Lord's Resistance Army Commander Faces War Crimes Sentence

The Hague, May 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th May, 2021 ) :The International Criminal Court will on Thursday sentence a child soldier turned Lord's Resistance Army commander for a litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda.

Dominic Ongwen, 45, was found guilty in February of 61 charges including murders, rapes and sexual enslavement during a reign of terror in the early 2000s by the LRA, led by the fugitive Joseph Kony.

Prosecutors have asked for a 20-year prison term, saying 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," ICC prosecution lawyer Colin Black told a sentencing hearing at the Hague-based court in April.

The defence is seeking a 10-year prison term for Ongwen, who went by the nom de guerre "White Ant" during attacks by his soldiers on refugee camps in northern Uganda.

Victims of his crimes have asked the court to impose the full life sentence.

Ongwen told the court 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 said.