For now at least, Uganda and Rwanda are safe from any fallout from the ICC’s conviction last week of Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga even though sections of the judgment against him allude to the two countries involvement in funding and training armed groups, including child soldiers, in the DRC.

The technicalities of how cases are brought to the court aside, the alleged involvement of Uganda and Rwanda falls outside the period during which the crimes for which Lubanga was convicted were committed. Moreover, the court was not yet in existence when the two countries invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to Stephen Tumwesigye, the co-ordinator of the Uganda Coalition on the ICC, an NGO that provides information and raises awareness about the UN Court in Uganda and East Africa, Ugandan and Rwandan elements responsible for crimes in Congo can only be brought to account either by the Congolese courts or if the UN set up a tribunal in the DRC and initiates an investigation into crimes committed there, which is highly unlikely. The Coalition has hailed the conviction as a milestone in international criminal justice.

“There haven’t been any investigations about Uganda or Rwanda and whether they bear responsibility. Investigations were restricted to the DR Congo, Lubanga and his party,” noted Dismas Nkunda, a co-director at the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI).

Lubanga formerly headed both the political faction Union des Patriotes Congolais and Force Patriotique pour la Libération du Congo, its military wing, after breaking away from the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie — Kisangani/Mouvement de Liberation.

The ICC last Tuesday found him responsible for enlisting and conscripting children aged less than 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the Ituri region in the east of the DRC between September 2002 and August 2003.

In 2005, a UN report charged Uganda and Rwanda, among other countries, of involvement in the DRC, which exacerbated local ethnic problems and turned them into massive slaughters.

Whereas Lubanga is the first case the ICC has tried successfully in its 10 years of existence, its activities in the East African region are varied.

Four senior Kenyan politicians are due for trial in its chambers even as it continues to pursue Uganda’s notorious rebel chief Joseph Kony and embattled Sudan President Omar al Bashir.