By Kato Jamil
Victims of Uganda’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) said on Friday that they were disappointed in the sentence handed by judges to a former commander.
Thomas Kwoyelo was given 40 years in prison for war crimes including murder, rape, enslavement, pillaging, torture, and kidnapping.
He will, however, have to spend only 25 more behind bars as he has already been in custody for 15 years.
Victim Grace Apio said the sentence seemed very lenient for those who suffered terrible atrocities at the hands of the LRA rebels.
“We feel very bad, our properties that were destroyed, the children we produced in captivity. We’re really suffering,” she said.
Apio added that the court ruling will send the wrong message to other people who want to start a war in Uganda.
“You can commit these atrocities and end up with a light sentence and then you come back to society and start your life again,” she said.
Kwoyelo was spared a death sentence because he was abducted by the rebel group as a child and has expressed remorse.
The LRA was founded in the late 1980s to overthrow the government and create a state based on leader Joseph Kony’s interpretation of the Ten Commandments.
It battled the government from bases in the north of the country for nearly two decades.
The insurgents were notorious for their brutality, which included hacking off victims’ limbs and lips, and kidnapping children for use as fighters and sex slaves.
Kwoyelo has denied the charges against him.
He testified in court that only Kony could answer for LRA crimes, and said everyone in the rebel group faced death for disobeying the warlord.
His lawyer, Evans Ochieng, said he told the court that they were not happy with the decision in terms of the conviction and the sentence.
“After consultation with the client, he has instructed us to appeal and we are formally going to appeal,” he said.
“We don’t want to say here on camera that we feel the sentences are illegal but we shall be arguing in the court of appeal.”
Human Rights Watch describes the landmark trial as “a rare opportunity for justice” for victims of the two-decades-long war between Ugandan troops and the LRA.
When military pressure forced the LRA out of Uganda in 2005, the rebels scattered across parts of central Africa.
The group has faded in recent years, and reports of LRA attacks are rare. Kony remains at large and was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005.
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