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The LRA Commander Dominic Ongwen and the ICC Questions and Answers Updated January 27, 2021

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The LRA Commander Dominic Ongwen and the ICC Questions and Answers Updated January 27, 2021 The LRA Commander Dominic Ongwen and the ICC Questions and Answers Updated January 27, 2021 1. Who is Dominic Ongwen? 2. What is the Lord’s Resistance Army? 3. How did the ICC come to bring charges against Ongwen? 4. What are the charges against Ongwen? 5. How does Ongwen’s experience as a child soldier affect judicial proceedings against him? 6. What happened at Ongwen’s trial? 7. What role have victims had in Ongwen’s case? 8. How have local communities in northern Uganda received information about the trial? 9. What other assistance has the ICC provided to people in northern Uganda? 10. Has there been any accountability for abuses committed by Uganda’s military during the conflict in northern Uganda? 11. What’s next for Ongwen? 12. What can be done to bring Kony to justice? 13. What’s next for the court’s work on LRA crimes and in Uganda? 14. What is Uganda’s position on the ICC? 15. Has the ICC lived up to expectations in Uganda and elsewhere? 1. Who is Dominic Ongwen? 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. 2. What is the Lord’s Resistance Army? The Lord’s Resistance Army is an armed rebel group led by Joseph Kony. Organized in about 1987, it initially fought the Ugandan government in northern Uganda, with incursions into South Sudan. Ugandan military operations forced the group out of Uganda in 2005 and 2006. After that, the LRA gradually became a regional threat, operating in the remote border areas between then-southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. Human Rights Watch documented the killings of more than 2,600 civilians and abductions of over 4,000 others by the LRA in northeastern Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan between 2008 and 2012. More than 400,000 people were displaced from their homes in this region because of LRA attacks. Throughout its history, the LRA has been responsible for numerous atrocities, including massacres, summary executions, torture, rape, pillage, and forced labor. The LRA’s brutality against children has been particularly horrific. The group has replenished its ranks by abducting children, forcibly training and using children in combat operations, using girls as sex slaves, and compelling compliance through threats, violence, and mind control. While the group has become weaker in recent years, LRA fighters continue to conduct smaller- scale attacks in northeastern Congo and the Central African Republic. 3. How did the ICC come to bring charges against Ongwen? In December 2003, Uganda referred the situation of the Lord’s Resistance Army to the ICC. In July 2004, the ICC prosecutor announced that the ICC was opening an investigation into the situation in northern Uganda. In July 2005, the ICC issued sealed arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity for the LRA’s top five leaders at that time: Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya, and Dominic Ongwen. The warrants were unsealed in October 2005. Lukwiya was killed in 2006 and Otti in late 2007. Odhiambo’s body was found in the Central African Republic in early 2015. On January 6, 2015, United States military advisers working with the African Union (AU) Regional Task Force in the Central African Republic received Ongwen into custody. Ongwen was transferred to the custody of AU forces on January 14. Two days later, he was transferred to Central African Republic authorities and then to ICC custody. On January 26, Ongwen made his first appearance before Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC. 2 Kony remains at large, and his fighters remain a threat to civilians in the border region between the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, and northeastern Congo. 4. What are the charges against Ongwen? The ICC initially charged Ongwen with criminal responsibility for crimes committed in northern Uganda in 2004 at the camp for internally displaced people at Lukodi – three counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of war crimes. In September 2015, the prosecutor gave notice of additional charges. These included murder, torture, enslavement, and pillage as part of attacks on four camps for internally displaced people: Pajule, Odek, and Abok, in addition to Lukodi. Added charges also included sexual and gender-based crimes, and conscription and use of child soldiers in northern Uganda from July 2002 through 2005. 5. How does Ongwen’s experience as a child soldier affect judicial proceedings against him? Ongwen is believed to be the only former child abductee to face charges before the ICC. During its history, the LRA abducted at least 30,000 children into its ranks, in large part because they are easier to manipulate than adults. Through mind-control methods that instill fear, and sheer brutality, the LRA has initiated children into the group and forced them to undergo what they call “military training.” Children were often forced to kill adults or other children who failed to obey the LRA’s strict rules or who tried to escape. The ICC’s Rome Statute includes the conscription and use of child soldiers as a war crime. The statute does not provide jurisdiction over crimes committed by someone under 18, but Ongwen was tried for crimes prosecutors allege he committed as an adult. His abduction at a young age and the brutality he might have experienced at the hands of the LRA as a child abductee may be considered as mitigating factors at sentencing if Ongwen is convicted. 6. What happened at Ongwen’s trial? During the trial, 69 witnesses and experts testified for the prosecution, 54 witnesses and experts testified for the defense, and 7 witnesses and experts testified for the victim participants. Significant issues that were addressed during his trial included: • Ongwen’s involvement, if it occurred, in planning, ordering, and implementing attacks on four displaced persons camps. • Whether Ongwen’s role as a child abductee and child soldier in the LRA negates responsibility for crimes he allegedly committed. • Whether Ongwen forcibly married, tortured, raped, and sexually enslaved women. • Whether Ongwen committed crimes only as a result of duress or had mental defects that negate his responsibility for the crimes. 3 • Whether Ongwen suffered violations of his rights as an accused, including to remain silent. • The harm suffered by victims of the alleged crimes. 7. What role have victims had in Ongwen’s case? More than 4,000 victims are recognized as “participants” in Ongwen’s case at the ICC. Victim participation is a unique feature of the ICC among international courts, allowing victims to express views and concerns separately from any role as witnesses. Victim participation is one way to enhance the ICC’s resonance in affected communities. Two teams of lawyers represented the victim participants. Early decisions in the case showed that improvements are needed to ensure that victims are able to choose the lawyers that would represent them in court. Seven witnesses and experts testified for the victim participants. 8. How have local communities in northern Uganda received information about the trial? Outreach in the affected communities is important to maximize the court’s impact locally. For the opening of the Ongwen trial, the ICC organized viewing sites in the four areas that were the focus of the charges against Ongwen: Pajule, Odek, Abok, and Lukodi, in addition to Gulu and Coorom, the area near where Ongwen is from. Throughout the proceedings audio and video screenings of portions of the trial in 25 affected communities allowed people to learn about the proceedings, in addition to radio broadcasts about the trial, thanks in part to financial support provided by the Danish government. In addition, community leaders were able to visit The Hague to observe proceedings. Some of them reported back on their experiences directly to affected communities. Updates on the trial were also made available to individuals through a free phone messaging platform. In situ proceedings, in which ICC proceedings are held locally, can also help make the ICC’s work more accessible to the communities affected by the crimes. The court considered holding Ongwen’s confirmation of charges hearing and the opening of the trial in Uganda. However, the ICC judges ultimately determined that the possible security risks and other costs outweighed the possible benefits. 9. What other assistance has the ICC provided to people in northern Uganda? To help address harm suffered by victims of crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction, ICC members created the Trust Fund for Victims (TFV). The TFV provides court-ordered reparations in the event of a conviction, but it also provides assistance to victims and their families separate from any 4 determination of responsibility by the suspects. Since 2008, the TFV has provided assistance to victims in northern Uganda to support: • Physical rehabilitation, such as reconstructive surgery, wound management, and provision of prostheses and wheelchairs to disabled victims.
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