LRA commander’s verdict: Ongwen guilty by 61 points

The International Criminal Court has convicted LRA Commander Ongwen of 70 war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda. In the military, he had gone from victim to victimizer.

Dominic Ongwen looks calmly, almost stoically, across the room of the International Criminal Court as the presiding judge, Bertram Schmitt, reads the verdict: guilty of torture, looting, rape, sexual slavery, and fully responsible for all crimes found by the prosecution.

Seventy war crimes and crimes against humanity were charged against the commander of the Ugandan militia “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA), more than any other defendant in court before. These include the rape and kidnapping of children who are then abused and forced to fight or perform sexual acts, and the bestial mutilation and murder of civilians in a blood frenzy. Ongwen has been convicted of 61 points and the sentence will be announced at a later date.

Children raped and enslaved

Ongwen, whose battle name was “White Ant”, followed the whole process very calmly, taking notes in a red book at most once; his face was always immobile. Also in the statements of the victims of his violent regime: eyewitnesses denounced orgies of violence in which people’s lips and ears were cut off. The children reportedly had to beat their parents, siblings and friends to death and then drink their blood. Ongwen also ordered his soldiers to cook and eat his victims, a witness said. Prosecutors also held the rebel leader responsible for the deaths of civilians between 2002 and 2005 in four camps in northern Uganda.

While boys were forced to fight, girls had to serve as sex slaves: the war crimes court also charged Ongwen with forced marriage and forced pregnancy; Ongwen is said to have had more than 20 children. The woman who is now 45 years old is said to have at least seven women, the youngest of whom was only ten when she was first raped.

The verdict said that Ongwen’s case showed that sexual crimes against women under his command were systematic and institutionalized; it is the first case of a conviction for forced pregnancy.

From victim to perpetrator

What is special about the case: Ongwen’s story is both that of a victim of terrible violence, and that of a perpetrator who committed unimaginable atrocities. At the age of 14 he was kidnapped, tortured, mistreated, and trained as a child soldier.

Later, according to the court, he mercilessly returned the violence that was inflicted on him: even as a child soldier, he had drawn attention for his loyalty, fearlessness and strategic ability. He quickly rose through the ranks of the LRA and eventually led one of its four brigades.

Since 2005 he was wanted with an international arrest warrant. For nearly a decade, the criminal court sought Ongwen and Washington offered a $ 5 million reward for his arrest. In January 2015, he finally surrendered to a special US unit in the Central African Republic. Ongwen apparently fell out with the LRA leader after he executed another commander.

Witchcraft as a basis for defense

The prosecution in The Hague relied on 74 witnesses and 5,800 pieces of evidence, such as radio recordings, photographs and videos. He made a picture of an uninhibited monster. The court was so convinced of the defendant’s guilt that there was no reasonable doubt, Chief Judge Bertram Schmitt said in delivering the verdict.

However, the defense had argued that his own trauma as a child soldier turned Ongwen into a murderer, and also led him to witchcraft. It is the first time that the International Criminal Court has had to deal with this fact.

Therefore, the central question of the process was: is someone responsible for crimes that they probably would never have committed had they not been a victim themselves? Ongwen always protested his innocence and referred to his own spell by the LRA leader, Joseph Kony. He pleaded not guilty: “In the name of God,” he denied all the accusations.