Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel s diplomatic reporter
Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda at the opening of the court s judicial year with a Special Session at the seat of the court in The Hague, January 23, 2020. (courtesy ICC)
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced Wednesday that she was opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel and the Palestinians.
The investigation was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and furiously condemned by Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “the epitome of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.” The announcement came less than a month after the court ruled it had the jurisdiction to open a probe.
The conviction of Dominic Ongwen, a former commander in the Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an array of crimes against humanity has raised important questions about guilt and victimhood among former child soldiers. Ongwen was found guilty on February 4 of 61 of the 70 charges laid against him, including the ICC’s first-ever successful prosecution for “forced pregnancy”.
Charges against him related to attacks on civilian populations in four camps for internally displaced people in northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005 during the vicious two-decade war between the LRA and the Ugandan army. Besides forced pregnancy, other charges included murder and sexual and gender-based crimes, including rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage. He was also convicted for conscripting children under the age of 15 into the LRA.
Former Ugandan rebel commander convicted of war crimes
Updated: 04/02/2021, 11:26 am
Dominic Ongwen was a senior commander in a brutal Ugandan rebel group (Michael Kooren via AP)
The International Criminal Court has convicted a former commander in the Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity ranging from multiple murders to forced marriages.
Dominic Ongwen was abducted by the shadowy militia as a nine-year-old boy and transformed into a child soldier and later promoted to a senior leadership rank.
He will be sentenced at a later date by the court in The Hague, in the Netherlands, and faces a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.