Vincent Otti's call for ICC warrants to be revoked is late but right
We have argued through this blog right at the beginning of the Juba tallks that a way forward is for the ICC arrest warrants against the LRA commanders to be at laest suspended if not completely revoked in order to build confidence for a paeceful settlement of the the conflict. How can the LRA leadership be expected to come out if they are not sure whether they will be arrested or not? What should be done is an offer of a two-stage process. The first is the suspension of the arrest warrants to allow participation of the key LRA leaders in the second phase of the talks. The second is the revoking of the warrants, only when a comprehensive agreement is reached. If the Uganda Government and the ICC were genuine in their offer this is what they would have offered. The cry that why is Otti raising this at this stage is because they learnt very late that the Rome Stattute actually gave provisions for suspension or revoking of the warrants. Once again this highlights the imporatnce of what we argued through this blog space - the fact that advisors in international law and conflict resolution should have been made available to the LRA leadership right at the beginning. Organisations such as Pax Christi have been throwing thousands of dollars at the LRA. This money would have been better spent hiring them expert advisors rather than trying to buy them out. What a shame!