Ex-commander of Ugandan rebel group sentenced to 40 years in prison

Former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander Thomas Kwoyelo smiles as he listens to the court ruling in Gulu, Uganda on September 25. (AP)

KAMPALA, Uganda, Oct 26 (AP): A former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels was sentenced Friday by a court in Uganda to 40 years in prison for brutal crimes committed by the group during the insurgency that began in the 1980s. Thomas Kwoyelo – a former child soldier who later became a rebel commander – will serve only 25 years in prison as he has already spent 15 years in custody, the court ruled.

Kwoyelo’s prison sentence applies to the most serious crimes he faced, including multiple murders, rape, plunder and slavery. The verdict was handed down by a Supreme Court panel sitting in Gulu, the northern city where the LRA once operated. Kwoyelo can appeal. Grace Apio, a Ugandan victim of the LRA uprising, told The Associated Press she thought the sentence was lenient.

The sentence “means very little to us, the victims,” ​​she said. “We feel very bad… This sentence will encourage other people who want to start a war, that in Uganda, after committing these atrocities, you will end up with a light sentence and then you come back into society and start your life again.” Kwoyelo was convicted in August on 44 of the 78 charges he faced for crimes committed during the uprising between 1992 and 2005. Kwoyelo, whose trial began in 2019, had been in custody since 2009 as Ugandan authorities tried to figure out how to could administer justice in a manner that was fair and credible.

Human Rights Watch described his trial as “a rare opportunity for justice for the victims of the two-decade war between” Ugandan forces and the LRA. Prosecutors said Kwoyelo held the military rank of colonel within the LRA and that he ordered violent attacks on civilians, many of whom have been displaced by the insurgency. The LRA’s overall leader, Joseph Kony, is believed to be hiding in a vast area of ​​unmanaged forest in Central Africa. who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.