Thapelo Phukubye: Former Deadly Child-Soldier risks serving 20 years in prison for War Crimes

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Former Deadly Child-Soldier risks serving 20 years in prison for War Crimes

A former deadly child-soldier turned-Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander risks serving 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is expected to sentence Dominic Ongwen.

Mr Ongwen was arrested in 2015 by US forces.

Following his arrest, he was transferred to the ICC to face trial.

Aged 45, Ongwen was in February this year found guilty of 61 charges.

Among the charges are murders, rapes and sexual enslavement.

He was found guilty of committing the above-mentioned crimes during the early 2000s when the LRA, led by the fugitive Joseph Kony, caused several atrocities against humanity.

ICC prosecutors have demanded the Court to hand him a 20-year prison term.

The prosecutors have stated that Ongwen’s own history as a schoolboy abducted by the LRA justifies a lower sentence than the maximum 30 years to life allowed by the ICC.

“This is one circumstance that sets this case apart from all the others tried at this court,” a prosecution lawyer for the ICC, Colin Black told a sentencing hearing at the court in April 2021.

However, his defence team is pushing for a 10-year prison term.

Ongwen during his days as a child-soldier and subsequently rebel commander went by the nom de guerre “White Ant”.

His soldiers allegedly carried out attacks on refugee camps in northern Uganda.

However, during his trial, he informed the ICC that the LRA forced him to eat beans soaked with the blood of the first people he was made to kill as part of a brutal initiation following his own abduction aged nine.

“I am before this international court with so many charges, and yet I am the first victim of child abduction. What happened to me I do not even believe happened to Jesus Christ,” Ongwen told the court.

About 30 years ago, the LRA came into existence. It was established by a former Catholic altar boy and self-styled prophet Kony. Kony launched a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni.