The International Criminal Court has confirmed receipt of petition to open investigations of human rights violations perpetuated and co-perpetrated by President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni over the Kasese clashes in November.
Rwenzururu king Wesley Mumbere and some of his subjects were arrested and later charged with murder, after soldiers and police attacked his Kasese-based palace – in a conflict that has killed between 60 and 104 people.
MPs from Kasese last month wrote to the ICC to hold both President Museveni as the Commander in Chief and Brig Peter Elwelu as the Operation Commander and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Assuman Mugyenyi accountable for the number of innocent lives lost in the raid following their petition sent on December 9th petition, ICC wrote back to their lawyers acknowledging receipt.
“This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the office. We will give consideration to this communication as appropriate in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, “reads part of the letter dated January 3, 2017 and signed by Mark P. Dillon, the Head of Information and Evidence Unit in the office of the ICC prosecutor.
“We pray it (ICC) pays due diligence to this petition in relation to the inhumane acts that took place in Kasese,” the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Winnie Kiiza told journalists in Kampala.
Ms Kizza showed journalists the ICC response letter.
READ: Police arrest Rwenzururu Prime Minister over ‘reporting Museveni to ICC’
Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo also carried for a separate press briefing at the Uganda Media Centre and told journalists that: “There is no law internationally that says government should not use its powers. It is that which government used.”
He added: “There is no way ICC comes in for the case of Kasese. You can not say people who died were from a specific ethnic group and the MPs making comments of Kasese being connected to ICC may even be facing court. They will not run away from the hand of justice.”
