(Image Source: Daily Monitor)

BY EMOKE BEBIAK

ANCHOR JIM FLINK

You're watching multisource world news analysis from Newsy.

Uganda has started the country’s first war trial.
Former Lord’s Resistance Army colonel Thomas Kwoyelo faces charges on 53 counts including willful killing, kidnapping and destroying property. Kwoyelo is the first LRA rebel to be tried before the Ugandan high court's newly formed War Crimes Division.

A 2007 documentary by Journeyman Pictures explains the rebel LRA’s mission...

“The conflict in the north began 20 years ago as a conventional anti-government rebellion, but it soon mutated into something all together different backed by the Sudanese government across the border. The LRA are led by self-stalled prophet, Joseph Kony, he says he wants to rule Uganda by the Biblical Ten Commandments. ”

During the Ugandan government’s war with the LRA, an estimated 30,000 people have been killed. New Vision notes -- Kwoyelo is being tried before the Ugandan high court, which is set up based on the Geneva Conventions Act, but he won’t face charges by the ICC.

“Although he was a commander of the LRA, Kwoyelo was not indicted by the International Criminal Court which want leader Joseph Kony and others arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

And the BBC explains why.

“The court was set up following peace talks several years ago between the government and the LRA. The government assured the LRA that its fighters would be granted amnesty or they would be tried by Ugandan courts, rather than the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

In fact, Kwoyelo applied for amnesty, but the government rejected his plea. Uganda’s Daily Monitor reports public reaction is split over the trial. One woman tells the newspaper LRA members deserve to be punished saying,

“They should be tried because they made us suffer so much in their hands.”

But another woman is more forgiving saying,

“I don't think he is guilty because he was acting on orders from his bosses.”

Kwoyelo pleaded not guilty for all the charges. The government will call 90 witnesses to testify in the case, and if Kwoyelo is found guilty, he could face a life sentence.

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