Court hearing for former child soldier accused of cannibalism

In September 2015, the prosecutor indicated she was expanding the charges to include murder, torture, enslavement, and pillage as part of attacks on four such camps in Uganda: Pajule, Odek, and Abok camps, along with Lukodi.

A FORMER Ugandan war lord is facing crime against humanity charges after being accused of ordering his soldiers to “cook and eat” victims, using rape to coerce children into becoming soldiers and burning children alive.

Prosecution lawyer Ben Gumpert was speaking at the start of a hearing to establish whether evidence against Dominic Ongwen, one of the most senior commanders in Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, is strong enough to merit putting him on trial. He faces 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As a brigade commander, Ongwen even told abductees “on at least one occasion, to kill, cook and eat civilians”, Gumpert said.

Ongwen was said to have been abducted by the LRA when he was 10 years old, rising through the ranks of the movement while it was under the control of fugitive warlord Joseph Kony.

The first of five former commanders from a rebel army from Uganda is due to appear at the International Criminal Court.

Mr Gumpert told judges Kony found children easiest to shape by a process of brutalisation into the fighters he needed and Ongwen played a role in this.

The prosecution is focusing on attacks on four displaced camps housing civilians driven out by the LRA’s violence.

Prosecutors outlined the charges at The Hague on Thursday in the hope judges will order a trial after Ongwen’s surrender last January.

Many were killed and others were kidnapped and forced to carry away the assets, it is claimed. “Nursing mothers whose babies slowed up the progress or who simply cried too loudly saw them killed or thrown into the bush and left behind, ” Gumpert said.

Images shown in the session included a video of shallow graves in the aftermath of an attack.

Addressing the court, Ongwen insisted reading out the charges was “a waste of time”.

Given the extent of serious crimes allegedly committed by the LRA outside Uganda, the ICC prosecutor should consider expanding the charges for other areas under the court’s jurisdiction, such as Congo and the Central African Republic, if supported by evidence, Human Rights Watch said. The ICC has decided that children under the age of 18 who have been abducted and committed war crimes themselves ought to be treated as victims.

The LRA first emerged in northern Uganda in 1986, where it claimed to fight in the name of the Acholi ethnic group against the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.