Crime victims in northern Uganda want justice - UN
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Victims of atrocities in northern Uganda blame both the government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels for the murders, abductions and rapes committed during a 20-year war, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday.
Many survivors want compensation from the government for crimes committed by LRA rebels, the United Nations said in a study based on private interviews with 1,725 victims.
"This research study shows that the population broadly believes that both the LRA and the government -- and specifically their leaders -- should be held accountable for the harms they have caused during the conflict," the report by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights found.
"Sentiments of anger and vengefulness and a desire for prosecution abound in many communities," it said.
Tens of thousands of people died in the war which uprooted nearly 2 million people before a 2006 truce. The LRA is notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
The U.N. report, based on research in Acholiland, Lango and Teso, is a catalogue of horrific crimes, with children the main victims of abduction. Its authors said the study was designed to "amplify victims' voices".
"The most common forms of harm identified were murder, torture, abductions, rape, mutilation, arson, displacement of populations into IDP (internally displaced persons) camps, and the theft or destruction of property," it said.
'DISCOVER THE TRUTH'
Victims "repeatedly expressed their need to discover the truth about the past, especially to shed light on the identity of the perpetrators and the nature of the acts that have been committed," it said.
But they had "highly mixed views" about amnesty processes, prosecution of perpetrators before the International Criminal Court (ICC), and local justice, according to the 80-page report.
LRA leader Joseph Kony and his top deputies, wanted for war crimes by the ICC, are believed to be camped somewhere in the jungle of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ugandan government has agreed to use a national process of accountability for wartime atrocities -- implicitly rejecting ICC demands that the men be handed over for trial in the Hague.
The government and rebels signed an agreement on June 30 on how to deal with war crimes in a third phase of five-phase peace talks to end one of Africa's worst conflicts.
Kampala has said a special tribunal to deal with war crimes would not handle charges of abuse by the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), as the army already has courts marshal.
A boy from Lira district said: "When we were abducted, (the rebels) made us sit on eight people who were killed. We were made to drink the blood of the corpses and some of the blood was rubbed into our chests. They cut people and cooked the bodies in drums. We were then made to eat the flesh that was cooked."
A girl, abducted at age 11 by the LRA, recalled being forced to carry heavy loads and tortured. "One time when the UPDF attacked, I was also made to kill other children if they tried to escape. Then I was forced to have sex with a big man."
The U.N. report said peace talks in Juba, southern Sudan, represented the "best-ever opportunity for a lasting peace" in northern Uganda. LRA rebels failed to raise enough money to fund travel to the latest round which had been due to start July 30.
