery, and pillaging among others allegedly committed between 1993 and 2005 in Pabbo sub-county, Amuru district.
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