People’s Government to petition ICC in February

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The self-proclaimed People’s Government is set to file its petition against President Yoweri Museveni at the International Criminal Court-ICC next month.

The group embarked on collecting signatures and evidence in November 2019 to back their petition against Museveni and other government officers to the ICC. According to the Rome Statute that establishes the ICC, crimes against humanity include murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, enforced disappearance of persons and imprisonment among others.

Some of the incidents cited by the Peoples government are the brutality against opposition members during public gatherings and protests, the attack on Rwenzururu Kingdom palace in Kasese town, which led to the death of more than 100 people, the raid on Parliament by the army during the age limit debate, cases of kidnaps and murders in the country.

The People’s government wants the perpetrators of these crimes to answer to their crimes. Museveni is particularly accused because he is the head of defenses forces that are allegedly responsible for committing atrocities against Ugandans.

The People’s Government had set a target of two million signatures, which they claimed to have achieved by the beginning of this year. Addressing journalists on Wednesday, Erias Lukwago, the vice President of the People’s Government said they will close signature collection on January 31st, 2020 and file their petition in February. Lukwago said they will seek a date with the ICC to file their petition in February.

According to the Rome statute, a case at the ICC can be initiated by the United Nations Security Council -UNSC, a member state of the ICC or the ICC itself through its prosecutor. The signatures the People’s Government has collected are intended to express need of Ugandans to seek justice through prosecution at the ICC. For ICC to determine whether or not to consider the petition they will examine the evidence provided by the petitioners.

Once found viable, court will gather more evidence and start the case. Lukwago says they have planned regional assemblies this month, in which they will collect more signature and evidence but also sensitize the public on the liberation struggle and relevance of the petition.

This is not the first petition initiated by the opposition against government officials. In 2017, a group of Ugandan lawmakers sent a petition to ICC to ask for investigations into possible atrocities by security forces following the raid on Rwenzururu Kingdom palace.

The petitioners were led by Kasese Municipality Member of Parliament, Centenary Robert, former Leader of Opposition and Kasese Woman MP, Winnie Kizza and their Busongora North counterpart, William Nzoghu. The petition is still at the prosecutor’s office.

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