U.S. offers up to $5 million reward for Uganda warlord Kony, others
WASHINGTON | Wed Apr 3, 2013 2:32pm EDT
(Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday offered a reward of up to $5 million each for fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and some of his top aides in the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group.
Kony, who has been accused of terrorizing northern Uganda for 20 years and was ejected from the country along with his rebel group in 2005, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
The warlord and a few hundred followers are now believed to roam the remote jungle straddling the borders of South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
His guerrillas are accused of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves, and of hacking off victims' limbs as a method of intimidation and revenge.
The State Department said Kony, along with aides identified as Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen, had been cited under the department's newly expanded War Crimes Rewards Program.
Under the program the State Department offers rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest, transfer, or conviction of such fugitives.
Others named on Wednesday by the State Department under the program are Sylvestre Mudacumura, leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
It also cited nine fugitives from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, naming them as Felicien Kabuga, Protais Mpiranya, Augustin Bizimana, Fulgence Kayishema, Pheneas Munyarugarama, Aloys Ndimbati, Ladislas Ntaganzwa, Charles Ryandikayo, and Charles Sikubwabo.
The tribunal was established by the U.N. Security Council to prosecute suspects accused of genocide and serious violations of international humanitarian law in Rwanda in 1994.
During the genocide, some 800,000 of the minority Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutus were butchered in systematic killings by extremist Hutus, tearing the country apart along its ethnic seams.
(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler and Eric Beech)
