Africa's mixed amnesty precedents

By Mark Doyle
BBC's world affairs correspondent

The Ugandan president's offer of a complete amnesty to rebel leader Joseph Kony if peace talks are successful - despite his indictment on war crimes charges - has some precedents in other conflicts in Africa. But not all came to a successful conclusion.

The Lord's Resistance Army has carried out brutal attacks

It highlights yet again the tension that sometimes exists between the search for peace and the search for justice.

Mr Museveni clearly feels that, for now, the most important thing to achieve is peace.

And, in the interests of that peace, the widespread crimes of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army should be put to one side.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague, which has indicted him, may disagree.

The court was founded on the basis that there can be no durable peace without justice, which to some extent satisfies victims that wrongs have been addressed.

Shabby deal

For the politics of President Museveni's offer to Joseph Kony to work, the rebel leader's Ugandan victims, who are also voters, will have to accept that peace is more important than justice.

Some of them, exhausted by war, will agree.

Others will say this is a shabby deal which betrays their sacrifices.

The recent precedents in Africa for granting amnesty are mixed.

Sierra Leone's rebel leader Foday Sankoh, for example, whose forces committed widespread atrocities, was offered an amnesty and even appointed as the vice president.

But his followers then broke peace agreements and he was finally arrested, ending up dying in jail.

The former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, was indicted by an international war crimes court but was subsequently offered asylum in Nigeria.

That asylum turned out to be only temporary after international pressure was put on Nigeria to hand Taylor over.

The former Liberian leader is now awaiting trial at an international war crimes court.