By Frank Kamuntu
A Ugandan court found former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Thomas Kwoyelo guilty Tuesday of 44 out of 78 war crimes charges brought against him.
The charges included murder, kidnap with intent to murder, pillaging, cruel treatment, torture, rape and crimes against humanity.
The Lord’s Resistance Army was founded by Joseph Kony, who led a rebellion from 1986 to 2005 against President Yoweri Museveni’s government. The group was accused of carrying out multiple massacres. Kony is still at large.
Kwoyelo, now 50, was captured in 2009 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been in detention since. His trial began in 2019.
Dressed in a black suit and maroon tie, Kwoyelo sat in the courtroom Tuesday and at times stood tensely, listening as the verdict was announced.
‘It’s Some Progress‘
Stella Angel Lanam, founder of the War Victims and Children Networking initiative, also listened closely as the judge announced Kwoyelo guilty of forced child marriages and forceful sexual intercourse.
At the age of 10, Lanam was abducted by the LRA and held captive for nine years. She was forced to marry a then-38-year-old Lord’s Resistance Army commander. She had a child at the age of 13 and suffered a pregnancy complication known as a uterine inversion.
After the verdict, Lanam, now 38, said it was a good start.
“This court has taken a long time,” she said. “I’m happy today. The victims today will sleep. Because the judgment, at least it is there. It’s some progress.”
Lanam returned in 2006, when most rebels decided to take an amnesty offer announced in 2000. She said she was shocked that her own family and community rejected her and her child because the baby was fathered by a rebel.
Lanam says she and other women in similar circumstances have a simple request.
“How can you be with a person who still has trauma?” she asked. “Between the government of Uganda and the LRA, they should give justice to the victims.”
Paul Ogena lost eight family members in the insurgency led by the LRA.
He said the LRA devastated his home and took his parents, whose remains have never been found.
“If we could get their remains and make a decent burial, it would be even far better.” he said. “But the person who did it should get a fair judgment, which judgment we have already heard today.”
Kwoyelo’s sentencing date has not yet been set.
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