The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
He was not a puppet on a string, judges rule
| THE INDEPENDENT | On Feb.04, the International Criminal Court (ICC) found Dominic Ongwen guilty for a total of 61 comprising crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed in northern Uganda.
Ongwen was found guilty for attacks against the civilian population as such, murder, attempted murder, torture, enslavement, outrages upon personal dignity, pillaging, destruction of property and persecution.
He was found guilty for sexual and gender based crimes, namely, forced marriage, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enslavement, forced pregnancy and outrages upon personal dignity he committed against seven women (whose names and individual stories are specified in the judgment) who were abducted and placed into his household.
Ongwen also committed a number of further sexual and gender based crimes against girls and women within a brigade he commanded , namely forced marriage, torture, rape, sexual slavery and enslavement.
Finally Ongwen was found guilty for conscripting children under the age of 15 into the brigade he commanded and using them to participate actively in hostilities.
The verdict may be appealed by either party to the proceedings within 30 days after the notification of the Judgment.
The trial opened on December 6, 2016 and closing briefs were filed on February 24, 2020 and closing statements took place from March 10 to 12, 2020.
A total of 4095 victims, represented by their legal counsels Joseph Akwenyu Manoba, and Francisco Cox, as well as Paolina Massidda, respectively, were granted the right to participate in the proceedings.
Over the course of 234 hearings, the Office of the ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, presented a total of 109 witnesses and experts. The Defence team led by Ugandan lawyer Krispus Ayena Odongo presented a total of 63 witnesses and experts and 7 witnesses and experts were called by the Legal Representatives of the Victims participating in the proceedings.
During this period, the judges of ICC Trial Chamber IX, were Judge Bertram Schmitt, Presiding Judge, Judge Péter Kovács and Judge Raul Cano Pangalangan.
They analysed the evidence submitted and discussed before it at trial and found, beyond any reasonable doubt. They also heard some horrible stories about Ongwen.
The trial covered crimes Ongwen committed in northern Uganda between July 01, 2002 and December 31, 2005.
The court heard from a large number of witnesses, terrible accounts of these events and of the extreme suffering of civilians during this time.
The LRA has been active since the 1980s and the conflict in northern Uganda spanned four decades.
The case focused on LRA hostility towards people living in IDP camps set up by the Uganda government to protect them. At one point, up to 1.5 million people lived in the camps. But the LRA followed them there.
On April 29, 2004, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters of Joseph Kony attacked an Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) camp at Odek in Omoro County, Gulu district. The LRA’s Dominic Ongwen was in command.
After the attack, he communicated the results of the attack on military radio to other LRA commanders and to Joseph Kony. He told them the attack was successful. We attacked the camp, killed many people, abducted many and looted the camp, he told them.
After Ongwen spoke, Kony said: “Excellent. This guy has pleased me very much. I wish he threw them to the ground for me”.
In another attack commanded by Ongwen on Lukodi IDP camp in Bungatira, Aswa County of Gulu on May 19, 2004, children were put in a polythene bag and beaten to death, others were locked inside a hut and burnt inside, others were put in a bag and thrown in the bush, while many were hacked to death in a barbaric way.
