A former Ugandan militia leader and child soldier was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the international criminal court in a historic trial.
Dominic Ongwen was convicted on Thursday for 61 individual charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, kidnapping and torture committed as commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a violent sect that waged a bloody campaign of violence in Uganda and in neighboring countries. from the mid-1980s to a few years ago.
The court dismissed the defense’s arguments that, as Ongwen, 41, was kidnapped by the LRA at the age of 10, he committed crimes under duress.
On his first appearance in December 2016, Ongwen said he would plead not guilty, telling the court that he was “one of the people against whom the LRA committed atrocities” and that he should not be tried.
Ongwen’s lawyers also argued that he had been deeply traumatized during his time with the group and was therefore not responsible for his actions.
The presiding judge, Bertram Schmitt, said that a large number of witnesses provided overwhelming evidence that painted the image of a person in full possession of his abilities.
Ongwen was described as an extremely capable fighter and commander who carefully planned attacks and assessed risks, was repeatedly praised by other commanders, who did not face death threats or serious damage if they disobeyed orders and did not take many opportunities to leave the LRA, instead, it rose in rank and position, said Schmitt.
“It is impossible to think that he committed his actions under threats … [There are] no foundation excludes Dominic Ongwen’s criminal liability, ”said Schmitt.
Ongwen remained unmoved during the long verdict and did not react when the names of many of his victims were read.
He will likely be sentenced to many decades in prison.
The trial was one of the most important in the ICC’s 18-year history, and the court’s decision will have a significant impact on future prosecutions for crimes against humanity, experts say.
Led by Joseph Kony, who claimed to have a religious inspiration, the LRA waged war in five countries in eastern and central Africa. The group relied on the kidnapping of largely defenseless villagers and refugees, including children, to provide work 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 involved a four-day invasion of the LRA in camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo in December 2009, in which about 350 civilians were killed and another 250, including at least 80 children, were kidnapped.
The court concluded that Ongwen was not “subordinate to Kony, he acted independently and even disputed orders”.
“He was not a puppet on a string,” said Schmitt.
The verdict also described 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 combatants”.
Children were regularly beaten and forced to witness murders before being trained in combat skills. The recruits were not taught to distinguish between civilians or combatants, and many were killed during operations led by Ongwen, who said to a witness: “You call these children children, I call them my soldiers.”
The court also heard anguished testimony of how young women abducted by the LRA were threatened with execution if they refused to become a commander’s “wife”.
“Sexual intercourse was regularly forced on women and girls from a very young age. Women and girls were unable to resist … physical strength and the threat of punishment and their dependence on leaders in the bush, “said Schmitt.
Witnesses described “old men” attacking them when they were “just a child” and how Ongwen used his authority to distribute “wives” to other fighters.
“I didn’t want to be with him … I was too young,” one told the court.
“He was the commander … If I refused, I would be killed,” said another witness. “I always saw girls who made mistakes by being killed. I was very scared. “
Kidnapped women and girls were used as domestic servants, applied for physical punishment, suffering “physical and mental pains almost impossible to imagine,” said Schmitt.
Of the five senior LRA leaders indicted by the ICC more than a decade ago, only Ongwen and Kony are still alive. Despite a $ 5 million (£ 3.5 million) reward for the information that led to his capture, 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 to be a victim.
A total of 4,065 victims were entitled to participate in the process and hundreds gathered to attend the verdict in northern Uganda.
But the reaction of some LRA victims underscored the complexity of the case, raising difficult questions of guilt and responsibility.
In Gulu, hundreds of people filled the St. Monica church hall to follow the proceedings in The Hague. After watching in silence, many seemed uncomfortable with the verdict.
Joyce Alimoncan, who was kidnapped by the LRA from her home in Pade when she was 10, spent years in the woods with Ongwen and a commander she was forced to marry at age 13.
“Ongwen is not a bad person. He was kidnapped as a child like all of us and circumstances made him that way. Today I feel broken, ”said Alimoncan, 29.
Evelyn, 38, returned to her home in Gulu in 2005, after being held by the LRA for 11 years. She became a “wife” at the age of 14 and gave birth to three children while she was with the group.
“Ongwen was just a child when he was brought into the woods 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 orders from above and he had no choice but to follow those orders. If you refuse anything, you will be killed, ”she told the Guardian.
Grace Adong, who spent 12 years in the bush and was on the same brigade as Ongwen, said he was a scapegoat.
“He was … the kind of person Kony would choose to grow up with, since he was easy to train. I listened carefully to the trial, but many of the crimes were not committed by him. Ongwen was just a battalion commander, but [the crimes committed] were ordered by the brigade commander, so why was he not convicted? ”Adong said.
The case is important for the tough ICC, which was founded in 2002 to bring to justice those who commit crimes that local criminal systems cannot solve. The court has a staff of almost 1,000 people and an annual budget of more than $ 180 million (£ 130 million), but has struggled to secure convictions in a series of high-profile cases.
In June, Chile Eboe-Osuji, president of the ICC, accused the United States of acting illegally by threatening an economic and legal offensive against the institution after the judges’ decision to open an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. A state department spokesman said on Tuesday that President Biden would review the sanctions imposed on US ICC officials.