By Our Reporter
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will on Tuesday begin presenting evidence in its first-ever in absentia hearing, as prosecutors seek to confirm charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony.
Kony, the elusive leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), faces dozens of charges including murder, rape, and sexual enslavement for atrocities committed during the LRA’s reign of terror in northern Uganda.
Although the hearing is not a trial, it gives prosecutors the chance to outline their case before judges, who will decide whether to confirm the charges. Kony, who remains at large, will be represented in his absence by a court-appointed defense lawyer. Under ICC rules, he cannot be tried without being physically present in court.
The case is viewed as a test of how the court might proceed in situations where powerful suspects evade arrest, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
By the mid-2000s, Uganda’s military pressure had forced Kony’s fighters to splinter and flee into Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other parts of Central Africa. Survivors in Uganda say they welcome the hearing, even if Kony himself is not in the dock.
“He did many bad things,” said Odong Kajumba, a former abductee who escaped in 1996 after being forced to carry supplies for the rebels. “If they can arrest Kony, I will be very happy.”
Who Is Joseph Kony?
Born into a Catholic family among the Acholi of northern Uganda, Kony once served as an altar boy. According to biographer Matthew Green in The Wizard of the Nile, elders believed he possessed spiritual powers, claiming he could peer into a cracked mirror to predict the future. After President Yoweri Museveni’s rise to power in 1986, Kony declared he was chosen by spirits to overthrow the government and rule Uganda under the biblical Ten Commandments. In 1987, he launched his rebellion with 11 followers.
Kony’s LRA became notorious for ambushing soldiers and terrorizing civilians. Villages were raided, children abducted, and victims mutilated. By the mid-1990s, hundreds of thousands of civilians had been herded into camps for displaced people, a policy widely criticized for worsening suffering without stopping rebel attacks. Kony’s ruthlessness extended to his own ranks; Ugandan officials say he ordered the killing of his deputy, Vincent Otti, after Otti showed interest in peace talks.
In 2011, the U.S. deployed troops to support African Union forces in hunting Kony, but despite weakening the LRA, he remained elusive. A year later, he gained global notoriety when the viral Kony 2012 campaign by advocacy group Invisible Children drew worldwide attention to his crimes.
Washington has since placed a $5 million bounty on him. Ugandan officials believe he is alive, likely hiding between the Central African Republic and Sudan’s Darfur region. While most of his top commanders have been killed or captured, Kony has managed to evade capture for decades, cementing his reputation as one of the world’s most infamous fugitives.
