Ex-Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen, nicknamed ‘White Ant’ has been convicted of war crimes at the International Criminal Court.
Mr. Ongwen, a feared commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), is the first member of the LRA to appear before the court.
He faced seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and enslavement.
The charges all relate to an attack on a camp for internally displaced people in Uganda in 2004.
In 2013, the US – which had joined the hunt for LRA commanders – offered a $5m (£3.3m) reward for information leading to Mr. Ongwen’s capture.
With reports of his killing in 2005 proving to be wrong, he remained wanted for many more years as the rebels moved west into DR Congo and its other neighbours.
Mr. Ongwen was abducted by the LRA as a child. Dominic Ongwen is estimated to have been between 9 and 14 years old when he was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as he was walking to school in northern Uganda.
This case presents a dilemma to the court as he appeared to be both the victim and the alleged perpetrator. He said he was abducted by the LRA and forced to be a child soldier, before going on to rise up the ranks to become the deputy to LRA commander Joseph Kony.
Some psychiatrists at the trial felt Mr. Ongwen was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a dissociative identity disorder at the time of the attacks on the camps, when he was a battalion commander in the Sinia Brigade – becoming its overall commander in March 2004.
ICC prosecutors quote witness testimony as saying that on at least one occasion he ordered his men “to kill, cook and eat civilians”.
More than 4,000 victims have participated in the trial – represented by two legal teams – most of them former camp residents – and the trial has detailed the lives lost, destruction, abductions and psychological damage to these communities in northern Uganda.
He now faces judgement in his trial for 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between July 2002 and December 2005.
Mr. Ongwen, has pleaded not guilty, saying he should be regarded as a victim too, telling the court: “I’m one of the people against whom the LRA committed atrocities.”
