A warlord, a bathtub and a court with its hands tied: The Hague revives the hunt for Joseph Kony

"Joseph Kony is a religious fanatic a Christian one. He believed himself to be a prophet whose divine mission included abducting, raping, impregnating teenagers, and mutilating and killing. He carried out this mission from 1987 in Uganda as the leader of an armed group with cult-like tendencies, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), whose hallmark was using girls as sex slaves, according to a ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which has just reopened the search for him."

"The LRA abducted between 40,000 and 80,000 people in Uganda until the mid-2000s. At least 100,000 people were killed, and more than two million were displaced by the violence of this group and its enemy, the Ugandan army, according to the United Nations. Kony would cut off the hands, ears, lips, and noses of his victims and then force them to eat their own body parts."

"It was the first time it took place in the absence of the accused, notes Ana Manero, professor of Public International Law at Carlos III University in Madrid. This raised a glimmer of hope that the case could set a precedent and open the door to something bigger: trying other alleged criminals wanted by the ICC in absentia. such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

Joseph Kony led the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from 1987, claiming prophetic authority and ordering abductions, rape, forced pregnancies, mutilations and killings. The LRA abducted between 40,000 and 80,000 people, killed at least 100,000, and displaced over two million during conflict with the Ugandan army. Kony ordered atrocities including cutting off hands, ears, lips and noses and forcing victims to eat body parts. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in 2005 for 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and has reactivated the search, but the Rome Statute prohibits trying an accused in absentia.

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