Country Watch
Philippines. Allegations are made against China of commercial use of organs from executed pris- oners. Organ sale continues in India despite new laws, which make the practice illegal in most re- gions.” Even in 2003, the Council of Europe was discussing frameworks to reduce the internation- al illegal trafficking of organs and the discussion continues today.
* Submitted by Mollie A. Dapolito
Dispute Over Application of Ugandan Amnesty Act to High-Ranking LRA Colonel
18
Colonel Thomas Kwoyelo was presumed to be fourth-in-command of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) when he was captured by the Ugan- dan government in 2009. The LRA is a militant group responsible for several human rights vio- lations, including rape, murder, and abduction throughout central Africa. In Uganda alone, the LRA has displaced more than two million people and killed an estimated 30,000 people.
Uganda’s Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) charged Kwoyelo with 53 counts of vio- lating Uganda’s civil code and 12 counts of vio-
lating the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons In Time of War. The majority of Kwoyelo’s charges relate to the raids he led into villages of northern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1992 and 2005. These raids resulted in murder, theft, and the abduction of boys as child soldiers and girls as sex slaves. Despite these exten- sive allegations, the main focus of the trial was whether Kwoyelo is immune to criminal prosecu- tion due to the provisions in Uganda’s Amnesty Act passed in 2000. On September 22, 2011, Uganda’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Am- nesty Act is constitutional, thus Kwoyelo cannot be prosecuted for his actions during his time in the LRA.
The Amnesty Act is meant to apply to all Ugan- dans “involved in acts of a war-like nature in various parts of the country” since January 26, 1986. If offenders turn themselves into the police or armed forces and confess their crimes, they are granted a Certificate of Amnesty by the Am- nesty Commission. This certificate shields them from prosecution. If the offender is arrested and speaks of his intention to apply for amnesty, the DPP must approve the Amnesty Commission’s
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ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 2 » December 2011
CRICOS 000026A
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