Former Ugandan Rebel Commander Ongwen Sentenced To 25 Years In Prison

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced Dominic
Ongwen, a former child soldier who became one of the top commanders
of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), to 25 years in prison
for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda.

The 45-year-old in February was found guilty of 61 charges
including murders, rapes and sexual enslavement during a reign of
terror in the early 2000s by the LRA, led by the fugitive Joseph
Kony.

Announcing the 25-year prison term on Thursday, ICC Presiding
Judge Bertram Schmitt said judges had to weigh Ongwen’s brutality
with his own tortured past as a schoolboy abducted by the LRA when
deciding on a sentence.

“The chamber is confronted in the present case with a unique
situation. It is confronted with a perpetrator who willfully
brought tremendous suffering upon his victims,” Schmitt said.

“However, it is also confronted with a perpetrator who himself
had previously endured extreme suffering himself at the hands of
the group of which he later became a prominent member and
leader.”

Ongwen, who was present in The Hague-based court wearing a face
mask and headphones, showed no emotion as he heard the sentence
handed down to him.

‘I am the first victim of child abduction’
Prosecutors had asked for a 20-year prison term for Ongwen, saying
his own history justified a lower sentence than the maximum 30
years to life allowed by the ICC.

Victims of his crimes had asked the court to impose the full
life sentence, however, while the defence had sought a 10-year
prison term.

Ongwen, who went by the nom de guerre “White Ant” during attacks
by his soldiers on refugee camps in northern Uganda, had told the
court the LRA forced him to eat beans soaked with the blood of the
first people he was made to kill as part of a brutal initiation
following his own abduction aged nine.

“I am before this international court with so many charges, and
yet I am the first victim of child abduction. What happened to me I
do not even believe happened to Jesus Christ,” Ongwen said.

His relatives told Al Jazeera earlier this year that many
children were taken by the rebels at the time.

“We pray that he is forgiven,” Johnson Odonga, Ongwen’s uncle,
said.

Brutal LRA campaign
The LRA was founded 30 years ago by former Catholic altar boy and
self-styled prophet Kony, who launched a bloody rebellion in
northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni. It has now
largely been wiped out.

But its brutal campaign to set up a state based on Kony’s
interpretation of the Bible’s Ten Commandments left more than
100,000 people dead and 60,000 children abducted, according to the
United Nations. The violent campaign eventually spread to Sudan,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African
Republic (CAR).

Judges said in their verdict in February that Ongwen personally
ordered his soldiers to carry out mass killings of more than 130
civilians at the Lukodi, Pajule, Odek, and Abok refugee camps
between 2002 and 2005.

Civilians were locked in their homes and burned to death or
beaten during the killings, while mothers were made to transport
the LRA’s loot, forcing them to abandon their infant children by
the roadside.

Ongwen was also the first person convicted by the ICC of the
crime of forced pregnancy, for abducting and raping so-called
“wives”, some of whom were underage.

Ongwen surrendered to US special forces who were hunting Kony in
CAR in early 2015.

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, said his sentencing would not mark the end of the “pursuit
for justice” over the conflict in northern Uganda, however.

“A big question is why hasn’t Kony been caught,” Webb said.
“He’s still at large and he was very much considered the mastermind
of all these atrocities and the abduction of children.”

Webb added that many people living in the region also continue
to question why the ICC has not investigated alleged historic
atrocities committed by Ugandan forces during the conflict with the
LRA, or the failure of the Ugandan forces to protect the civilian
population in the area from the group.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced Dominic
Ongwen, a former child soldier who became one of the top commanders
of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), to 25 years in prison
for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda.

The 45-year-old in February was found guilty of 61 charges
including murders, rapes and sexual enslavement during a reign of
terror in the early 2000s by the LRA, led by the fugitive Joseph
Kony.

Announcing the 25-year prison term on Thursday, ICC Presiding
Judge Bertram Schmitt said judges had to weigh Ongwen’s brutality
with his own tortured past as a schoolboy abducted by the LRA when
deciding on a sentence.

“The chamber is confronted in the present case with a unique
situation. It is confronted with a perpetrator who willfully
brought tremendous suffering upon his victims,” Schmitt said.

“However, it is also confronted with a perpetrator who himself
had previously endured extreme suffering himself at the hands of
the group of which he later became a prominent member and
leader.”

Ongwen, who was present in The Hague-based court wearing a face
mask and headphones, showed no emotion as he heard the sentence
handed down to him.

‘I am the first victim of child abduction’
Prosecutors had asked for a 20-year prison term for Ongwen, saying
his own history justified a lower sentence than the maximum 30
years to life allowed by the ICC.

Victims of his crimes had asked the court to impose the full
life sentence, however, while the defence had sought a 10-year
prison term.

Ongwen, who went by the nom de guerre “White Ant” during attacks
by his soldiers on refugee camps in northern Uganda, had told the
court the LRA forced him to eat beans soaked with the blood of the
first people he was made to kill as part of a brutal initiation
following his own abduction aged nine.

“I am before this international court with so many charges, and
yet I am the first victim of child abduction. What happened to me I
do not even believe happened to Jesus Christ,” Ongwen said.

His relatives told Al Jazeera earlier this year that many
children were taken by the rebels at the time.

“We pray that he is forgiven,” Johnson Odonga, Ongwen’s uncle,
said.

Brutal LRA campaign
The LRA was founded 30 years ago by former Catholic altar boy and
self-styled prophet Kony, who launched a bloody rebellion in
northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni. It has now
largely been wiped out.

But its brutal campaign to set up a state based on Kony’s
interpretation of the Bible’s Ten Commandments left more than
100,000 people dead and 60,000 children abducted, according to the
United Nations. The violent campaign eventually spread to Sudan,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African
Republic (CAR).

Judges said in their verdict in February that Ongwen personally
ordered his soldiers to carry out mass killings of more than 130
civilians at the Lukodi, Pajule, Odek, and Abok refugee camps
between 2002 and 2005.

Civilians were locked in their homes and burned to death or
beaten during the killings, while mothers were made to transport
the LRA’s loot, forcing them to abandon their infant children by
the roadside.

Ongwen was also the first person convicted by the ICC of the
crime of forced pregnancy, for abducting and raping so-called
“wives”, some of whom were underage.

Ongwen surrendered to US special forces who were hunting Kony in
CAR in early 2015.

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, said his sentencing would not mark the end of the “pursuit
for justice” over the conflict in northern Uganda, however.

“A big question is why hasn’t Kony been caught,” Webb said.
“He’s still at large and he was very much considered the mastermind
of all these atrocities and the abduction of children.”

Webb added that many people living in the region also continue
to question why the ICC has not investigated alleged historic
atrocities committed by Ugandan forces during the conflict with the
LRA, or the failure of the Ugandan forces to protect the civilian
population in the area from the group.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES