THE HAGUE: A former Ugandan child soldier who became a commander of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army was convicted on Thursday of dozens of crimes, including widespread rape, sexual enslavement, child abductions, torture and murder, including killings of babies.
The International Criminal Court found Dominic Ongwen guilty of 61 out of 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. A hearing in mid-April will consider a possible sentence, which could be up to life imprisonment, with a decision expected later this year.
Judges at the court said Ongwen, who himself was taken by the LRA as a young boy, had acted out of free will in committing “innumerable” crimes between 2002 and 2005, commanding several hundred soldiers.
“Mothers were forced to abandon their children in the bush. LRA fighters threw children, including babies, into the bush because the children were crying and making it difficult for their mothers to carry looted goods,” Presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt said, naming the victims and describing the crimes.
“His guilt has been established beyond any reasonable doubt,” he said, issuing the verdict after a 3-1/2-year trial that ended in March last year.
Ongwen, wearing a tie and face mask, sat impassively in court, sometimes with his eyes closed, listening as the judgment was read out.
His lawyer has argued that Ongwen’s brutal life in the LRA affected his mental health and his capacity to make independent decisions.
Led by fugitive warlord Joseph Kony, the LRA terrorised Ugandans for nearly two decades as it battled the government of President Yoweri Museveni from bases in the north of the country and neighbouring countries. In recent years it has been largely wiped out.
In a legal first, Ongwen was also convicted for the crime of forced pregnancy for atrocities committed against seven women.
“As a result of the and physical violence and the living conditions to which they were submitted, the abducted women and girls suffered severe, barely imaginable physical and mental pain,” Schmitt said.
Ongwen ordered the killing and abduction of many civilians during attacks on camps protected by Ugandan government forces and personally took sex slaves, raped women and forced children to fight in hostilities, the court found.
— Reuters
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