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| |  | | Vincent Otti | | | context : | Uganda  | | judgement place : | ICC | | status : | Died before end of trial | | particulars : | Indicted by the International Criminal Court in July 2005; indictment unsealed on 13 October 2005; killed on 2 October 2007 | | position : | Lieutenant general, second-in-command of the Lord’s Resistance Army |
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| | | | Vincent Otti is the second-in-command of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group which terrorizes the civilian population in Northern Uganda (see „context“).
After the defection of the LRA’s main negotiator Sam Kolo, Otti became the main interlocutor in the peace talks with the government-supported mediator, former minister Betty Bigombe. Since then, the peace-process is said to have been stalling.
In April 2005, in the course of a reorganisation of the LRA’s four brigades, Vincent Otti was reportedly promoted Lieutenant general of the LRA.
In the second half of September 2005, apparently under pressure from the Ugandan army, Otti led an incursion of a 400-troops-strong faction of the LRA into the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to Congolese government sources, Otti asked for political asylum.
At the beginning of October 2005, reports were leaked that the International Criminal Court had issued arrest warrants for five LRA leaders including Otti, and transmitted them to Uganda, the Congo and Sudan. Hopes for a quick arrest of Otti were however dashed when a few days later he and his forces were pushed back over the border into Sudan by a joint and massive deployment of troops by the congolese army and the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC).
The Sudanese government has since vowed to apprehend any LRA leader „if found“ on its territory.
Based on a bilateral agreement with Sudan, the Ugandan government may pursue LRA rebels on Sudanese territory, but only up to a „red line“, which is marked by an overland-road about 100 km into the country.
On 10 October however, the Ugandan government reported that Sudan had given them free reign, during one month, to pursue the LRA anywhere across the border. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | last time seen : | | | Uganda | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 25.01.2008 |
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