ICC finds LRA commander Ongwen guilty of 61 counts of war crimes
February 4, 2021 Written by URN
The former commander of the Sinia Brigade of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Dominic Ongwen has been found guilty on 61 of the 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ongwen committed the crimes during attacks in Pajule IDP camp on October 10, 2003, Odek IDP camp on April 29, 2004, Lukodi IDP camp on May 19, 2004, and Abok IDP camps on June 29, 2004.
Today, the ICC trial chamber nine composed of judges; Bertram Schmitt, Péter Kovács and Raul Cano Pangalangan said that they found beyond any reasonable doubt that Ongwen is guilty of murder,
Feb 05 2021, 7:13 PM
February 04 2021, 4:30 PM
February 05 2021, 7:13 PM
(Bloomberg) The International Criminal Court convicted victim-turned-perpetrator Dominic Ongwen of war crimes committed during two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.
(Bloomberg) The International Criminal Court convicted victim-turned-perpetrator Dominic Ongwen of war crimes committed during two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.
Ongwen, 46, was found guilty of 61 of 70 charges, including abductions, sexual slavery, murder, rape and torture, ICC Judge Bertram Schmitt said in the verdict delivered Thursday in The Hague. The crimes relate to Ongwenâs time as a commander of the Lordâs Resistance Army rebel group that began a rebellion in northern Uganda in the 1980s.
Daily Monitor
Thursday February 04 2021
Margaret Labol, 50, who lost 15 family members and her husband, a Uganda People s Defence Force (UPDF) soldier, during the Lukodi massacre caused by the Lord s Resistance Army (LRA) in 2004, poses for a portrait in front of the memorial for the victims of the massacre in Lukodi, Uganda, February 3, 2021. PHOTOS/ AFP
Summary
The memory of LRA across much of northern Uganda is that of a group that abducted children as soldiers, pillaged villages for food and material possession and conscripted girls as sex slaves.
The LRA was founded three decades ago by former Catholic altar boy and self-styled prophet Kony, who launched a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni.
ICC Convicts Former Uganda Child Abductee-Turned Rebel Commander Bloomberg 2/4/2021 Okech Francis
(Bloomberg) The International Criminal Court convicted victim-turned-perpetrator Dominic Ongwen of war crimes committed during two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.
Ongwen, 46, was found guilty of 61 of 70 charges, including abductions, sexual slavery, murder, rape and torture, ICC Judge Bertram Schmitt said in the verdict delivered Thursday in The Hague. The crimes relate to Ongwen’s time as a commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group that began a rebellion in northern Uganda in the 1980s.
The group, led by Joseph Kony, still operates in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The conviction brings some closure to families of the more than 50,000 children reported to have been abducted by the LRA and used as soldiers, sex slaves or sold into slavery.
Ongwen was known as one of the more ruthless commanders of the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He is from northern Uganda. His family indicates that he was born in 1980 and that the rebel group abducted him on his way to school in 1990, when he was about 10. Senior LRA leaders gave him military training, and he eventually became an LRA commander.
After LRA forces left northern Uganda in 2005 and 2006, troops under Ongwen’s command repeatedly terrorized communities in Congo’s Haut Uele and Bas Uele districts. His troops were responsible for some of the LRA’s most vicious attacks in the following years, including the Makombo massacre in 2009, one of the worst during the LRA’s long, brutal history. Troops under Ongwen’s command killed at least 345 civilians and abducted another 250, including at least 80 children, during a four-day rampage in the Makombo area of northeastern Congo.