In an official photograph taken in The Hague on 16 April, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor is surrounded by 24 community leaders from northern Uganda who had come to ask him to suspend his investigations in their country. The balance of power was clear. "As soon as there is a solution to end the violence, and if the prosecution is not serving the interest of justice, then my duty is to stop the investigation and prosecution," Luis Moreno Ocampo told AFP after the meeting. This was something of a departure from his statement of 28 January that "the International Court hopes to start its first war crimes trial on atrocities committed in northern Uganda within six months". The prosecutor opened a file on Uganda at the end of 2003, after receiving an official referral from President Yoweri Museveni for crimes committed by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). On July 6, 2004, the ICC announced that files on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda had been placed in the hands of the pre-trial chambers. The prosecutor announced his firm intention to evaluate the crimes committed "by all the perpetrators". That meant Ugandan officers could face accusations of taking part in massacres in Ituri (DRC).
In July, Museveni changed tack and wrote to the UN secretary-general asking him to "suspend the ICC's activities until the peace process in Ituri and DRC is irreversible". He then offered to try perpetrators of crimes in Uganda by a traditional method of reconciliation, and in November sent peacemakers to negotiate with the LRA. Another key reason for this reversal is his recent military cooperation with neighbouring Sudan, which views the ICC's intervention in Darfur with suspicion. "The Sudanese People's Armed Forces are joining us in Nisitu and we will soon fight Kony together. He either fights or he talks peace", a spokesperson from the Ugandan army told the independent newspaper The Monitor on 15 April.