By KGR Reporter,
The International Crimes Division of the high Court of Uganda has ordered the government through the Attorney General to compensate the victims of convicted former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander Thomas Kwoyelo.
The ruling delivered yesterday at the Gulu High Court follows an application filed by the victim’s counsel and 103 victims demanding reparation from the Attorney General to all victims of Kwoyelo’s atrocities.
The victim’s lawyers in the application made seven demands, among them a court order for the attorney general to establish the victim trust fund to provide for reparation, compensation for harms suffered and assistance for rehabilitation and rebuilding of victims.
But the Attorney General represented by Johnson Natuhwera argued that the government is not liable to pay for compensation for crimes committed by private actors. Justice Duncan Gaswaga, while delivering the reparation order verdict noted that under international and domestic law, the primary obligation to pay reparations to the victims of atrocities is placed upon the convict but that in the event that the reparations are not fully available from the offender or other sources, international law places the obligation upon the state. END