Former United Nations diplomat and president of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has criticized Moreno Ocampo, the former International Criminal Court prosecutor for failure to prosecute elements in the Uganda military.
Otunnu, a former diplomat in charge of children in armed conflict said in address to journalists in Gulu on Wednesday that said it was unfair for Moreno-Ocampo to prefer charges against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders and leave out the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF).
Otunnu said it is not only LRA rebels who committed violence in the two decade long conflict in northern Uganda but also the UPDF. The conflict ended in 2006. Since then northern Uganda has been largely peaceful.
Otunnu said Ocampo was ‘‘selective’’ in the indicting the LRA and leaving out the UPDF.
The former UN diplomat, a Harvard and Oxford trained lawyer however said he had no problem with former LRA commander Dominic Ongwen facing trial at The Hague based International Criminal Court where he faces 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In June 2012 when Ochampo visited Uganda, Otunnu asked the ICC prosecutor to investigate the UPDF.
Ocampo responded by telling Otunnu to produce concrete evidence, and not engage in “political debate”.
In 2005, ICC issued arrest warrants for five top LRA commanders including its leader Joseph Kony, Dominic Ongwen and Okot Odhiambo. Others are Raska Lukwiya and Vincent Otti.
Only Ongwen has so far appeared at ICC where he faces 70 charges.
Arrest warrants against Okot Odhiambo and Raska Lukwiya have been dropped after forensic tests indicated that they had died.
ICC accuses LRA top leaders of war crimes, crimes against humanity, abduction, rape and slavery.
UN child agency UNICEF estimates that at least 30,000 children were abducted in northern Uganda alone during the peak of the insurgency in the region.
