Dominic Ongwen

Dominic Ongwen (* 1975 in Coorom ) is a Ugandan former child soldier , war criminal and former leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a terrorist organization that operated in northern Uganda . He was found guilty by the International Criminal Court on February 4, 2021 . On May 6, 2021, the judges sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

Life

Dominic Ongwen was kidnapped by the Lord Resistance Army in 1987 as a child. He spent the remainder of his childhood and youth in the ranks of the LRA. Ongwen rose in the LRA and became the leader of one of its four brigades. It is also known by the names and paging names Odomi, Wai Wai, Lima Charlie, Wanyama, and Tem Wek Ibong.

In 2005, the International Criminal Court issued its first ever arrest warrant. They were directed against five LRA leaders, including Ongwen. The US offered a $ 5 million reward for his capture. Ongwen's death was reported shortly thereafter. He allegedly died on September 30, 2005 in a battle with the Ugandan military. His identity was then confirmed by previous LRA commanders. In July 2006, the ICJ announced that genetic tests had found that it was not Ongwen. In 2015 he faced US troops in the Central African Republic .

Criminal proceedings before the ICJ

The cases for which Ongwen was convicted at the ICJ can be divided into three groups.

1. Crimes committed in the context of attacks on four internally displaced persons camps . This includes crimes against humanity , murder, torture, rape, enslavement and looting.
2. Gender-based violence perpetrated by Ongwen himself against seven women who lived in his household. These include torture, rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage and forced pregnancies. These crimes have the character of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
3. Crimes that are systemic in nature and that involve gender-based and sexualised violence, and the forced recruitment and use of child soldiers.

He has been jailed by the International Criminal Court and charged with 70 war crimes and crimes against humanity. On February 21, 2021, he was convicted of 61 cases for these crimes. The sentence was decided on May 6, 2021. The judges sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

With his conviction, Ongwen becomes the first person convicted of forced pregnancies as a war crime or a crime against humanity. More than 4,000 victims took part in the trial. The proceedings were based primarily on intercepted radio messages from the LRA and testimony from witnesses. Ongwen himself was mostly silent during the trial. His defense lawyers argued that he was one of the victims of the LRA. Ongwen allegedly attempted suicide while in custody. The court argued that the testimony described a man in full possession of his mental powers.

Reactions to the conviction were mixed in northern Uganda. While some people welcomed the conviction as a step towards justice, other residents opposed the conviction or at least advocated a relatively minor sentence. They justified their position with the fact that Ongwen himself was the victim of a kidnapping as a child, which made him a criminal. The state failed to protect Ongwen as a child.

See also

• LRA conflict

Web links

• International Criminal Court judgment in English
• Detailed and differentiated article on warscapes.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ ICC: Ugandan rebel chief sentenced to 25 years in prison , ORF, May 6, 2021.
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen, Trial Judgment. International Criminal Court, February 4, 2021, accessed February 18, 2021 . 
3. ↑ ICC Unseals Results of Dominic Ongwen DNA Tests. Retrieved February 18, 2021 (UK English). 
4. ↑ tagesschau.de: verdict against rebel leaders: guilty in 61 points. Retrieved February 18, 2021 . 
5. ↑ Samuel Misteli: From child soldier to commander of one of the cruelest rebel armies in Africa - and now to convicted war criminal. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 4, 2021, accessed on February 18, 2021 . 
6. ^ Mixed Reactions from Northern Uganda as ICC Delivers Judgment in Ongwen's Case; Community Members Call for Light Sentence. February 5, 2021, accessed February 18, 2021 (American English).