“He gave instructions to loot food, abduct people, burn down the camp and the barracks,” the Presiding Judge Schmitt said. “An old woman who could not carry her load was strangled and had her throat cut,” he added. “His men shot, beat and abducted civilians in the head and the face to make sure they were dead.”
Locals follow the court proceeding of former LRA commander Dominic Ongwen through radio at Awalmon ward Pajule Town Council in Pader District on Thursday.
The long wait is over, presenting
a new dawn for victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA rebels’ atrocities in
Northern, following the conviction of Dominic Ongwen, the former commander of
the Sinia Brigade.
Ongwen was convicted of 61 out of
the 70 counts charged against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity at
The Hague Based ICC. They relate to murder, rape, torture, sexual slavery, and
using child soldiers committed 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.
According to the judgment, which
was read by Justice Bertram Schmitt, Ongwen was found guilty of personally
leading raids in which, the Sinia brigade which he commanded, looted property
and animals, set fire on homes, burnt people alive, killed babies, and
exploited girls as sex slaves.
“He gave instructions to loot
food, abduct people, burn down the camp and the barracks,” the Presiding Judge
Schmitt said. “An old woman who could not carry her load was strangled and had
her throat cut,” he added. “His men shot, beat and abducted civilians in the
head and the face to make sure they were dead.”
The court heard testimonies about
children who were enclosed in a bag and beaten to death, and women who were
assigned as wives to Dominic Ongwen. The women, who also testified in the
court said that they had been threatened with death if they tried to escape,
and many were either beaten or maimed.
These narrations by the
International Criminal Court evoked memories of the atrocities among some of
the victims who included Orphans, widows and widowers. In Lacani village, Pajule Town Council, one
of the sites where the former Rebel warlord commanded an attack in 2003, close
to 30 victims of the attacks followed keenly the ICC judgment relayed on local
radio station.
Some broke down, weeping when
the guilty verdicts came in, and others expressed joy calling the decision a
start of a long-awaited healing process. In the courtroom, Dominic Ongwen
showed no emotion.
Lufino Oneka, 85, one of the
victims of Ongwen’s led attack on Pajule Internally Displaced People’s camp says
the judgment settles the anger victims like him have held over the years. Oneka
however, says whereas the court has shown its commitment to fighting injustices
committed by the LRA, some of the perpetrators of crimes in the region are still
at large.
Luo //Cue in; “waye ngol pa…
Cue out…tiye ka tic.”//
Veronica Kinyera 60, a resident
of Lacani village in Lapul Sub-county lost her husband during the October 10,
2003 raid in Pajule IDP camp. She says the conviction of Ongwen is a step
towards healing from the scars of the atrocities committed by the LRA. Kinyera , however, says compensation for the victims of Ongwen should follow suit to help
people like her faced with the huge responsibility of keeping orphans
single-handedly.
Luo //Cue in: “An apwoyo ICC...
Cue out…tamo bene maber.”//
Charles Kiyaga, the LCI chairman
of Lacani village says Ongwen’s conviction will help to deter such crimes from
ever happening in the region and heal the victims who have been yearning for
justice.
Luo//Cue in; “dong ikare ma…
Cue out… me atimo nyong.”//
At Lukodi village in Bungatira
Sub-county, Gulu district, one of the epicentres of Ogwen’s led attack that led
to the death of more than 60 people on May 19, 2004, the victims couldn’t hide
their joy on the news of his conviction.
Nelson Abola, one of the
survivors of the massacre told Uganda Radio Network that justice has been
served to the people of Acholi who underwent untold sufferings as a result of
Ongwen’s command.
Abola says the affected persons
had for long waited for such a day, and adds that whereas compensation is a
long process, the ICC verdict is a leap towards immediate healing.
Luo//Cue in; “court eni ongole…
Cue out…dano obi dok.”//
Translation “…This is a fair justice to us the victims, the results of
this verdict may directly benefit us, even we don’t get compensated, at least
we shall have something to remember that the court found him guilty, this is
what these victims have been waiting for a long time. No, that they heard that
he was found guilty, their anger will slowly disappear and it was important
that they find him guilty because here locals were unsure of this verdict since
words on the ground was that Ongwen was a child soldier. But I know now that
they will be fine,’’
Muhammed Olanya, who lost 15
people from his family during the 2004 Lukodi massacre lauded ICC for Ongwen's
conviction saying that he feels relieved after a decade-long wait for justice. Olanya
says for the first time since the gruesome murder of his family members, he had
a peaceful sleep at night without having to think of who would be held
accountable for their demise.
Luo//Cue in; “Aneno dano olo…
Cue out…ka kuru ne.”//
However, the verdict was an
opposite of prayers for leniency by family members, on grounds that Ongwen himself
was abducted at a tender age and turned into a ruthless rebel warlord. Ongwen,
was a 9-year-old boy, in 1998, when he was captured while on the way to school by
LRA fighters. From then on, he was recruited into the LRA ranks, where he was
taught to kill, rape and commit gruesome atrocities against his own people.
His paternal uncle, Johnson
Odonga, 69, told Uganda Radio Network in an interview last week that the crimes
his son is accused of were committed due to manipulation from his seniors in
the rebel outfit. The court yesterday acknowledged that Ongwen suffered greatly
after being abducted by the LRA as a nine-year-old child, but noted that he was
being put on trial for crimes committed as a “fully responsible adult and as a
commander of the LRA in his mid to late the twenties”.
Ongwen was handed to the ICC for
trial on January 17, 2015, two weeks after he was captured in the Central
African Republic-CAR by the Seleka rebels. Over the course of 234 hearings from
December 2016 to March 2020, the trial judges at the ICC heard 109 witnesses
and experts for the prosecution and 63 for the defence; representatives of
victims called seven witnesses and experts.
Ongwen is the first among the
five LRA rebel commanders indicted by the ICC in 2005 to face trial and
consequently, get convicted for war crimes at The Hague based court in
The Netherlands. Others indicted included LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony still on the
run, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, and Raska Lukwiya who are all presumed dead.
