‘Justice is served’: relief at ex-Kony commander’s conviction in Uganda

A cool breeze swept across the courtyard, bringing relief to those who could not squeeze into the small courtroom and so stood outside in the sun, waiting for the proceedings to be relayed out by others.

Inside, Thomas Kwoyelo, dressed in a black suit and red tie, was convicted of 44 charges of murder, kidnap and other war crimes, in the first trial of a Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander in a Ugandan court. He will be sentenced next month.

But last week’s landmark case has divided people in the Acholi communities of northern Uganda, from where the LRA’s leader, the Christian extremist and warlord Joseph Kony, emerged to found the rebel militia in 1987.

Kwoyelo, who was the third most senior leader after Kony, was field commander of the LRA, which, according to the United Nations, has killed more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children for sexual slavery and to become child soldiers.

Kwoyelo himself was 12 when he was kidnapped walking to school and, like many here, was a victim of the bloody insurgency which he went on to play a role in as an adult.

His defence team had argued in court that he was a victim, too. His lawyer, Charles Dalton Opwonya, said the government had “failed to protect” the former rebel.

The delays to the war crimes trial since Kwoyelo was first captured in 2009 – blamed on the complexity of the evidence and then the Covid pandemic – have sparked protests. In January, Human Rights Watch urged the court to speed up the trial.

But, as the lead judge at the international crimes division of the Gulu high court handed down the guilty verdict on 13 August, there was visible relief for many who felt justice had finally been served, even if they had waited 15 years to see Kwoyelo convicted.

“This man and others made my childhood a living hell,” one Gulu resident who attended the court hearing told the Guardian. “I am glad he finally had his day in court, but many of his kind are still out there.

“My wish is they find Kony and also bring him to justice. This would bring closure to all of us – we suffered.”

However, others believed that Kwoyelo should have been tried under Acholi’s traditional courts, where there is an emphasis on reconciliation and forgiveness.

“He must be tried under our customs and traditions. He was born here so we need him to answer to the community. That is the only way the community can move past decades of pain,” said one man, who gave his name as Bernard.

Bernard witnessed the torture of his father, whose limb was cut off by an LRA soldier. He recounted being unable to go to school because of the war and about the trauma that still haunted him.

Most of Kwoyelo’s crimes were committed between 1996 and 2005 during a rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni that displaced an estimated 1.6 million people from their homes in a reign of terror that spread from Uganda to what is now South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.

For people here, memories are still fresh. Inside a garden, a few blocks from where Kwoyelo was tried, a group of people were listening to a lecture on peace. Among them was George Otto, 31, who was abducted from his classroom in Acholi by the LRA.

“I was abducted twice from school ,” Otto says. “I was just 10 when it first happened. Young children of my age would be taken to South Sudan. Their plan was to train you from there so that you come into the country as a perfect soldier.”

He was rescued by a neighbour but two years later was abducted for a second time from the same school.

Otto recounts witnessing killings and mutilations but two decades later he has found hope in working for peace.

“I resolved to become the voice of peace in my community. We cannot go back to our dark past,” says Otto. He is employed by the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative in northern Uganda, founded by the American actor Forest Whitaker, which has partnered with the Education Above All foundation (EAA) to train 570,000 young people in peace advocacy and other skills across the regions scarred by the LRA.

“The young people who we have worked with from this community have had tough experiences themselves so they know what it means to go through violence with no options and no help,” says Tareq Bakri, from EAA. “They have been instrumental in making this change and bringing it to this part of the world, where there is a legacy of violence.”

Irene Akongo, 31, who lost her mother to suicide after her older sister was abducted by LRA rebels, also believes more attention needs to be paid to the traditional ways of reconciliation.

“I think Kwoleyo was also a victim just like me. He did not do it out of his own will. He was abducted and forced to do what he did; he deserves a lighter sentence.

“The greater part of the community thinks justice is served and that it will help eliminate such actions in the future in fear of being prosecuted,” Akongo says, but adds: “As much as we continue peace education, the community still needs healing.

“There is still a lot of trauma lingering. There is a need for more effort to make sure that the open wound does not continue bleeding.”

At Gulu’s Koro secondary school, John Bosco speaks passionately about conflict resolution to a group of students. He was 12 when his parents and older brother were killed.

“My parents were killed during the civil war. That affected me a lot. I joined a local gang that was terrorising people in my neighbourhood because I had lost hope,” Bosco says.

Today, he is happy to be a peace advocate and teach conflict resolution to children from a community scarred by war.

“This is what defines me as long as I am alive. It’s like I am holding a lifejacket for someone. I see myself as the solution,” she says.

Related: Life with the leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army

With Kwoyelo set to be sentenced in a few weeks, many in Gulu believe he should be granted amnesty alongside other former soldiers who were forcibly conscripted.

Olanya Duerell, 33, says: “Most of the peacemakers accept that this is justice served. But some members feel he was abducted while he was young and the government should have protected him. They feel that the government was responsible to some extent.

“He has been brought to book for what he committed,” she says. “If he was left [free], I feel it would leave us feeling that justice has not been done. It is a message to the world that human life is important. The conviction is a good lesson to the world to know that we should protect human life. To me, that is justice served.”

An international criminal court war crimes trial of Kony himself, who is thought to be hiding in Sudan or Central African Republic, is due to be held in absentia in The Hague in October.