A former Ugandan civilian leader and child soldier has been convicted in an important verdict of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Dominic Ongwen was found guilty on Thursday of 61 individual charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, kidnapping and torture committed as a commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a violent cult carrying out a bloody campaign of violence in Uganda and neighboring countries conducted from the mid-1980s to a few years ago.
The court rejected the defense’s arguments that because Ongwen, 41, was abducted by the LRA at the age of 10, he committed any crimes under duress.
In his first appearance in December 2016, Ongwen said he would plead not guilty and told the court he was ‘one of the people against whom the LRA committed atrocities’ and should not stand trial.
Advocates for Ongwen also argued that he was deeply traumatized during his time with the group and that he was therefore not responsible for his actions.
The presiding judge, Bertram Schmitt, said a large number of witnesses provided overwhelming evidence that drew a picture of a person in his full capacity.
Ongwen has been described as an extremely capable fighter and commander who carefully plans attacks and assesses risks, has been repeatedly praised by other commanders, who did not pose the threat of death or serious damage if he did not obey orders, and who did not do much. took advantage of opportunities to leave the LRA but rather rose in rank and position, Schmitt said.
‘It is impossible to think that he committed his actions under threats … [There are] no grounds that exclude Dominic Ongwen’s criminal liability, ”Schmitt said.
Ongwen sat unconcerned by the long verdict and did not respond when the names of many of his victims were read out.
He is likely to be sentenced to many decades in prison.
The trial was one of the most important in the ICC’s 18-year history, and the tribunal’s ruling will have a significant impact on future prosecutions for crimes against humanity, experts say.
Led by Joseph Kony, who claims to be religiously inspired, the LRA has waged war over five countries in eastern and central Africa. The group relied on the abduction of largely defenseless villagers and refugees, including children, to provide labor and fighters.
Girls were forced into sexual and domestic slavery, while boys were forced to take up arms.
Most of the charges against Ongwen focus on attacks on refugee camps between 2002 and 2005. One of the worst was a four-day raid by the LRA on camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2009, in which about 350 civilians were killed. and another 250, including at least 80 children, were abducted.
The court found that Ongwen was not ‘subordinate to Kony, and acted independently and even challenged orders’.
“He was not a puppet on a rope,” Schmitt said.
The ruling also describes how Ongwen, the first child soldier to appear before the ICC, ‘kidnapped countless children under the age of 15 and forced them to serve as fighters’.
The children were often severely beaten and forced to witness murders before being trained in combat skills. Recruits were not taught to distinguish between civilians or fighters, and many died during operations under Ongwen’s command, who told one witness, “You call the children children, I call them my soldiers.”
The court also heard disturbing evidence of how young women abducted by the LRA are threatened with execution if they refuse to become ‘the wife’ of a commander.
At a very young age, women and girls were regularly forced to have sexual intercourse. The women and girls could not resist … the physical force and threats of punishment and their dependence on the leaders in the forest, ‘Schmitt said.
Witnesses described how ‘old men’ assaulted them when they were ‘just a child’, and how Ongwen used his authority to hand out ‘women’ to other fighters.
“I did not want to be with him … I was too young,” one told the court.
“He was the commander … If I refuse, I will be killed,” said another witness. ‘I kept seeing girls who made mistakes killed. I was very scared. ”
Kidnapped women and girls were used as domestic workers, forced by physical punishment, and suffered “unimaginable physical and mental pain,” Schmitt said.
Of the five senior LRA leaders charged by the ICC more than a decade ago, only Ongwen and Kony are still alive. Despite a $ 5 million (£ 3.5 million) reward for information leading to his captivity, Kony remains evasive.
Joseph Akweyu Manoba, a Ugandan lawyer appointed by the ICC to represent 1,500 of Ongwen’s victims, told the Guardian at the start of the trial that none of them believed Ongwen was a victim himself.
A total of 4,065 victims were given the right to take part in the proceedings, and hundreds gathered during the screening of the trial in northern Uganda to see the verdict.
But the reaction of some victims of the LRA highlighted the complexity of the case, which raised difficult issues of guilt and responsibility.
In Gulu, hundreds of people gathered in St Monica’s church hall to follow the procedure in The Hague. After watching in silence, many appear upset about the verdict.
Joyce Alimoncan, who was abducted from her home in Pade by the LRA at the age of 10, spent years in the woods with Ongwen and a commander she was forced to marry at the age of 13.
“Ongwen is not a bad person. He was just like us all kidnapped, and the circumstances made him so. I feel broken today, “said Alimoncan, 29.
Evelyn, 38, returned to her home in Gulu in 2005 after being detained by the LRA for 11 years. She became a ‘woman’ at 14 and gave birth to three children while at the group.
“Ongwen was only a child when he was brought to the forest and grew up in circumstances where you see nothing but death – you also have no chance of being a good person. Whatever he did was under strict instructions from above and he had no choice but to follow the orders. If you refuse something, you will be killed, ‘she told the Guardian.
Grace Adong, who has been in the woods for 12 years and was in the same brigade as Ongwen, said he is a scapegoat.
“He was … the kind of person Kony would choose to grow, as he was easy to train. I listened intently to the verdict, but many of the crimes were not committed by him. Ongwen was only a commander of a battalion, but [the crimes committed] was ordered by the brigade commander, so why is he not convicted? Adong said.
The case is important for the ICC fights, which were set up in 2002 to bring to justice perpetrators of crimes that cannot be dealt with by local criminal justice systems. The court has nearly 1,000 staff members and an annual budget of more than $ 180 million (£ 130 million), but has struggled to find convictions in a series of high-profile cases.
In June, ICE President Chile Eboe-Osuji accused the United States of acting illegally by threatening an economic and legal offensive against the institution following a judge’s ruling to investigate war crimes in Afghanistan. start. A State Department spokesman said Tuesday that President Biden will review the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on ICC personnel.