KAMPALA, UGANDA — The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday affirmed the allocation of 52 million euros (approximately UGX 212.67 trillion) in reparations to the victims of Ugandan warlord Dominic Ongwen, who perpetrated a brutal reign of terror as part of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) under the command of fugitive Joseph Kony.
Dominic Ongwen, known by his nom de guerre “White Ant,” is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted on 61 charges, including murder, rape, and sexual enslavement.
Last year, ICC judges had mandated 52 million euros ($57 million) in damages, which included a “symbolic” payment of 750 euros for each of the nearly 50,000 victims identified in the case.
Ongwen subsequently appealed this reparations award; however, ICC appeals court judges unanimously rejected his challenge, as announced by presiding judge Solomy Balungi Bossa, who is also from Uganda.
Ongwen followed the proceedings via video link, appearing in a dark suit and red tie.
His case brought to the forefront the complex issue of moral responsibility for individuals abducted as children and forced to become child soldiers, as Ongwen himself was kidnapped at the age of nine while on his way to school.
The LRA, founded three decades ago by former Catholic altar boy and self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, initiated a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni.
Their brutal campaign, aimed at establishing a state based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments, resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 people and the abduction of 60,000 children, eventually spreading to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.
ICC judges determined that Ongwen personally ordered his soldiers to carry out massacres of more than 130 civilians at the Lukodi, Pajule, Odek, and Abok refugee camps between 2002 and 2005. While the court acknowledged his abduction as a “defenceless child,” judges concluded that this did not diminish his culpability for the crimes he committed as an adult commander.
The court’s Trust Fund for Victims will oversee the distribution of the reparations, as Ongwen, who is currently incarcerated in a Norwegian prison, is unable to make the payments himself.
Ongwen surrendered to US special forces who were pursuing Kony in the Central African Republic in early 2015 and was subsequently transferred to the ICC for trial.
The ICC is scheduled to hold a hearing to present charges against Joseph Kony in absentia on September 9.
