Africa-Press – Uganda. Survivors of the Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) two-decade insurgency in Lango and Acholi sub-regions have expressed mixed reactions as they wait for the outcome of Thursday’s judgment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Dominic Ongwen, a former top commander in the rebel group .
Ongwen faces 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity that he allegedly committed in internally displaced camps in northern Uganda under the leadership of Joseph Kony.Mr Patrick Abeja, the Abok Sub-county chairperson in Oyam District, says whether Ongwen is convicted or acquitted, the victims want compensation.
“The most important thing now is not the outcome of the ICC ruling on Ongwen, but the government to compensate the war victims,” he says.
DeathsAccording to United Nations estimates, about 100,000 people were killed in the insurgency and about 1.8 million displaced and property destroyed.
Mr Abeja asked government to construct a vocational school in the area to train orphans whose parents died during the insurgency.
So far, the government has constructed Abok Seed Secondary School in Abok Sub-county.
At Coroom Village, Lamogi Sub-county in Amuru District where Ongwen hails from, residents are eagerly waiting for the verdict.
Mr Federiko Olanya, 57, hopes that Ongwen is set free.“As much as Ongwen commanded the killings of his own people, one should consider the age at which he was recruited into the LRA. Whatever he did was on orders of Kony,” he says.
However, Mr Francis Obwoya, a resident of Otong Village in Pabbo Sub-county, disagrees. “Ongwen was the engine of the atrocities in northern Uganda. How would he feel if his limbs and lips were cut off,?” he asks.
Mr Obwoya says the former LRA commander and his colleagues should compensate the families who lost their relatives to insurgency. “We suffered in IDP camps yet we had our fertile land back at home. I lost many of my livestock when people were forced to move to the IDP camps,” he recalls.
Mr Faustine Opio, 73, a resident of Olwal Mucaca, Amuru Sub-county, says after the trial, Ogwen should be subjected to mato-oput, an Acholi traditional justice system that involves taking of bitter herbs and reconciliation between warrying parties.
“Our culture believes in truth telling for the offence committed so that reconciliation is reached rather than getting into the formal courts,” he says.
Ms Kezia Akumu Okot, a resident of Lukodi Village, Bungatira Sub-county in Gulu District, says Ongwen should be jailed for life.
“I lost my husband and son who had gone to the garden to collect some food, their remains have never been seen up to date and all that was the work of Ongwen,” Ms Okot says. Mr Denis Hobly Oyite, a social worker, says Ongwen might be acquitted because he was coerced to commit atrocities against his own people.
More than 300 people were murdered by Kony’s rebels, upon raiding Barlonyo IDP camp in the present Agweng Sub-county in Lira District on February 21, 2004.
Reported by Bill Oketch, Patrick Ebong, Cissy Makumbi & Geoffrey Okot
