[JURIST] UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland [official profile] said on a visit to a refugee camp in northern Uganda Saturday that indicted leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] should be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] despite a recent offer of amnesty [JURIST report] by the Ugandan government [official website] in exchange for their agreement to a truce and their willingness to sign a comprehensive peace agreement. The ICC has come under pressure [JURIST report] to drop its indictments of five LRA leaders, with many critics arguing that, while the writs may technically serve justice, they are keeping peace from finally coming to the war-torn region. Last week a court spokesperson told a Ugandan paper that the ICC would not pull the indictments [JURIST news archive] at the LRA's behest.

Joseph Kony [BBC profile] was indicted by the ICC [JURIST report; PDF arrest warrant] along with Vincent Otti [MIPT profile] and three other LRA lieutenants last October on charges that they orchestrated the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict with the Ugandan government. AFP has more.