Victim of war who became a murderer

Kampala. Abducted by gunmen as a 10-year-old boy on his way to school, Dominic Ongwen rose to become one of the most feared commanders in Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

The former child soldier, now in his early 40s, went on trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday for crimes committed in Uganda, including keeping sex slaves and recruiting child soldiers.

He denied 70 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ongwen, known as the “White Ant”, is the first leader of the brutal Ugandan rebel army led by the fugitive Joseph Kony to appear before the ICC, created to try the world’s worst crimes.

The son of school teachers, he was abducted as a child before being forced into the rebel army and allegedly becoming a willing perpetrator of violence.

He rose swiftly through the LRA ranks, quickly being singled out for his murderous loyalty and tactical ability and taking command of one of the army’s four brigades.

Ongwen is accused of carrying out massacres, rapes, mutilations and abductions in quick and lethal raids.

Ongwen’s men -- with trademark dreadlocks, mismatched uniforms and AK-47 rifles fitted with bayonets -- also allegedly carried out thousands of abductions of children.

Boys were taken to be soldiers or porters, girls were taken as sex slaves or drafted into military ranks as fighters.

The LRA fighters were also notorious for punishment raids where they would slice the lips and ears off victims as a grim calling card.

Under the leadership of self-proclaimed prophet Kony, the LRA is accused of kidnapping tens of thousands of children during its nearly three-decade long insurgency.

Prosecutors told a January hearing in the ICC that Ongwen was the “tip of the spear” of the group that has sown terror across several countries in central and eastern Africa.

Between 2002 and 2003, Ongwen is thought to have directed bloody campaigns in northern Uganda that butchered or abducted thousands.

He is also accused of playing a central role in revenge attacks on civilians in the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo.

In recent years, however, he was reportedly sidelined after falling out with Kony over his execution of another commander.

Hailing from the northern Ugandan district of Gulu, Ongwen was known “as much for his volatile nature as his bravery”, according to the LRA Crisis Tracker, which monitors the rebels.

Years of psychological trauma are also said to have taken their toll, with Ongwen earning a reputation for flying into murderous rages.

Wanted by the ICC for almost a decade, Ongwen surrendered to US special forces in the Central African Republic in January 2015 after Washington offered a $5 million reward for his capture.

Mark Kersten, a London-based academic focusing on international justice, has described Ongwen as “both a victim and a perpetrator of international crimes” and said efforts to prosecute him could raise difficult questions.

“When is a victim a perpetrator and a perpetrator a victim? The line is much more murky than we tend to assume,” he said.

Ongwen is said to have had at least seven wives — one was just 10 when she was first raped. DNA tests have revealed he fathered at least 11 children with different girls.

Sadistic rituals

More than 4,000 victims are taking part in Ongwen’s trial and scores of others are expected to watch the trial unfold at four viewing sites in northern Uganda.

About 150 people, mostly subsistence farmers, crammed into a room at Lukodi Primary School in northern Uganda to watch the opening day of the trial.

Squeezed onto rows of dilapidated wooden benches, villagers sat patiently waiting for the live transmission from the court to begin.

“We have been waiting almost 11 years for justice,” said Vincent Oyet, secretary of the local victims’ group.

Victims have recounted the LRA’s sadistic initiation rites imposed on kidnapped youngsters, who were forced to bite and batter friends and family to death, or to drink their blood. 

The son of Ugandan schoolteachers, Ongwen was abducted as a child while on his way to school and likely endured such horrors himself.

But ICC prosecutors say when Ongwen became an adult he turned abuser, helping orchestrate the abduction and enslavement “of children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities”.

He stands accused of rape, murder and “forced marriage” -- the first such charge at the ICC -- as well as the unprecedented legal charge of “forced pregnancy”. While boys ended up in the ranks, girls were “treated as spoils of war” and turned into sex slaves.

Victim turned abuser

Prosecutors also allege that from 2002 to 2005, Ongwen “bears significant responsibility” for attacks in northern Uganda, “systematically” ordering the killings of civilians sheltering in four camps including in Lukodi.

Victims died in an orgy of violence, while survivors had their lips and ears cut off. In one case, a witness said Ongwen ordered his troops to cook and eat civilians.

The defence however says it is considering several arguments including that Ongwen is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. His lawyers also maintain he was acting under duress, as he lived under the constant threat of being killed by Kony and his commanders.

A last-minute defence bid on Tuesday to have the hearings delayed for medical reports was denied by the judges. Observers say Ongwen’s trial raises deep questions about how to prosecute crimes involving children who were subjected to years of abuse. 

“Dominic Ongwen’s past experience as a child soldier is not a defence in itself,” said Isabelle Guitard, from Child Soldiers International.

“It cannot exonerate him of the responsibility of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity as an adult,” she said. Ongwen surrendered himself to US forces in 2015. But Kony remains at large with about 150 followers hiding out in the jungles of the Central African Republic. (AFP)