By Tom Mugisha, tom.mugisha@alleastafrica.com
KAMPALA – As American troops make the final preparations to withdraw from the six-year hunt for the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, it turns out that different methods were used to arrest him including an offer by the American celebrated actress Angelina Jolie to act as a bait to capture the elusive rebel leader.
According to Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper, Jolie offered to lure the notorious rebel for dinner in the Central African Republic capital Bangui in 2012 and have him arrested by the American Special Forces who had been deployed by President Barack Obama in 2011.
““…Jolie offered to act as a honey trap to capture one of Africa’s most notorious war criminals, according to documents leaked from within the International Criminal Court (ICC),” the paper reported on October 8.
Kony who is said to be hiding in Darfur is wanted by the Internal Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He and five others who have since all died, were indicted by the ICC in 2005 for raping, killing and maiming people in northern Uganda. The rebel group later fled Uganda to DR Congo in 2006 and later to the Central African Republic in 2009.
The Sunday Times was quoting leaked email documents by the former ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo who is also being accused of getting money from the Libyan politicians to protect them against possible prosecution over crimes committed during the 2011 uprising.
Hundreds of the mail, which is now in the hands of French investigative website, Mediapart, was later accessed by The Times.
Ms Jolie’s ‘offer’ came following requests by Ocampo. According to the article, Jolie, a campaigner for international humanitarian causes, replied to Mr Ocampo thus: ‘…Let’s discuss logistics…’
“There are no further details in the documents about the dinner and the proposed trip does not appear to have gone ahead,” The Times noted.
Currently, the American and Ugandan troops which have been hunting down Kony and his fighters have withdrawn, creating fear the rebels might resume the attacks, abductions and killings in the Central African Republic.
But Gen Thomas Waldhauser says LRA is now irrelevant and looking for survival.
